a few questions about mobile broadband

[douglasb]

first bit of background...
i go to a boarding school and there is a wireless network in all the houses that lets you onto the school network and the internet but... the routers in each house can only handle 16 people at a time, the whole system is too slow to be that usefull and our internet access is rediculously restricted.

earlyer today i saw a guy from bruni (sorry about my spelling) in our house on msn (which is blocked) and asked how he was on. he said mobile broadband and that he could get onto any site he liked, whenever he liked.

having seen this i am seriously looking at getting one for myself. but have a few questions...


do they just use the same network as their mobile phones? ie... does 02 mobile broadband use the 02 mobile network to connect? and if so then you should choose a provider that has good mobile signal in the area

what are good download/upload speeds and data allowances to be looking for?

if anyone here has mobile broadband what do they think of it?

thanks alot

[staffsMike]

I used to have vodafone 3G broadband.

The speed for me wasn't fantastic but certainly usuable. If it is anything like what I experienced then downloads should be kept small but avoid them where possible as your bill is usually related to the amount you download, whether that be just surfing or downloads and then a fixed charge on top. I'm 6 or so months out of date with it though so it may have all changed..

I wouldn't consider it for general use tbh, it's just too expensive. If however, money is not an issue then it works pretty well for things like Msn etc..

It is provider based, i.e a vodafone dongle thing won't connect to an O2 service.. well again, not in my experience as I did breifly try to lol

[douglasb]

I used to have vodafone 3G broadband.

The speed for me wasn't fantastic but certainly usuable. If it is anything like what I experienced then downloads should be kept small but avoid them where possible as your bill is usually related to the amount you download, whether that be just surfing or downloads and then a fixed charge on top. I'm 6 or so months out of date with it though so it may have all changed..

I wouldn't consider it for general use tbh, it's just too expensive. If however, money is not an issue then it works pretty well for things like Msn etc..

all i would be using it for would be browsing, msn, anti virus and windows updates and thats it i think... so download limit shouldnt be a problem.

with 3 you can get free usb modem, 1GB download limit, 24 month contract at £10 a month and i cant remember the speed.
does that sound like an ok deal?

[staffsMike]

Sounds alright yeah. Better than vodafone at the time, but the company was paying so who cares

What is the cost of going over 1GB? I doubt you will of course but better to know.

[Funkstar]

I have Web'n'Walk with my T-Mobile contract and it's great.

Downloads aren't capped, but there is a fair use policy in place. If you repeatedly go over the download markers you will be asked not to, then asked to upgrade to a more expensive package. They don't throw a massive data bill at you if you go over.

Mobile broadband is just a 3G (or 3.5G as in HSDPA) connection in a USB stick as opposed to inside a phone, so yes they use the same network as you do for calls.

I probably don't make as much use of web'n'walk as I should, but it does mean that whenever I do need to use it I'm not scared of the data charges on my next bill.

[alsenior]

i have vodaphone mobile broadband and for me it's great as they have a good network in my area. vodaphone and 3 have the best 3g networks at the moment. all of the networks have online checkers to see the coverage in your area.

[Webby]

Don't 3 piggyback on O2?

Either way you really do need to make sure you get decent signal where you will be using it.

Connection speed for HSDPA is 3.6Mbps but you will never achieve that unless you happen to be standing on the mast, you should expect to be getting 1Mbps, but it all depends on the number of people on the network using bandwidth and how far you are from the tower.

[douglasb]

i have vodaphone mobile broadband and for me it's great as they have a good network in my area. vodaphone and 3 have the best 3g networks at the moment. all of the networks have online checkers to see the coverage in your area.

at school 02 has best coverage and vodaphone is worst, will have a look at online checkers though...

Don't 3 piggyback on O2?

Either way you really do need to make sure you get decent signal where you will be using it.

Connection speed for HSDPA is 3.6Mbps but you will never achieve that unless you happen to be standing on the mast, you should expect to be getting 1Mbps, but it all depends on the number of people on the network using bandwidth and how far you are from the tower.

no one at school has mobile broadband apart from a few foreign people so other people eating up bandwidth shouldnt be a problem. this may seem a bit of an odd question but what does 1mbps actually mean? (i know its 1 mb per second) how long would it take to, for example, load the facebook home page? because that took about 4 mins when i tryed to get on about 20 mins ago, and this took about 10 mins to type because i had to wait for the text to come up after i had pressed the keys! would this be any better on mobile broadband?

thanks

[staffsMike]

Well that sounds worse than dial up so yes it will be better than that as long as the signal is strong

[douglasb]

Well that sounds worse than dial up so yes it will be better than that as long as the signal is strong

it realy is awfull!! its not always that bad, its just in the evenings when loads of people are on. if you have a free period during the day and you go on its not as bad, but then you get the school blocking all the usefull sites as its during lesson hours
i havnt managed to find anywhere around school where i dont have full signal on my phone, and if what webby says is true and 3 piggy back on 02 then signal strength shouldnt be a problem

[Webby]

1 Mbps (mega bits per second) is equivalent to 0.125MBps (mega bytes per second), which is ~128KBps (kilo bytes per second) this is combined upstream and downstream, so not fast but far from slow, a few years ago people would have killed for that speed Of course you might be getting 2.5Mbps it will all depend on the signal!

It should be plenty fast enough for general browsing and that sort of thing, if you have a 1GB data limit then you might want to consider that you tube and the like use a surprising amount of data.

Worth considering that the 3G signal and the standard GSM signals run on different bands so if your phone is not 3G the signal strength is not that useful.

[Funkstar]

Don't 3 piggyback on O2?

3 originally used O2 as a fall back when you couldn't get on their own network. They now use T-Mobile. They also share 3G equipment and masts with T-Mobile now as well.

because that took about 4 mins when i tryed to get on about 20 mins ago, and this took about 10 mins to type because i had to wait for the text to come up after i had pressed the keys! would this be any better on mobile broadband?

Waiting your your PC to display a letter you have typed has nothing to do with the speed of your internet connection. Thats just a seriously slow PC.

[douglasb]

Waiting your your PC to display a letter you have typed has nothing to do with the speed of your internet connection. Thats just a seriously slow PC.

my comp can easily handle a bit of word processing, its because my pc is connected to the school's wireless network, so anything i do on the wireless network, including access the internet, gets sent wirelessly to the router in the middle of the house, then to a big box downstairs (dont know what it actually is, but it is rediculously noisey for its size) then by cables up to the server in the main building, all the time fighting for bandwidth with everyone else who is using the wireless at the same time.
if i had mobile broadband then i would skip all that and would only be bottlenecked by access speed

[fresh]

hey mate, i went to a school where the access was restricted and i completely understand. 3 now use t-mobile, and orange if you cant receive t-mobile coverage. i have one and got one for my sister (i work at carphone warehouse part time) and its brilliant. obviously not going to be as fast as some fixed line services but easily usable. to be honest if you will be looking at you tube, for the extra fiver on 3 i would go with it as you can make that an 18 month contract and you get a 5GB download limit. Alternatively o2 do mobile broadband for 20 quid a month and you get free home broadband so you could get your parents to chip in.

[gnoofz]

I've used 3 mobile broadband this summer and it's decent when the coverage is good. Otherwise it was a pain to use.

Saw this deal from another site:

£7.5 per mth for
3 USB E160G Stick Modem White
Broadband (5GB)
Contract length - 18 months
threestore.three.co.uk/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=18M5ECD006

£5 per mth for
3 USB E160G Stick Modem White
Broadband Lite (1GB)
Contract length - 18 months
threestore.three.co.uk/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=18M1ECD009

Might be worth it if you'll be there for awhile.

Ah don't have enough posts to post the links properly.