Anybody using Mobile Broadband?

[lilcompt]

mobile broadband is a waste of money i use to hve it and trust me its rubbish

[mrcrazy04]

I've occasionally used my 3 phone as a modem as I have their £5 2GB cap internet on the phone package on top of my £20 contract (I know using the phone as a modem is against the terms, but it was an emergency!)
You only get 115k when you do it that way, and it is terrible of an evening (unable to get on most websites - probably as a deterrent!).
However a friend of mine has one of 3's mobile internet packages with the modem, and he says that's pretty good, and he gets a decent speed (I think he's got 2meg on it before). I think it costs him around £25 per month though.

[Sinizter]

mobile broadband is a waste of money i use to hve it and trust me its rubbish

Unless you want to further qualify that statement, its pretty useless and uninformative.

Other than a slightly high latency, I have no problems with the T-Mobile WebNWalk Plus on my phone (used as a modem) or in my the WebNWalk Pro in my Dell laptop. Its more reliable and quicker than the Pipex 1mb broadband that my dad has at his place.

[b0redom]

Another vote for 3G with T-mobile. I've got one of their external USB modems, and it works great on my pc and apple laptops. I got a good deal from this guy:

HEXUS.community discussion forums

Might be worth talking to him?

[lilcompt]

but y waste money on mobile internet when u could get high speed internet for jus £15 a month on a pc... i dnt really get a point on "mobile internet"

[burble]

Is the word 'mobile' not a hint?

Broadband like speeds when mobile is the point, and it's something that's incredibly useful for me. Just the other day I was in a taxi from Fiumicino Airport to my office in Rome and I needed to get online ASAP. With the 3G card in the laptop I could do that.

[Sinizter]

but y waste money on mobile internet when u could get high speed internet for jus £15 a month on a pc... i dnt really get a point on "mobile internet"

I am guessing your "high speed internet" can be accessed while youre on a train to Edinburgh from London ?

Or is your backyard as far as you travel ?

[Haris]

b0redom,

I'm currently looking at 3g modems and am hearing that the majority are unreliable. What's your experience been?

[mikerr]

I suppose it depends on network coverage in your area, but I use Three mobile broadband every day, all over NW / manchester and surrounding areas and its fine.

I'm using remote desktop, so not light web browsing use either...

[b0redom]

I use the standard USB 3G T-mobile dongle. It's over a year old, and has successfully worked flawlessly on:

MacBook Pro
Fujitsu Siemens laptop
IBM Thinkpad

I got the occasional disconnect at 70mph in the fast lane of the M6, but aside from that, it's been great. When it doesn't have full 3G coverage, it seems to drop to GPRS which isn't great, but if you need it in an emergency it's still OK.

BTW I was a passenger, not the driver ;-)

[Haris]

Haha, that did cross my mind when you said it. ...wow, 70mph in the fast last and surfing the net at the same time!

Do you know if the T-Mobile dongle is an unlocked device and would take, say, an Orange SIM?

Looking for a contract free USB modem and not find much within budget ATM.

[b0redom]

No idea, I got it about 18 months ago when T-Mobile had the only data package worth having, and I've found the service so good, I've switched my company mobiles to them too.

As I have a 3G mobile now, I called up to cancel the dongle, and they said if you want to keep it, you can have it for £5/month. Can't knock that!

A contract free USB modem would probably set you back a fair bit, and then you have to pay for the data charges.

[rainsong]

I'm using a usb dongle from 3 - got a £7.50 per month for 3gb data allowance deal.

Easy to set up, much cheaper than paying £125 to connect a bt line + the £11 a month line rental + broadband fee.

Only problem is I'm finding it really sloow... anything I can do to make it faster?

I ran some tests on various websites, getting these kind of results:

134-260ms latency
60kbps max upload
467kbps max download

Also should mention I tried connection sharing via a patch cable, it works... but is unusably slow.

[alsenior]

i got the 3G data card from vodafone back in march and it has been great so far. i primarily use mine as a connection for collage and now that collage has finished for summer a backup internet connection. A good thing to look for would be who offers the best 3G speeds in your area. in my area t-mobile are pants

[Unique]

i got the three mobile broadband usb stick recently with the half price quidco offer, so £5 a month for 1 gig for 18 months with free modem. better value i thought that paying £40 for PAYG and £10 top up each time i want to use it. it's handy as a spare/backup internet if my main connection goes down (which is extremely rare), and if i go somewhere that doesn't have wifi

for regular surfing it's fine, but obviously slower than my home cable broadband

i also have mobile broadband on my iphone which i use on a daily basis to check my favorite sites whilst at work. it's slow when not on wifi, but miles better than nothing

[Ciber]

Looks like 3 have the best deal, £15 for 5gb/month. Is that an introductory offer with a catch in that it goes up after 3 months?