Samba Mobile is offering free mobile broadband on the 3 UK network, in exchange for watching ads on your tablet or laptop. This sounds like a great way of saving money on mobile broadband subscriptions. However, details on how many ads you have to watch and how much data this earns you are pretty sketchy on the site.

In order to build up credit while watching the ads, you need to install a browser extension to your laptop or upload the Samba App to your tablet.

I already have a Three dongle from when I purchased the 3 Mobile Internet Pay Upfront 12 month 12GB Package, so I would only need to buy a SIM for my dongle, which costs £2.99 plus £2 postage and packing. The micro SIM for tablets is the same price. I think that £2 is a bit hefty for P&P of a tiny SIM card. I’m not keen on forking our £5 for something that’s supposed to be free, especially as I don’t know exactly how much free data I’ll receive for watching the ads.

As I can get 1GB of mobile broadband for £10 with T-Mobile or 3 Mobile, I’m not sure that I could be bothered with having to regularly watch ads to build up my free credit with Samba mobile. There’s also the issue of many ads will be available for me to watch.

I do wonder if Samba Mobile is feasible, e.g. will advertisers of say a luxury car be wasting their cash if most Samba subscribers are people on lower incomes on the lookout for bargains. Maybe everyone likes something for free, so there will be Samba subscribers from all demographic groups.

Have you used Samba Mobile, how would your rate it?

Update 10 July 2012 – I wonder if Samba Mobile read this post because I noticed that they are now stating that the cost of their standard and micro SIM cards is £5 with free postage and packing?

A dongle plus SIM card is now available at £25 with free postage and packing

Samba is now offering registered users a credit of 250mb for each person they refer who signs up to the service. I’d be wary about recommending Samba Mobile to my family and friends until I’d tested it for at least a few weeks myself.

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