Looking for a mobile broadband dongle

TakeThis

You can consider a 3 MiFi on a one month contract.

gino_76ph

How much does 3 Mifi costs? per month? and the speed?

TakeThis

gino_76ph wrote: »

How much does 3 Mifi costs? per month? and the speed?

There is a link in post #12.

gino_76ph

Ok.

I just bought the 3 Huawei E586 Mifi device on a monthly-rolling contract.

It is definitely faster than my tetherring. But according to reviews, the website and the person selling me the thing i should get anything from 6-7MB speeds as (after doing a coverage check) i live in an "excellent" area for internet and web browsing. the speed i am getting (so far) is way below 1MB.

Is this normal? will the speed improve in time?

Kernel_Sanders

TakeThis wrote: »

There is a link in post #12.

That takes you to the old one at £49.99, which I always considered way overpriced for what it was. Now they've managed to come up with a new, smaller one for just £29.99 on the same 1 month contract http://store.three.co.uk/view/product/ql_catalog/threecatdevice/2432

gino_76ph wrote: »

the person selling me the thing i should get anything from 6-7MB speeds as (after doing a coverage check) i live in an "excellent" area for internet and web browsing. the speed i am getting (so far) is way below 1MB.

No, he told you that you should be getting 6 - 7 Mb. Do you not realize that there are 8 Mb in a MB?

gino_76ph

No i didn't realised that. i couldn't get an near accurate speed test result as it is a mobile broadband thingy.

Speed i must say is slightly more than average but sometimes i noticed that whenever 2 laptops are connected to it the speed really slows down. in this case it shouldn't 'coz the way it was designed (and advertised) that 5 devices can connect to it.

Any comments please?

canonman

What phone do you have, older phones such as the E series from Nokia can teather and use the phone as a broadband dongle...

Now the good points is phones have different APN's to dongles... in a nutshell a dongle is told to connect to the phone network and see data differently to that of a phone.

I have a Nokia E72 in dongle mode atm and using a pay and go sim card with t-mobile, they offer "unlimited" browsing and 500mb download... my pc and the Nokia phone are in tether using the phones APN not that of a Dongles, so i pay £10 and have all the internet i need.

gino_76ph

I have a Nokia E5 and my T-mobile tariff has "unlimited browsing" but does not state unlimited downloads or even uploads. i don't recall doing some downloads when i tethered my N5 to my Macbook so i was surprised to see a text message from T-mob saying that i have reached 80% of their so-called Fair Use policy.

I do not want to buy another PAYG SIM anymore as i think its just a waste of money. and besides i only need it for the next 30 days (hopfully) until BT arrives.

I still feel 3's Mifi is really good but the downsides i noticed is 1. internet really slows down in the evening and 2. i thought the 5GB monthly data limit is just a wee bit...small and limited.

So, any comments or advice?

Lifeforms

gino_76ph wrote: »

I have a Nokia E5 and my T-mobile tariff has "unlimited browsing" but does not state unlimited downloads or even uploads. i don't recall doing some downloads when i tethered my N5 to my Macbook so i was surprised to see a text message from T-mob saying that i have reached 80% of their so-called Fair Use policy.

It is possible they were aware of you tethering. Most have them in the T&C and don't actually allow it, or force you get on a package with it/pay extra for it.

It could also be that you're inadvertently "downloading" rather than "surfing/browsing" The difficulty is that there doesn't seem to be one definition of what is what. Browsing is technically downloading. You download your emails to read, but that should be under browsing. blergh/complicated.

gino_76ph wrote: »

I still feel 3's Mifi is really good but the downsides i noticed is 1. internet really slows down in the evening and 2. i thought the 5GB monthly data limit is just a wee bit...small and limited

The thing is, dongles, and mifi units are not meant to be a replacement for a broadband connection in this country. Couldn't you just avoid downloading stuff until you get a phone line/broadband in? Use it to chat, surf, emails, fb, etc, but nothing else. 5GB a month is actually quite a lot for the dongle, as most are either per set month, ie 3GB for 3 months, 12 for 12 months, or 1GB a month PAYG/Monthly rolling contract.
Obviously you could pay for a 12month and use 12 GB in the first month, but then you'd need to buy more GB.
Realistically it's the only option for just one months internet with no ties, or long term contracts.

Kernel_Sanders

Lifeforms wrote: »

The thing is, dongles, and mifi units are not meant to be a replacement for a broadband connection in this country.

You don't seem to understand that the 3G network is broadband, and there's no reason not to stream or download heavily. HSPA+ has been available for a while now, with speeds of up to 21mb/sec. And before you say that they'll rarely ever reach near that figure, the same could be said for your landline broadband distributed by copper wire copper. If you have good reception, then mobile broadband can be a replacement.