O2 mobile broadband

timberflake

Can someone give me a run down of the O2 mobile broadband package? I see they offer inclusive bandwidth + unlimited WiFi. Does that mean I could download as much as I wanted (faire usage), when connected to a wifi network? Also, If there is no WiFi present, how would my laptop connect? Would it be 3G/Edge etc?

timberflake

Or how about this from Vodafone:

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband-devices/netbook?compatible=false

Does it give you fast speeds whether your in range of a WiFi network or not?

System

http://forum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=15034&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

timberflake

But whats the difference between the 3gb allowance and the unlimited WiFi??

ManAtHome

The 3gb monthly allowance is when you're using the dongle (3G/EDGE), 'unlimited' is via any of The Cloud WiFi hotspots - pretty sure there is a 'fair use' policy though (note that the dongle doesn't pick up WiFi).

hieveryone

The o2 dongle of course picks up wi-fi so if you have a router in your house (or someones house you are in/cloud) it can connect to that.
The 'unlimited' allowance is pretty lax to be honest.

timberflake

So let me see if i've got this straight, if I'm not connected to a WiFi network the fastest speed i'll get is 3G/Edge? They're advertising it as up to 14 times faster than 3G, so far I'm struggling to see the benefit of paying £30 a month for the Vodafone option!

Can anyone clarify what kind of connection I can expect when I'm out of range of WiFi or even 3G?

hieveryone

There's a coverage checker on the o2 website for their mobile broadband, or if you call them they can check for you and give you an indication whether you will get a good signal or not. Also, in some areas, there is HSDPA which is loads faster than 3G. Phone users are blocked from using this so that the network does not get congested.

o2 mobile broadband still has 30 day happiness guarantee so you could try it for yourself and if it doesnt work in the way you want it to then you can return it.

ManAtHome

hieveryone wrote: »

The o2 dongle of course picks up wi-fi

Huh? mine doesn't - laptop 1 has WiFi built-in, so ok, laptop 2 needs a Wifi dongle for clouding - is your dongle something other than the MC930D..?

d123

hieveryone wrote: »

The o2 dongle of course picks up wi-fi so if you have a router in your house

Just to clarify, the dongle does not have wifi built in, and does not pick up wifi.

The laptop will have to be wifi enabled to use the wifi portion of the allowance, if your laptop (even though most modern one's do) doesnt have wifi, you will not have access to the free unlimited wifi.

timberflake

So it really depends on the network coverage? For instance, I live in Leicester City Centre and get 3G coverage on my iPhone, but when I go to my girlfriends just outside the city, it drops to edge or even lower! Would the same rule apply to the mobile internet?