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Samba ad-supported free mobile broadband service goes live in the UK

Samba ad-supported free mobile broadband service goes live in the UK

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Samba, an MVNO that's just launched on Three's network, is offering ad-supported free mobile internet access that it says will amount to around 517 megabytes of monthly data in exchange for watching two and a half minutes of commercials a day.

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Free mobile internet access in the UK can now be yours for the cost of a SIM card and a few minutes of your time. Samba, an MVNO that's just launched on Three's network, is offering ad-supported access that it says will amount to around 517 megabytes of monthly data in exchange for watching two and a half minutes of commercials a day. The firm offers SIM and micro-SIM cards for £4.99 each including shipping (about $7.82), and will offer USB dongles at a later date.

The BBC reports that watching the ads requires a browser plugin or an iPad app — no other tablets are presently supported — and most of the ads seem to be semi-interactive, so you probably will actually have to watch them. There's no limit on the amount of credit that you can build up, but the ad providers are able to cap the number of times each spot can be watched. Another potential deal-breaker for some is that the service can't be used to access pornography or other offensive materials. Still, it might be a useful emergency option for anyone not covered by the recent Olympic Wi-Fi rollouts in London.