Mobile broadband

[Wilberforce]

Hola folks,

I'm after the opinions of anyone who might be using one of those USB dongles for mobile broadband. Basically, I'm generally away on the road at work from Monday morning to Friday evening, and I'm getting bored of slow internet speeds. Currently, my mobile is tethered to my pc, and using the software suite, is used as a modem. Works adequately, and thanks to the built in bluetoothin the lappy, no wires either, but it's slow, as it works using the GPRS standard.

So what I want to do is get a USB dongle for mobile broadband (or possibly stay with my provider Voda and get mobile BB over my phone), and I'm after people's experiences with them, the networks, etc... I was looking at 3's offering, as they seem to have some faurly generous download allowances and reasonable prices.

So, your thoughts please,
Jim

[andysd1]

well i run the laptop on the o2 dongle, and i must say its poo, i also run my main pc on the T mobile and that runs ok, if anything i prefer this.

[gregster]

We use the O2 dongle things on our work laptops and as andy says it is painfully slow....

but it gives the management at our place another opportunity to make their lives easier and ours more difficult, so we will be suffering the damn things for a good while to come I suspect!!!

[Wilberforce]

Hmm, so that's 2 votes against O2 then...
And a vote in favour of T-Mobile.

Anyone gonne come out for / against 3 and Voda??

[gregster]

Vodaphone and orange coverage are cr4p up my workshop and in the woods....T-mobile is the only network that works well round that area...

Dont know if that has any bearing Jim....
....but if you had mobile webby access, it would be handy to use up the workshop/woods if needed when we are up there!!

[Wilberforce]

Uhm, is that a hint I should bring the lappy along to the next playday then?

Ahem...

[Alchamist]

Having tried most of them, we now equip our staff at work with Orange dongles. True, in some out in the sticks places the reception is a bit dodgy, but on the whole they are better than most, and when you get signal they are plenty fast enough for web browsing and e-mails. No dongle at the moment is going to give you reliable video streaming or high bandwidth applications

That said, where ever possible I try and use BT Openzone - two reasons - one, it's faster, and two, for me it's free

[Wilberforce]

I'm not particularly after lots of video streaming...
Just reasonably reliable speeds so I can surf and email, and faff about with coding my website during downtime...

[xscottxjx]

I'm 5 miles from civilisation on the side of a hill looking over town.
I'm using a 3 dongle and it costs something like £15/month for 15gb allowance.
According to 3 i shouldn't even get a reception at my postcode, but tried my pals one before I purchased my own dongle.
I only get 1 bar reception (out of 5 or so) and I've been using as my only home BB for the last year.
Its certainly fast enough to keep in touch, I can even use youtube etc with just a couple of pauses.
Sometimes when the weather is very bad reception can be hit or miss and 4 or 5 nights in the last year I've not been able to get on line, but overall quite a reliable service.

I only use the dongle because I must be the only BT engineer that lives too far from an exchange to get company free BB! Bugger!

[Alchamist]

[andysd1]

im typing to you from my T mobile dongle, things like the tube are slow, as you have to wait for them to load, but on this site and crapbook its does its job

[BadBoy]

Hi Jim,
I've used T-Mob, Orange, and vodafone, and all have given different results depending on location.
All are slow compared to broadband, but T-Mobile performed the best in my experence.
Again like Jay, where possible I use BT Fon as I'm with BT Internet for my broadband.
Although BT are one of the more expensive suppliers of broadband, for someone like you who is always on the move it may be worth considering as in the long term you'll save money as you only have 1 subscription to pay, and their customer service is second to none if you ever have a problem (plus you get McAfee antivirus free of charge while you subscribe).
They have a coverage map [linkurl=http://www.bt.com/static/wa/wifi/pages/findhotspots.html?s_cid=con_FURL_btfon/hotspots]here[/linkurl], and details of what BT Fon is at www.btfon.com. Well worth considering if your near the end of, or out of contract with you current BB supplier.

Hope this hasn't added to the confusion

[Dave_RAYNET]

I use 3. Have done for ages. I have no landline so it's my only internet connection.

I live on the side of a mountain and even with 1 bar it runs well.

[Alfie]

I used 3 recently in hospital and it worked very well even youtube and bbc videos with two bars.I'm on pay as you go about £15.00 for a couple of hours a night for a month.

[kees]

Used to have vodaphone but some areas have bad signal(like just out of cardiff city center)as mainly using at home hade a phone line put in and went land line and threw the dongel away.

[fogman]

ive had a 3 payg dongle since june & ive got to say its pukka, i know its not the cheapest having payg for mobile internet but while im looking after my dad at his untill i can move him in with me, its ideal, it will also come in handy when i can get off carp fishing again
any area that you get 3g coverage with your phone your dongle should do the same