TURBOTRONICS

for a while now iv been thinking about getting internet at home but i dont have a land line and refuse to pay bt charges for one and cable dont have a line down our street so that ones out the window
so that just leaves me with the option of one of the 3 mobile broad band things
the question is has any one used one or has one and what do they think about it
for £10 a month i will get 1gb down load would this be sufficient for say getting at my email and coming on here

GaryK

Check you definately have 3g in your area. Ive just moved house and didnt have broadband for a week so a friend lend me a vodafone 3g usb device which I thought great, until I plugged it in and could only connect at 2g (53kbps) as we are in a rural area. Otherwise yes a great alternative.

Gary

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I have the T-mobile one, and my brother has the 3 one. Both great little things, quite quick and have had no reception issues on either

BuRR

Using the 3 BB service right now in Hong Kong

3 "home from home" or whatever it's called is really good

Scooby Soon!

I use a three modem on 3G as a permenant modem at my warehouse, I have a full 3G signal and it works about 90% ok

Yesterday it wasnt working for about an hour, but apart from that its been ok, I get a connection speed of about 385 kbps which is about the same for regular basic broadband. FTP, MSN and everything else seems to work fine (FTP and MSN doesnt work properly on T-Mobile as i have that as well for when I am out and about with a laptop.

gazza-uk

dont forget 3g only as a limited upload speed

boomer

I must admit - the "tenner a month" deal looks quite good (albeit needing a 24 month contract to get a free dongle).

Do any of the other mobile phone companies have a similar deal (for comparison purposes)?

Are there any other things to watch out for (coverage does seem reasonable according to their maps)?

Cheers,

mb

Butty

iTrader: (2)

T mobile offer HSDPA - a sort of 3.5g.
I get speeds of up to 1100 kbps when in the right area and there's no demand. Lowets speed I've had is 385 kbps.
It would be worth while checking to see if you can get it where you live.
Using a PDA or smartphone as a modem to your laptop or PC and you'll not realy miss a landline.

nick

fygtbug

t-mobile package has no over allowance charges (3gb fair usage policy) 3 will cost you extra if you go over your allowance
Broadband Lite allow 1GB cost £10 per mb after 10p thats an extra £204.80 for 3gb
Broadband Plus 3GB £15 10p £102.4 per gb after
Broadband Max 7GB £25 10p £307.2 for the equivelent 10gb on t-mobile t-mobile DO NOT charge anything for anything over allowance.....

boomer

Er, unless i am mistaken, T-Mobile costs twenty quid a month (and only up to 1.8 Mibbles bandwidth)!!!

Twee costs a tenner, and gives you up to 2.8 Mibbles!

mb

fygtbug

yep your right it is £20 its currently upto 3.6mb but not advertised due to not being nationwide. plus if you read up t-mobile just bought access to all 3 3g cell sites and now has the largest 3g coverage in the uk. Main part to look at is cost, for a tenner from 3 you get 1gb usage after that its 10p per mb so if you did the same allowance as you have on tmobile it would cost you an extra £204.80 to hit 3gb data, and it just keeps costing, tmobile dont charge for any over use of data allowance due to a fair usage policy, also now with tmobile you get free world wide hotspots. so if your abroad just pop into a starbucks for free web access....?

so 3gb of data on tmobile £20
3gb of data on 3's cheap plan £214.80

boomer

Well i am still pondering this, and twee still looks like the best deal (for mobile rather than heavy location-based usage).

T-Mobile says "fair usage" of 3GB per month (and costing a fiver more than twee's "equivalent"), but also says:
...so you can't take the pee, and you can't Skype either!

You just need to ask whether twee will still be in business in two years time!

mb

boomer

Don't be silly!

If you thought that you would use 3Gb a month in twee, you would subscribe to the "plus" package at fifteen quid a month (FIVE POUNDS LESS than T-Mobile).

mb

p.s. For info, my previous reply was started about half an hour ago, but Scoobynet seemed to freeze, so it wasn't referring to your 15:20 reply!

boomer

Well unless a show-stopper occurs, i am going to subscribe to the twee "lite" package so that i can get to the interweb from my laptop.

I looks like a fairly bare package (no webspace or e-mail) but that sounds just what i want (i don't want any AOL bloatware installing).

When i asked at the twee shop today (in Merry Hill) they seemed to think that there was a fifty quid modem charge (even on the 24-month contract), but there isn't on their website so if the shop can't come up with the goods then i'll do the deed online. If you start using more than a gig-a-month, you can upgrade without messing up your contract (and seven gig is an awful lot, especially for mobile).

I'll let you know how things go!

Cheers,

mb

TURBOTRONICS

dose it use any mega bites when logging onto hotmail or posting om here

Scooby Soon!

As i said above Tmobile is no use as a permenent broadband as it has many limitations such as FTP not working and MSN /skype is randomly blocked.

I have both tmobile and three, three is better

Also I can only receive 3G on three at my location , but Tmobile cant pick anything up on 3G only standard speed (super slow) so sounds like an internet rumour about them buying up the use of threes 3G masts!

boomer

Well it seems as though fygtbug was partially right, although the deal means that both T-Mobile and twee will have pretty much the same coverage (but twee will allow skype and FTP and MSN and other useful/essential stuff).

Sadly my local twee shop had no dongles left earlier today, so i will try another store tomorrow.

Unless fygtbug can come up with some more ground-breaking news to convert me

mb

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Well vodafone still have the biggest 3g network in the uk, and on HSPA you wont see much more than 1.8mbps, so 3.6 is a bit of a porky pie, also it depends how far away you are from a cell for the signal strength, further away, slower the speed (its a radio time/distance thing).

Tony

Dark

iTrader: (1)

I tried to order one of the three 3G modems online yesterday except their website wouldn't recognise my address & postcode (it's a new house).

Their online web support couldn't help and advised me to either use a different address (?) or visit my local three store. Absolutely no way to either modify the online order or actually speak to somebody on the phone.

So I checked the location of my nearest three store and actually there's one nearby and I had to go out anyway for the wife's present. Into the three store, lots of modems in stock but they do want £50 for the modem, it's only free in store if you are an existing customer.

I explained the situation to the guy in the store and he couldn't help or offer any discount so I left empty handed..... don't they want my money???

Did somebody say Vodaphone were good.......

Mark

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I use msn all the time on my t mobile one

boomer

Well i managed to get to my (other) local twee store at 17:31 tonight - and bugga, they had closed down their tills at 17:30. They were helpful, and offered to put a dongle on one side for me to pick up tomorrow, but i wanted a black curvy one and they only had the rectangular one.

I did specifically check this point, and the chappy said that the fifty quid charge for non-existing-customers was waived a couple of weeks ago. I had already printed out the "order" page from their website (which is free for n-e-c) just in case, but no need for the proof.

Sooo close, and yet so far

mb

boomer

Well i picked up my "dongle" today ( i went for the ZTE MF622 USB Modem), and i am now waiting for the SIM to be activated.

Just to confirm - as a non-existing-3 customer, taking out a 24-month "Broadband Lite (1GB)" contract, costs NOTHING for the modem - you just pay a tenner a month.

They do charge your debit card a quid (which you PIN authenticate) to check that you are real, and then give you a pound coin back straight afterwards

More news when i get it!

mb

boomer

Tried it a work this morning, and it wouldn't connect - or rather it connected and then 2 seconds later disconnected. Tech Support solved the problem (some modem initialisation string) but a shame it was on a national-rate number (although free if you have a Twee phone).

Did a speedcheck (from work location), and got 1.2Mb/sec download - which ain't bad 'cos the "super-dooper-turbo" stuff is still being rolled out (on T-Mobile masts ).

Very clever how it all self-installs from the dongle, so you can quickly get almost any PC hooked up in around a minute.

Time to see how the coverage goes as i travel around.

Cheers,

mb

boxst

Hello

I went to the '3' store this evening and they would give me the modem with the 18 month contract. I didn't take it in the end, but I am tempted at £15 for 3gb.

Steve