Review: T-Mobile Broadband

T-Mobile Broadband Review

In a nutshell: T-Mobile isn't the fastest or the cheapest of the 3G mobile broadband networks. However the basic price of £20 per month does include free WiFi Hotspot access and the USB modem or USB modem stick is provided free of charge. The network covers around 85% of the UK population and includes access to around 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.
Best buy: Web'n'walk Plus (£15 per month); or web'n'walk Max (£35 per month).

T-Mobile offer mobile broadband using either a USB modem or a USB modem stick. Both are compatible with a PC or laptop running Windows XP or Windows Vista, and with an Apple Mac. The USB modem provides a download speed of 1.8 Mbps, and the USB modem stick is compatible with HSDPA offering speeds up to 3.6 Mbps. This makes the T-Mobile service slower than Vodafone and about the same as 3 Mobile.

These prices are for a 24 month contract - the prices for a 12 month contract are slightly higher. The price also includes WiFi Hotspot access. The USB modem is free, whilst the cost to buy the USB modem stick ranges from £0 to £19.99, depending on which price plan you choose.

The T-Mobile network currently covers around 85% of the population.

T-Mobile Broadband Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile network? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the mobile broadband network that's best for them. Please do not review this network if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 44 reviews:

Reviewed by kate from UK on 16th Jul 2008
was called up on Monday by T mobile (my mobile phone provider) pushing me the web n walk package. Checked with them that it would be fast enough for me to watch videos etc online and was assured it was. Arrived today and tried watching video via bbc iplayer. After 20 minutes it had only played 5 minutes and the rest of the time spent buffering. Signal strength regularly at 0%. Fortunately as it was a cold call sale Ive a cooling off period of 14 days - which means there was no problem this evening when I called up and said I want to cancel. Off to read other reviews now to find out which one to choose
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Reviewed by Karleen Christopher from uk on 16th Jul 2008
I have just read all these reviews I wish I'd done it before I bought and imprisoned myself with a 24 month contract. I have had all the problems listed and all from the very beginging. I dont use my modem any more and am just waiting for the contract to end. However I am considering as one review said to get in touch with trading standard in order to see if I can get out of the remainder of the contract on the basis that the product did not work as advertised. who knows if all of us do it it may help. I'm sure there are other people out there with the same problems but have not written a review either becuase they have not come accross this page to do so, I only found it by accident or dont feel that there is anything they or anyone can do. Will be back with any news from trading standards.
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Reviewed by Anthony C from UK on 16th Jul 2008
I advise anyone reading this, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS WORTHLESS PIECE OF PLASTIC. I have had this device now for around 4 - 6 months, it disconnects randomly, when asked about this a T-Mobile rep. advised me to "use it wisely" great help! Signing an 18 month contract was the worst mistake I made. I am stuck now paying for this useless thing. DO NOT BUY THIS!!!
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Reviewed by Daniel D. from UK- London on 12th Jul 2008
I personaly have a terrible experience with t-mobile web'n walk. its been 6 months since the purchase and the all thing is a real nightmare. the device is not working properly limiting my access to internet, wasting my time with technical support for hours, no one as an answer, no one really helps, and no one knows what should I do. I took a 24 month contract and i am terribly sorry of making the choice to purchase t-mobile web n walk. another thing if you wan to purchase a mobile broaband, first ask for the network coverered by he device.... they tell you it works every where, but they forget to tell you that in your area the network might be problematic, so before you take any contract make sure the network offered is working in your area.
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Reviewed by James from UK on 9th Jul 2008
Reading the other reviews I can see the frustration, but at the same time I think it's a configuration thing. I was really disappointed when first using this as I had realy difficulty getting a connection, and once connected maintaining that connection. However, on using the dongle on my girlfriend's laptop, it works fine pretty much 100% of the time at high speed. So now I'm investigating what the problem is with mine. My girlfriends laptop is much older than mine and about half the cpu/ram etc. My advice to anyone is to try it on another laptop if possible and start to investigate the settings of your system. [Added by James on 13th Jul 2008: Actually, I retract that statement. Although it runs better on my girlfriends laptop, whenever downloading a file of any size it disconnects and I have to reconnect. I don't see why I'm going to have to get a download manager because of crappy hardware. I'm not going to even try with the t-mobile support as they've been useless in the past. I guess I'm just going to have to fork out another 50quid+ for a better 3g modem. I'm really annoyed that T-Mobile would distribute such a poor standard of hardware.]
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Reviewed by donna from uk on 9th Jul 2008
i have found t mobile to be as useless as a chocolate as tray, they have no idea why my windows live messenger wont run with them as the server,first they tell me try new version 8.0,then older version 6.0 why wont run along side the other please is there any one at t mobile that know whats going on 4 weeks on the phone to tec support and still none the wiser
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Reviewed by Barry McMillan from England on 6th Jul 2008
While connected this modem works well, however, for no reason it disconnects itself at random and you have to reconnect which is a pain while in the middle of something.
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Reviewed by R Phillips from Beds UK on 1st Jul 2008
Being out in the country, my broadband landline service is around 600-700kps at the very best, so after reading reviews and checking the very fastest service was available localy I opted for the T-Mobile'dongle' The service is very fast locally and about 2mbps (speedcheck varified- not the 7.2mb stated but thats comming!). The connection will apparently upgrade as the new faster service is rolled out - so check on the t-mobile site for your local speed Eventually much higher speeds are planned ( so it says in my New Scientist) NB IMAGE COMPRESSION IS A PROBLEM BUT ELIMINATED VIA THE T-MOBILE ACCELERATOR DOWNLOAD WHICH WORKS FINE ON MY XP LAPTOP BUT CAUSES NETWORK PROBLEMS ON MY VISTA LAPTOP IF I GO BACK TO MY HOME WIRELESS NETWORK. If it were not for the built in compression (pixelated pictures) and lack of ability to turn it off, I'd give this 6 stars- the additional download/plugin fix is a not entirely satisfactory solution to what is otherwise for me a blisteringly fast service straight out of the packet!!!
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Reviewed by carl from east midlands england on 30th Jun 2008
ive been using t mobile dongle for a month now and im not happy with it. Pictures (facebook, friendster) are blurred. The speed is annoying. All i can say dont subscribe on this product total waste of money and time.
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Reviewed by Ja from UK on 30th Jun 2008
No way is it broadband. Msn doesnt work. Average speed is 5kb/s. Constant connection issues. Disconnects. annoying.
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Reviewed by Issi from England on 24th Jun 2008
Awful. Slow, lose connection constantly & it's driving me nuts. waste of money & i'm on contract.
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Reviewed by paul from uk on 23rd Jun 2008
i went to carphone warehouse and purchased t-mobiles mobile broadband @ £15 per month their checks were approved they gave me the usb dongle and told me of a promotion they had going at the time where i get £75 store credit i went home to try the service but i could not log on i then waited until 3pm the following day to no avail i decied to contact t-mobile one of their call center staff informed me that the service had been cancelled but gave no reason and then told me i had to return the items back to carphone warehouse when i got there they contacted t-mobile to see what the problem as their system showed that everything had gone through with no problems when they talked to t-mobile they stated that the service was cancelled due to the mobile phone contract i had with tmobile as i wasnt allowed two phone lines. due to the fact i have to return the items back to carphone warehouse i now have to pay them the cost of two of the 5 items i received under the free instore credit i had been given as i had opened these items i find this to be a really poor service form t-mobile and will certainly advising people not to use this company for mobile broadband
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Reviewed by Jan from UK on 22nd Jun 2008
i have a recently bought 7.2 mb/s t-mobile dongle and, in a words is is PANTS! fine for the first few weeks though not a patch on expected speed, at best ever say 1 mb/s and then, slower, slower, slower and now either nothing or sud dialup speed of yesteryear. im curious as to how an awful lot of folk are experiencing the same thing: nearly adequate service to start and then a steady progress to f-all! youd be forgiven in suspecting a conspiracy. i note they say if u overuse downloading they will slow your connection down after a couple of warnings but this seems like pre-emptive action...
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Reviewed by Sophie from UK on 19th Jun 2008
The worst broadband ever!! Stay away from this! It worked ok at the begining but a few months later it just keeps disconnecting maybe like a few hunderd times an hour! It's worse than dial-up! it can't even sustain a normal download! I can't believe I upgraded this month (£44 a month for a 12 year contract) in the hope it would improve. I can't wait for my contract to end, I will never come back. In fact, while writing this sentence I got disconnected again! Total waste of money - and time!!!
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Reviewed by Lou from England on 12th Jun 2008
DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER BUYING THIS. Will give you high blood pressure. Drops off all the time. spen hours just trying to access hotmail account. Frustrating and annoying. Arrrggggggg!
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Reviewed by rhiannon.p from uk on 7th Jun 2008
In response to james miller review, t-mobile does not chatge for a sim card, and all mobile networks will charge more for not paying by direct debit, i ahve been with orange vodafone and 3, which all add the extra 20%. Granted the connection does drop now and again, but i totally understand why, just like the reception can drop on your phone. Overrall i think it is very good, especially for a laptop on the go well done t-mobile
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Reviewed by chris from uk on 2nd Jun 2008
hi i have the usb modem and it was the most unreliable internet i have use in my life afta all the money you pay for it it is easier to go home and use broadband it is so slow and every 10 minits it keeps dissconecting and it has millions of errors if i was you i would go and get it somewere else cause when u first have it .it works fine then afater a month you will have millions of problems
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Reviewed by Graham from UK on 28th May 2008
Not happy as have now been trying to sort out the problems since Nov 2007. Speed at times is only 5kbps !! even with a full 3G signal and its worse on the new H network. I have been told they are now going to share capacity with Orange. This will not solve the "Compression" problems. Dont bother with the Broadband accelerator program. The web pages are still broken. They now claim that the Web n Crawl is only an add on to my phone package and not part of the contract even though it is writen down as the only reason for upgrading to a new phone in the contract.
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Reviewed by guy from london on 26th May 2008
I was great at first because it is portable ad is sooooooo much better than dial up! But then I had connection problems, the T-mobile staff replaced my modem and now it's fine!!!!!! RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!!!! BY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Reviewed by Graeme from Tyne & Wear, UK on 21st May 2008
got the USB web'n'walk few months ago as a backup. have just moved house and can't get proper broadband for few weeks so been using the t mobile service as a stop-gap. worked ok, bit slow at times when the 3G connection kept dropping out, but fair level of service for what i expected. however, tonight, from about 6pm, nothing. i can connect to web pages, sometimes, but all that displays is text - no images at all. instead i get the missing image, red cross in the corner placeholders. it keeps dropping from 3G to GPRS and then disconnecting. after 3 hours of trying, i rang t mobile tech support who told me their cell sites are a bit overloaded due to people using 3G services to watch the football match.. (even though it's on TV!) and as a result, all i can do is wait a few days to see if it calms down again! not great when i'm relying on this service to work!
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Reviewed by abdul from bradford on 20th May 2008
i bought the dongle in december 07 and was working like a treat but the last 2 weeks it has starting to drop connection. spoken to tmobile and they did some tests. they didnt work! then i found out my self that only 2g (dial up) worked which is so slow! it keeps dropping off 3g network! then suddenly it starts working for a while then off again. its driving me nuts! ill give them another week then im gona cancel and try vodafone!
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Reviewed by Nita from England on 20th May 2008
Looks like Im not the only one having problems with getting connected. This is really annoying me now, my connection keeps going down I spend half the time at my laptop just trying to get a connection and when I finally do, it goes down! I really wish I'd never got it.
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Reviewed by Colin Erskine from Scotland on 18th May 2008
My data card came as a promotional deal with a Vaio laptop. It's an Novatel Merlin XU870 Wireless Broadband Express Card. I stuck the SIM in the slot and away I went. I had 30 days for free and it worked a treat. This was August 2007. I was getting +300kbps download, up to 1MB/sec at unsociable hours. So I signed up and until recently have been happy with the freedom it provides. Sitting on the train reading your mail & RSS is a treat. Lately though there has been a noticeable deterioration in service. The connection constantly drops out. When its on, its on and the speed is fine but this intermittent connection is very frustrating. This connection issue started a few months ago and has got gradually worse. T-Mobile customer service have been friendly and helpful (business contract) but unable to resolve the issue. They showed me how to select UTMS by picking the little arrow to the right of the T-Mobile Communication Centre (TMCC) start button and this helped for a few weeks. Recently I have been unable to raise a connection with TMCC and found Vista Network and Sharing Centre could although the connection dropping was much worse. Tonight TMCC worked and all seems well. All said I couldn't recommend T-Mobile Web&Walk in the Aberdeen area considering the problems I'm currently having. I presume the network can't handle the recent uptake and I have no idea what actions are being taken to remedy the situation. I would like to hear the inside track from a T-mobile employee.
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Reviewed by David from UK on 17th May 2008
My mobile broadband with t mobile has been excellent from the moment I plugged the dongle into my usb port! Great coverage, in fact I travel all over the country and have never yet not had reception on it or lost a connection. Yes, it is slower than home broadband but that was to be expected. There's nothing I can do on my home pc that I can't do now sat in the middle of a field with my laptop! I love it, wouldn't be without it and can't recommend it highly enough! Freedom!!!
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Reviewed by D.May from Unitied Kingdom on 7th May 2008
I'v found T-mobile network straight forward but feel they don't do enough for the customers who have been with them for a long period of time & have stayed loyal to the network which i have. More offers on deals because you've been with T-Mobile network for longer than 10 years, plus deals on accessories etc... They make money either way so why not give something back & give back to the customers who have been loyal throughout the years.
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Reviewed by James Miller from uk on 18th Apr 2008
DON'T USE T MOBILE if you don't want to pay by direct debit. The cheapest mobile broadband t mobile do is advertised as being £15,for now.It's £15 if you pay by direct debit but if you want to use a safe way to pay i.e. with a credit card they will charge you a 20% surcharge for using your credit card,so that's £18 a month.They will insist on doing a harmful-to-your-credit-score credit check on you.When you receive your modem you will also see on the despatch note that you have been charged £6.99 for a sim card and £5.95 for delivery,so that's £30.94 for the first month on your credit card.You will also discover that after the first month t mobile will then refuse to take any more money from your credit card for subsequent months and demand that you pay by direct debit.Two points arise from this,one,there is no reason to do a credit check if they refuse to take money from your credit card and demand you pay by direct debit,two,your distance selling cooling off period has long since expired and you are now required to complete a 2 year contract paying by direct debit. Don't use t mobile if you don't want to pay by direct debit.
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Reviewed by Rachel from Glasgow on 14th Apr 2008
T-mobile broadband is like Portugese police = Useless! Ive had it for a week and im using my phone as a modem and so far ive had nothing but problems with it. If you finally manage to get connected expect to be at the computer all night because it is SO slow!! Customer services arent any better , sure there nice people but they dont have a clue!! Downloading is out of the question and MSN rarely works. If i had a tenner for everytime my laptop said 'the programme is not responding' id be a bilionarie. A warning to all you folks who are considering getting a contract wh t-mobile...DONT DO IT!!!!
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Reviewed by Nick from SE London on 9th Apr 2008
I believe its the USB modem thats rubbish :P dont have any problems using the internal datacard i got for my laptop.
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Reviewed by Dan from uk on 9th Apr 2008
Ihave T-mobile broadban 4 2 months and every day i want to break it because it drives me CRAZY!!! connection drops all the time. sometimes it needs 5 minutes to sing in into the skype!!! come on ond m stuck with it for another 16 months.
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Reviewed by MNR from UK on 9th Apr 2008
When it works it's ok, averaging around 0.35meg connection, although occasionally makes it to 2.5! (But not often) Connection recently is deteriorating to the point that I'm considering breaking the contract. Sometimes can't connect for 30 mins. Often loosing connection, and it seems to have a built in latency making it much slower than standard broadband. For £35 a month I want it to work 90% of the time, not 50%. This will probably be really good in 12 months but I'd avoid a contract tie-in like the plague for now.
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Reviewed by Jonathan from UK on 8th Apr 2008
How Tmobile can get away with describing this as broadband is beyond belief. It is at best slow and constantly loses connection. On trying to reconnect, many hours have been spent viewing message error 619. Many more hours have been spent on the phone to "Technical Support". I am now compiling my 4th diary of events in 4 months for the inept t-mobile support staff to investigate. I cannot believe I have signed up to this for 24 months. I am off to trading standards, this is not broadband !
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Reviewed by benji from uk on 5th Apr 2008
Well - I've had a 'dongle' for 7 months now. The service is fine - it seemed to get a bit busy at Christmas, sometimes dropping but on the whole it's great. The important thing is not to compare it with home broadband in terms of speed. I can do anything with thsi dongle instant messenger, email, web surfing. It keeps me in touch and I certainly wouldn't be without it now.
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Reviewed by craig from united kingdom on 1st Apr 2008
get a t-mobile broadband dongle theyre really good (as butt plugs go) an amasing 3.4 mbps data transfer rate (as long as no-one else on the plannet has the cheek to log on as well as you, as you all share a 3.4 gbps connection through a proxy server so wait youre turn) up to 3gb of downloads (as long as you can find 3 gb of stuff that isnt actually rated 18, or you have a cc to prove so (?dont i actually have to be 18 to sign the contract in the first place?) and as long as it stays connected for long enough you may have to disconnet and reconnect up to 340000 times) get a free dongle (has to be a 2 yr contract tho or pay a hundred quid for a useless piece of plastic. has to be 2 yrs as who'd sign up for another year given the choice) wish i could still get cable
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Reviewed by Tim from UK on 29th Mar 2008
In a word, dismal. Using the dongle, very slow speed and drops connection.
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Reviewed by James from England on 29th Mar 2008
Apparently like most other people I only wish I'd done some more research before signing up for Web n Walk. It drives me completely and totally up the wall. I have been using the internet since the early days and I'd say this is probably equivalent to dial-up in terms of average speed. Sometimes it's quick but then the connection will die / fade and then you sit there for five minutes waiting for it to re-connect. It is so frustrating that I have a good mind to sue T-Mobile for wasting a large part of my life as I sit looking at the USB manager *praying* for some kind of activity. Please save your sanity and don't buy this product (I believe T-Mobile and 3 use the same network).
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Reviewed by Dmitri from England on 26th Mar 2008
I have had the T-Mobile broadband Service since February 2007. until recently i would have said they had a good speed stable reasonably fast connection. I have used the Card all over the UK and found the Broadband service to work well in most areas (t-mobile also seem to have 3g coverage in some local small residential areas where no others have 3g coverage yet. Sadly in the last month the service appears to be overloaded and I have had connection problems when good 3g coverage is available. Hopefully this is just temporary. If this improves I would recommend the service as its very cheap and you wont get charged more if you do go over your limit. also the customer Service is superb...lets see if they can sort out the temporary issues.
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Reviewed by Varsha from london on 21st Mar 2008
i wish i read these reviews before purchasing this tmobile broadband! Bought it 2day and is absolutley slow!!!!
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Reviewed by C C Cook from UK London on 21st Mar 2008
Expensive rubbish! I am stuck with an 18 month contract paying £29 a month because I wanted a free PCMCIA slot card. I travel between Eastbourne and London and have never had a fast or reliable connection. It just drops out after a while and I end up having to reboot. The signal strength is worse on the coast but I expected that. I bought an ariel booster for the card and even though the signal is better the connection is not. As was said before, can't wait until till the contract ends!
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Reviewed by Richard from Southampton on 21st Mar 2008
Absolutely unusable for the past 3 months. I've a full-strength 3G signal, but the download speed is often as low as 50kbps, and the connection stalls completely for minutes at a time. T-Mobile tech support are useless.
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Reviewed by CrashMasterH from UK on 4th Mar 2008
While T-Mobile's Broadband is buggy at this point in thime this is due the the coverage of their 3G cell sites. This will not be an issue for much longer as they have recntly done a deal with 3 so that they will be able to use their cell siteas and so they wil be able to offer a much impoved service
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Reviewed by Paul from London on 4th Mar 2008
Absolute rubbish do not buy, i've had nothing but problems for 4 months, can't wait till the contract ends.
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Reviewed by Peter from UK on 27th Feb 2008
It's rubbish. Connection intermittant at best, and often dops connection. AVoid like the plague.
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Reviewed by lkz from lkz land on 21st Feb 2008
t-mobile good. internet not gud:(
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Reviewed by ibrahim from england on 15th Feb 2008
t mobiles best network
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