3G Mobile broadband

I'm looking at getting it for my laptop while at work has anyone go it and what is it like?

[dragon]

I have it with t-mobile. (WebNwalk+)

Providing the cell your in isn't to busy and both the cell and the device you are using to connect supports HSDPA you can expect around 512Kps actual sustained throughput although it Peaks higher.


I've had problems with MSN messenger signing in on t-mobiles service though. Not sure why, they insist they are NOT blocking it, and some clients seem to connect better than others. (the official mac client sometimes will when adium and amsn don't)

T-mobile (as i think do the others) use a compression Proxy that reduces image quality in order to speed up loading as well as use less data but you can then get the full quality image by refreshing the page (or theres a key combination to do it) I think most of the networks let you disable it though.

Depends what you want to use it for, as a main connection I wouldn't recommend it but its fine for surfing the odd small download.

if your in HSDPA coverage the ping is low enough to play world of warcraft (often in the 150ms-300ms range) if you really wanted to... I have done a couple of times when I was bored if the voice chat is off it uses hardly any data either litreally looking at a few MB per hour

[Lord Nikon]

Three have been advertising a USB 3G dongle for 15 / month with 2Gb cap...

I use my Orange connection sometimes in the evenings and weekends as I have the unlimited eve / weekend data addon for 4 / month and it's pretty reliable, I have had speeds of 384kbit / second through it even while making a call on the phone (don't live in a HSDPA area )

Cheers for the replies lads.

[zaax]

also it depends if you can get 3g or it backs down to 2g. I was using 2g link over christmas (see another thread) and if the webpage was not too image heavy it was quite useable

[dragon]

Originally Posted by zaax

also it depends if you can get 3g or it backs down to 2g. I was using 2g link over christmas (see another thread) and if the webpage was not too image heavy it was quite useable

I managed to use GPRS with 0% signal before.... (It was so weak the application that monitors it was reading it as 0%

[Stuart]

Anyone planning to do this would be advised to check their tariff..

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12...ile_data_bill/

[Lord Nikon]

Also please note for all those on O2 2G and their subsidiaries (Tesco Mobile for example use the O2 2g backbone) Ofcom are pulling parts of the 900MHz spectrum in 2009.

Please read

[RS100]

You can now have mobile broadband on pay as you go and pay monthly phones,

You can buy the new MOBILE Broadband add ons which you can add to any pay as you go or contract 3 mobile account prices start from £10 for 1 gig which is valid for 30days Just log in to you 3 account online and add the add on,

Here is more details

See page 7 of this pdf for pay monthly broadband on your phone and page 13 for pay as you go mobile broadband on PAYG phones : http://www.three.co.uk/customer/link...=1089021441077

Pay monthly add ons : http://www.three.co.uk/personal/prod...s_/add-ons.omp

3G modem payg broadband: http://www.three.co.uk/customer/link...=1196420646323

Also they sell a hsdpa usb modem on pay as you go for £99 and all you do is top it up the same as you do with the pay as you go phone you just add the data add on.

My self i am using it on my hsdpa nokia 6120 with pay as you go sim card and even though 3 say it is up to 2.8mb i always get 3.6mb i have been told that they quote the lower speed so people do not moan about speed problem,

[goblin]

This maybe worth including, I've just signed up for it myself: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/m...=ON_QM_A_BuyAT

It offers 3GB per month for £4 per day but at a cost of £99.99 for the usb modem.

HTH

[dragon]

Originally Posted by goblin

This maybe worth including, I've just signed up for it myself: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/m...=ON_QM_A_BuyAT

It offers 3GB per month for £4 per day but at a cost of £99.99 for the usb modem.

HTH

£4 a day

And I thought £30 a month was bad!

[jellybaby]

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/prod...and_/index.omp

[dragon]

Nice to see that Broadband is available on payg now

[goblin]

Originally Posted by dragon

£4 a day

And I thought £30 a month was bad!

Yes it is quite bad isn't it. Especially considering you have to put money into the account before you can use the modem, then if you go over the 3gb per month they cut you off, but it is the most liberal of the lot of the providers. Vodafone do their 'unlimited' product which is 120MB a MONTH Three do their 1GB a month and whoever is left, well they're not worth considering as they either don't have priority on their chosen networks or don't offer a compatible product.

My own usage pattern is going to periodic ie: use it for a couple of weeks here, maybe not use it for 2 months then use it again. If I were you I would have gone like yourself for the same £30 a month package, but that's only as my msn addicted mate uses the same service all the time and says he has no problems and gets full access to the internet as opposed to the 'walled garden' that Three used to offer, though they now allow access to all the internet apparantly, but still 1GB for a MONTH... They need to revise that I think.

Having re-read your original post, I should appologise as none of this helps you in trying to solve your msn dropping connections when using t-mobiles service. My mate uses trillian http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ to keep in contact with his friends on various chat clients he advises. Or there's the t-mobile http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase...ic/tm22923.htm which could offer a solution?

[dragon]

Originally Posted by goblin

Yes it is quite bad isn't it. Especially considering you have to put money into the account before you can use the modem, then if you go over the 3gb per month they cut you off, but it is the most liberal of the lot of the providers. Vodafone do their 'unlimited' product which is 120MB a MONTH Three do their 1GB a month and whoever is left, well they're not worth considering as they either don't have priority on their chosen networks or don't offer a compatible product.

My own usage pattern is going to periodic ie: use it for a couple of weeks here, maybe not use it for 2 months then use it again. If I were you I would have gone like yourself for the same £30 a month package, but that's only as my msn addicted mate uses the same service all the time and says he has no problems and gets full access to the internet as opposed to the 'walled garden' that Three used to offer, though they now allow access to all the internet apparantly, but still 1GB for a MONTH... They need to revise that I think.

Having re-read your original post, I should appologise as none of this helps you in trying to solve your msn dropping connections when using t-mobiles service. My mate uses trillian http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ to keep in contact with his friends on various chat clients he advises. Or there's the t-mobile http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase...ic/tm22923.htm which could offer a solution?

If I have problems connecting then to msn I just re-route it down an SSH tunnel thanks to the socks5a proxy built into openSSH.