3 Mobile broadband?

chris1973

I use a '3 broadband' dongle routinely when away working away and during weekend breaks in a remote static caravan. The caravan is fairly rural and in a low signal area, however I have now managed to get a steady WCDMA and HSDPA routinely through using an external 13dbi booster antenna which I purchased for £27 from Ebay. This pretty much gives me the full available speed whenever and wherever I connect - even out in the sticks.

Out of all of the Mobile providers, I find that 3 does have the best coverage outside of city centres but even at full speed it doesn't compare to landline connected / digital broadband services, so if you have grown used to and spoiled by 16 / 20 or 24mbps fixed broadband then don't even start to compare!. In my own experience the speed varies constantly (and annoyingly) between 128 and 700kbps even with the Antenna and so 512kbps or 1mb/s (if you are lucky) would be the fairest comparison with conventional broaband, and that is full signal and HSDPA!. I've never seen anything like the advertised 3.6mbs or even 2mbs for that matter, and the variable speed tends to make for jerky page loads / stuttering media playback and some sites load much faster than others.

Without the Antenna, the service falls back to ancient technology 2G Orange 'roaming' in most of the other areas that I visit / stay, which is worse than 56k dial up!. You can make a coffee in the time it takes this forum page to load!.

Also, bear in mind that 1GB is not exactly a generous allowance, even Sky used to 'give away' 2gb/ a month FREE with its Digital packages, so its down to the individual as to whether £10 / 1 GB is actually considered a bargain :whistle:- lets face it this is 2010 and not 1910 and we are still just being made to pay for the mobile and novelty aspect of the technology, and I guess the providers are capitalising on those who can't get a proper broadband connection or who like me, don't want to pay £5 an hour to Hotels for their wi-fi connection when working away.

However, in this day and age internet access for most is a daily routine and no longer a luxury, nor something which people should have to ration with pathetic corner shop allowances sold at Harrods style prices.

If you only check email and connect to the internet to browse for less than 1 hour everyday and don't use bandwidth intense applications like Skype, Youtube, BBC Iplayer etc then you'll probably find that 1gb easily lasts you for the month. However if you spend hours on the internet and like sending / receiving large email attachments / photos etc, listening to internet radio, talking on Skype or watching streaming videos then you can use 1GB within a week!, so expect to be using the £15 and £25 top ups

If you use Skype a lot then it may be worth getting a Skype phone and another cheap 3 sim, as you can make Skype to Skype calls on their network for free, even with a £0 balance, and this is much better than burning up your precious 1gb allowance via Broadband.

As mentioned in a previous post, first of all, buy a cheap unlocked dongle from Ebay and a top up 3 sim too just to try, because you'll be pretty peeved at having to pay £10 a month for fax machine speeds if you get the dreaded orange dial up roaming, which I have found, does seem to be more common place outside of city centres than the over hyped HSDPA. By purchasing an unlocked dongle it will give you the opportunity of directly using SIM's provided by other providers without having to buy their dongles.

You may find that to get a usable connection speed, an internal or external antenna is a must, and so you should budget for that as well, especially if you are in a small town or rural area. Mobile Broadband is extremely patchy and its not unusual to have no signal in one place, but walk 10 metres forward and to have 5 bars!. Many people who get a decent service from mobile broadband invariably use it in the confines of their own home, in or near to a town - forgetting that 500 yards down the road they may have no signal at all!. But use it in the true 'mobile' sense of the word, and you may find that the usability is very much a geographic Russian roulette.

One other thing I have also found, is that the connection speed, like conventional broadband does vary depending on the congestion at the nearest transmitter. So in a busy city centre you may find that the speeds crawl during busy 'peak' times compared to a rural transmitter which has a few number of users!. So in some cases, less populated areas may prove to give better / faster connection speed than larger more densely populated areas!. Assuming of course you can get a decent and stable signal, which is where the antenna should be considered.

spongebob711

I have had trouble getting broadband because of bad debt. A friend borrowed me his 3 dongle, it was ok but kept losing the signal every few minutes. I had given up on the idea when I decided to try it in my office on my desktop (the office window looks out over pasture, unnobscured views) and wow! so fast, never loses the signal. Its so good in fact that I can play online poker and have never (touch wood) lost connection mid game, which used to happen in my last house with wireless. It costs me £10 a month online top up, but am now paying £15 unlimited useage with 3gb download. Very Happy. So maybe try a friends before you buy, you never know.

outlaw777

Thanks I got 3 broadband and its amazing and "MIFI" is so cool!

UKoap

3 customer services are very difficult to access online. Surely if you deal with them online you should not be forced to use premium rate 0843/0844 telephone
numbers to contact them with queries? One for OFCOM to address?