shao_khan Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 ANyone got any experience with this? Where I live now the max broadband rate is sub 2mb so on the face of it it would appear to be comparable with many mobile solutions in speed terms. Just wondered how they performed though, the cost appears to be comparable, and it saves me having to have BT fixed line, so in terms of cost it looks like it could be a winner as well. But if performance genuinely sucks I might have to stick with conventional methods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burble Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 I've got a Vodafone 3G card for my work laptop and a Three card for my MacBook. They both do what they say they will, and assuming you have a 3G signal they are pretty nippy. Last time I did a test I was getting about 300Kb/sec from the card on Three. No idea on upstream though, I forgot to check. They do have quite high latency though so online gaming could be a problem but if you dont' play games online it's a none issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shao_khan Posted July 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Cheers - no gaming here, I just use it for Tyresmoke, email and the odd bit of browsing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booster Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 I have an Orange mobnile broadband dongle and it is hit and miss. Works great in city centres but I've just come back from a week in Norfolk and whilst my Orange phone worked fine for calls, the internet speed was comparable to dial up! Still, it was a novelty having the internet in a caravan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 I've had a few Vodafone 3G cards and recently 'upgraded' to the slimline PCI express card. To be honest I've not been very happy with them as I mainly use them on the move - in a car or on a train for example and they really struggle to hold a signal - as you'd expect. the minimal experience I have of using them when stationary has been good though. You might want to assess your signal in your principal location before investing though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 As Mollox says, make sure where you're going to be using it most - ie home by the sounds of it - is in a HSDPA area, sometimes called 3.5g or 'turbo 3g' else you'll be stuck with normal 3G data rates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted July 19, 2008 Report Share Posted July 19, 2008 I have a Vodafone one from work, and a personal one on O2. Both are pretty good although the O2 is far better in London than it is outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted July 19, 2008 Report Share Posted July 19, 2008 I think also the fact that I'm on a VPN connection most of the time with mine annoys me most - for general browsing it won't be an issue but having to reconnect my VPN every time there's a temporary interruption to my 3g connection is mighty annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Tone_ Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Hi Mate I have a o2 Stellar which displays the speed of the network (GPRS/Edge/3G/HSDPA). If you have sub 1mb (doubt that to be honest) then unless you can get HSDPA I doubt you will get any better a signal. Up the road where I live I only get an GPRS on my o2 Stellar and iPhone on o2. Orange shows an Edge Signal, next time I am passing I'l clock my display to see what it throws up. I would therefore say o2 may not be any good for you. Also GPRS runs at about 6k/sec Edge about 28k/sec 3G 384kb/s HSDPA >2MB but its flaming expensive! If you can get 1-1.5mbp on adsl then its probably worth sticking with... HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Tone_ Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Hello Mate - I went past the Garage/Shell petrol station which I guess you are near to and was only able to get a G for GPRS in the display of the phone. Without heading down to where you are couldnt say if you would get a better signal on O2. Someone mentioned picking up Pay As You Go Sims and putting them in a 3G handset to see which one offers te best 3G/HSDPA signal. Good luck Tone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
las247 Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 The Mobile Broadband modems work just like a mobile phone so as long as you have coverage you should be ok. 3 is the only network with anything like the coverage needed to make this viable. O2 is a definate none starter due to no realistic 3G commitment and no network share in place. T-mobile also share 3's network, Voda and Orange share each others. Speeds at present advertised by 3 are at 2.8MBpS however the stick modems will currently perform up to 3.6MBpS Voda advertise 7.2 but that is like BT saying I get 8MBpS when I actually get 0.04 MBpS!! 3 is the only network growing at a rate that will provide coverage needed for future as well as current use. Any store will be able to provide coverage information if they are honest. As for prices 3 do prove to offer the best packages, if you have a mobile with them a 15gb package is reduced from £30/mth to £15mth. Similarly you can take a phone for £15/ mth and a modem for £15/ mth, no brainer really. Hope this helps some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted July 28, 2008 Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 I have to ask, what is the difference between the o2 web bolt on and their mobile broadband?? The bolt on is £6.50 a month and the mobile broadband is £18, both seem to do the same thing, only difference being you get a usb modem with the latter. Only problem with this is I sometimes want to get data on my handset and all bandwidth is on the modem only. So I have dumped that and got the bolt on and just use my handset as the modem, much prefer it this was as it hooks up bluetooth too. So I open my macbook and connect, don't have to even think about it. Am I missing something?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted July 28, 2008 Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 the bluetooth connection between your phone and laptop can be slower than the phones data connection to the network creating a bottleneck, but if its ok for you then all's good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
las247 Posted July 30, 2008 Report Share Posted July 30, 2008 I'm guessing also your handset is at least 3G, preferably HSDPA (3.5G) enabled? That said O2's 3G+ commitment is not very big, more the major towns and cities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shao_khan Posted July 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2008 Cheers Tone - I have tried a O2 job for 1 week at home and in MK and in niehter location could I get the HSDPA to remain on constant. I ended up ringing a guy in O2 and got him to look at my connection, and the nearest mast to me is 1km and that gave a very intermitent service. On edge it was fine in both locations, but very slow. I think the best I managed was 35 mins surfing at one time. SO I think after a 7 day trial I'll give it a miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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