Mobile broadband - which one

[David Martin]

There seem to be a variety of mobile broadband suppliers out there - are they all much of a muchness or are there any standout good ones?

I'm wanting to take a laptop on the road and have a data connection for e.g picture upload.

..d

[rae]

Voda are good for me - coverage is excellent and it just seems to work.  No experience of the others.

[border-rider]

I've got a 3 PAYG broadband dongle. The downside is that you can't carry over the data allowance to the next month so I tend to just buy time when I need it.

But it works well;   I can get about 1.5 meg broadband with it. There's no drama.  Just works.

[Craig]

I've also got the 3 PAYG dongle. I think 3 is cheapest for data, at least on PAYG anyway.
Though it is worth checking coverage for where you will be using it. 3's coverage is lacking around here, so I've now unlocked the dongle and put a Vodafone PAYG SIM in it instead.
Vodafone may have less of a 3G network than 3, but at least they have 2G coverage just about everywhere (around here), so you can still use it (at GPRS speeds).

[border-rider]

We have 3 HSDPA coverage, but not even Voda 2G voice coverage

3 seem to have more HSDPA outside big cities than the others, and this is what you need to get decent data rates

3 is a virtual 2G operator anyway; they have their own 3G network but piggyback on someone else's for GSM/GPRS.  Can't remember who offhand.

data rates:

GSM: 9.6 k
GPRS: a few 10s of k
EDGE: 100 k onna good day

3G: 100-150 k onna good day
HSDPA: up to 3.6 megs, in theory, but usually a smidge under 2 or so

[border-rider]

It does work for data - I have tried the dongle in a 2G-only area and I got a GPRS connection.  It still connects (apparently) via 3 though.

[David Martin]

So the verdict is to go with 3 then?

..d

[border-rider]

You  need to look at the coverage maps for where you'll use it and choose the operator with the best HSDPA coverage

Make sure that you get HSDPA, not just standard 3G, or you (almost) might as well just use a GSM phone as a modem.

[Jaded]

3 is a virtual 2G operator anyway; they have their own 3G network but piggyback on someone else's for GSM/GPRS.  Can't remember who offhand.

It used to be Orange, but 3 stopped using them in the summer, without telling their customers. Nice.

This makes them useless except in 3G areas.

I dumped them and have changed to Orange. I would definitely not recommend 3.

[border-rider]

<MV does a bit of background checking>

OK.

3 used to roam onto O2, then they moved to Orange but old SIMs/contracts still allowed roaming onto O2 as well.  This summer they discontinued the legacy O2 roaming and now just use Orange, but are in the process of moving to T-Mobile.

[Jaded]

Well, they didn't roam with Orange up in Ullapool in July.

I bought the thing knowing that there was no 3G up there, but there was Orange GPRS, and the shop confirmed that there was a roaming agreement with Orange.

When I called to find out why I couldn't get a signal their helpline told me that they didn't any have a link with Orange anymore and they told me that they didn't roam with anyone else up there.

Sorry - that kind of customer service leaves me cold. So I left them.

[border-rider]

It is quite possible that all SIMs issued recently will only roam onto T-Mobile, so whilst it is true that roaming onto Orange still exists, that may only be for legacy customers

</guessing>

[Jaded]

Yes, I suppose that is a possibility, but they did tell me in the shop that Orange was the roaming partner, and it also said that on the website.

Also the helpline (a mere snip at £8.00 for 45 mins to find out why I couldn't get a connection) said that it used to be orange but wasn't now.

If they had done 3G widely, as their name suggests, then they'd be fine. As it is the roaming agreements are a key part of their service and I don't think they should change them without informing their users.

[Jaded]

if you go contract, check the over monthly allowance charges too.

The Orange modem has the drivers on board in an EPROM. Nice touch.

[toekneep]

We signed up for a contract with 3 and they were awful. We checked coverage before moving and should have had full HSDPA according to their maps. We did get full coverage for a couple of weeks and then nothing for a couple of months. Support were hopeless, they constantly told either that they were working on the mast, or that everything was fine and it must be our computer. Then all of a sudden it worked perfectly without any change at our end. Coverage is very poor when I travel through Lancashire/Cheshire/Staffordshire on the train. (But it did roam to Orange I noticed the other day)

[border-rider]

The Orange modem has the drivers on board in an EPROM. Nice touch.

That's a modem thing though

The 3 one I have does too, and more to the point it works with my eeePC (and other Linux boxes)

We used it as our only internet connection whilst BT pissed about trying to get a broadband connection to the new house (and in the process disconnected the phone for a week ) and it worked very well

I guess it all does depend critically on coverage; as I wrote earlier there's no point having a 3G modem if you can't get HSDPA, but if you can it is good.  And 3 have the biggest coverage outside London big cities. 

[DaveJ]

I tried the 3 one and it was dial up speed.  You get three days to try it.  If its no good, you can take it back within this time and they tear up the contract.

I've currently got a Vodafone one to try.  You get 14 days to try it out with them.  It looks like that one is going back too.

According to the Vodaphone 3G coverage map, we should get a decent signal.  In fact, at the back of the house there's nothing, and at the front we just about get a signal.  This is close to dial up speeds too.

Looking at http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ it looks like there's just the one Vodafone 3G transmitter in town, and thats about a mile away.  We live on the top of a ridge although we don't have direct line of sight of the transmitter because of the houses on the opposite side of the road.  I guess the 3G cells are very small.

Dave

[border-rider]

voda coverage viewer

[DaveJ]

voda coverage viewer

Yup.  Thats the one.

Mostly though, even where there is a signal, its very weak.  One bar out of five.  Even in an area where the signal is four out of five, the speeds are still poor.  No more than 150kbps (bits not bytes).  I guess that the small number of local cells are overloaded, with the same contention issues that DSL has.

Dave