'Free' mobile broadband service launched by Samba
Samba, an ad-funded mobile broadband service for laptops, netbooks and iPads has launched in the UK using Three’s network.
Subscribers to Samba purchase a sim card – and optional dongle – and then watch video adverts to build credit. The London-based company founded by Ben Atherton describes itself as the “UK’s first free broadband service for users on the go”.
Watching two-and-a-half minutes of adverts each day will give users around 517MB of data, through Three’s network, per month. On average each ad will give you 3.5MB of free data. Atherton commented: “With Samba you earn the credit watching ads at a time that is convenient to you and then have access when you need it.”
Atherton says he wants Samba to be a "quality product" and currently running ads on Samba include Clinique, Gillette, Volvo, Nissan, Paramount Pictures, Xbox Kinect, Pot Noodle, Dell and Agent Provocateur. Buying items from one of Samba’s partners will also gain users additional credit and partners already signed up include Apple iTunes and PriceGrabber, with more to follow. Subscribers can also choose buy data with a cash top up, no upper credit limit has yet been imposed.
Advertisers limit the amount of times one video can be viewed as it isn’t valuable to them to have users replaying ads over and over again, the company also warns users it may install cookies that allow it to collect information from third-party sites as well as data from users “general web usage”. However, it does add that subscribers have the right to request the information is not used for marketing purposes.
Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert at Broadbandchoices.co.uk, said: “Surfing via smartphones and tablets has soared in popularity over the last 3 years while subscription rates to 3G dongles have dwindled.”
He added that the service “will appeal to cash strapped customers whose internet usage is low,” but it is “not a substitute to fixed line broadband”.
Baliszewski expressed his doubts about the service commenting: “There is a hassle factor attached to the mandatory advert viewing - 2.5 minutes is a lot of time when you are waiting to check your email and may irritate users who are used to the convenience of instant surfing.
“Another potential downside is that the earned download allowance isn't that generous. 517MB per month will just about cover basic email usage and browsing, but the average household downloads 17GB per month - customers would have to watch a lot of adverts to get a usage allowance that high.”