Mobile Broadband

yerself

yerself

Pillar o' t' Community
Tackler
Does anyone have one of these USB modem dongles? If so what are download speeds like and which network has the best coverage?
 
It is similar to the coverage you get with a mobile phone, download speed is down to the size, I have a 3g one, but you can get 7.2g off vodafone
 
i have a 3 one, it works on the same principal as a mobile phone, the download speed is no different to a phone line modem, well i don't think so anyway, it cost me £15 per month for 3gb and that gives me 100 hours surfing, 2000 e-mails and download 200 music tracks and 100 2 minute videos, as i do not send so many e-mails i think thge time is added onto the internet. i went into phones 4 u near me and they were really helpful
 
its purely data that counts, not emails, web pages etc, I can do a web page in a few K or a hundred megabytes, they aren't equal when it comes to data caps.

coverage depends on where you are, voda may be brill in one location and crap in another, similar for 3, orange, t mobile etc. you need to check teh real signal whereever you are likely to use it.

I use my phone as a modem and get ~3Mbps most of teh time, in city centres you may be lucky and get 7.2 if teh HSDPA signal is good.
 
It's a lot slower than broadband but at least you can use it in a field! Our reception of whatever you call it is really manky here for most things though so it's very slow.
 
As far as I am concerned its the same as wireless networking is compared to wired.
Its not as fast and its not as reliable.
 
Posted via Mobile Device

Not as fast as what though. You are comparing with 20 meg cable, the OP might have been on a 1 meg line and it will be faster than that. I use my phione a heck of a lot and its fine.
 
I use my phone as a modem on Vodafone and you get 3 options, £1 a day - 500mb, £5 a month to the end of your contract - 500mb per day, or £7.50 per month and can cancel at any time, just pay for the month you need it - "unlimited" - note the ""'s before anyone says nothing is unlimited :)
OR you can get the dongle and pay £15 a month? I think it was last time I looked
 
yep KSH, thats how I use mine, £5/month to end of contract. Some networks don't let you use the phone as a modem though.

I also have a useful bit of software called JoikuSpot which makes my phone into a wireless access point so I don't even have to muck about with Bluetooth! :D
 
I use the £7.50 one because I will only need it for 6 month of the year max, keep meaning to check if its start of month to end of month or if it's a 30 day period from when you start it - off now to check before I forget again!
 
I use internet all teh time so its worth it for me, having data really changes how I used my phone, I think nothing now of emailing a picture home or uploading it straight to FlickR. Google maps when in a strange town to help me get about,etc.
 
Don't you find it fiddly on your phone though? I used to try doing that and it was so much hassle, especially trying to look at websites even with a 'big screen' which is nowhere near as big as a laptop screen.
 
my phone has a 800x357 resolution internal screen so nope :D

Also some sites have mobile versions that render better on small screen devices, my old N80 was brill with a 450x370 screen res, OK, text was tiny but I have good eyes!
 
entwisi said:
Some networks don't let you use the phone as a modem though.
Click to expand...

o2 being one. I phoned and asked them if I could use my phone as a modem and they said yes but I would be charged for any data, it would not be counted as part of my allowance. Something to do with my phone being a Blackberry.
 
i have an icon 225 from orange witch is pretty fast its not quite as fast as standard broadband but its not bad im getting 7.2mbps witch is way faster than dialup
 
As entwisi says it is entirely down to the signal in your area. Even vodafones supposed 7.2 will be mostly in London or major city centres I suspect.

I've used a dongle from Three £15 for 3Gb (Can get pay as you go but need to pay £50 for the usb device). Where I was near Hull it was very good signal and I always found the 3g device to be faster than standard broadband connections, especially when I was using the Hull provider Kingston Communications!

However I only found it fast when I was in HSDPA areas or 'turbo' as Three call them. In standard 3g areas it definitely wasn't as fast as home broadband connections.
 
entwisi said:
Not as fast as what though.
Click to expand...

I was taking about networks not broadband. Wireless is not as fast or as reliable as wired networks. Then again if we are talking broadband 802.11 g might only just cope with my 20 Mbits/s download speed (when I get it).

802.11n is not as fast as a standard wired 100Mbits/s network in real terms either. They like to pretend it does 300Mbits/s but not in real throughput tests it doesn't.

As far as security is concerned you said yourself the other day that the countries biggest ISP, BT has set its customers up with an encryption method that can be relatively simply cracked. I had a read about that and could not believe how stupid they have been.

WiFi is good for when you can't use wired. As long as you don't expect it to be ultra reliable that is ;)
 
my contract was up with my broadband, i've just cancelled with BT both phone and broadband (have had to give 30 days notice) and there's a £6 cancellation fee to pay

i want to go with pay as you go broadband, dont want a contract, just want to be able to top up whenever i want to

anyone any ideas of which one to go for? i know i will have an initial lay out to buy the stick and then whatever to top it up

which is the best?
 
Why do you want to do it?
Is it not more expensive?
Do you have Virgin cable?

Does your dad not have broadband? You could share.
 
yeah mi dad has broadband, this is how i see it.....

i'm going back to work
my broadband cost me £14.99 a month now
my line rental for my landline is £11 odd a month, then i have my calls on top (about £40 a quarter)
so thats £25.99 a month without my calls
i pay ABOUT £130 a quarter for broadband, line rental and calls (plus VAT plus the charge for billing you)

if i buy one of those pay as you go stick things for about £50 (argos) i can top up whenever i want, no contract and no pressure on TO top up

i want to be saving money when i go back to work, not having more money to fork out than is necessary
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top