o2 web bolt on vs mobile broadband

Dunkwho

I'm a bit unclear about the setup of current o2 contracts - I'd like to setup a 600min\1000txt contact on a SE905 mobile phone and include the web bolt on free so that I can browse anywhere. On the O2 website they also list the option of mobile broadband (not as an included bolt on) to "use your phone as a modem", I'm not clear on the distinction here. When I read web bolt on I'm expecting to be able to run any web application on the phone - be it google maps, web browsing, anything. I'd also expect to be able to bluetooth the phone to my laptop an surf there too but the presence of the mobile broadband option makes me doubt this. What's the difference between the two, and what\how do O2 differentiate to prevent me from using the trariff in the flexible way that I'd like? Is it just a speed thing maybe with the mobile broadband being faster for laptop browsing?

Cheers, Duncan.

parallax_20

You've just described the difference between the two. Web Bolt-on is for mobile phone usage where you are expected to use it for basic web browsing only, excluding streaming and Voip, etc. The mobile broadband allows you to use the phone or dongle as a conduit for internet activities you would normally conduct on your PC/Laptop and would expect higher data usage compared to the web bolt-on.

I think you would generally get away with ocassional laptop access via the web bolt-on before you receive a text. I'm not sure how they would detect the difference between the two apart from the higher bandwidth and data usage. So for example if you used 200MB in a day, then that would clearly indicate modem access as you would never get anywhere near that on a mobile phone. I use about 20-30MB a month on my mobile, I'm a fairly light user.

paceinternet

I don't know how much this has changed with the growth of the dongle market, but there have been issues in the past with the phone companies compressing browser images when using some connection types. If anyone knows where we are with this, or has a link to discussion on the subject, it may be worth checking if it would affect you.