People's experiences with mobile broadband.

[johnstoke]

Been thinking for quite a while about going mobile broadband. I hardly ever use my home phone , which got me thinking; the main reason I have a landline is for the net, so if I got rid of the landline and broadband, this would pay for mobile internet. I dont use p2p (tho have done in the past...), and would just use it for general browsing, ebay, emails etc.
Firstly, I'm going to tot up how much data I tend to use monthly, to see if it is economical to do so, then see what deals are available (hopefully with vodaphone, had my phone contract with them for 7 years, and when I prod them at upgrade time, they usually respond well, esp if I choose the option when I call them 'if you are thinking of leaving vodaphone, press key '.)

I would appreciate comments from people who have done similar, and what happens in real world use. I would probably use my laptop mainly at home and at work, where ive never had any trouble getting 3G reception

 

[ChrisUK]

My experience is its crap indoors. Only one's i've used are 3 and Virgin. Both were really poo indoors in most areas. Outside they worked much better.....

My advice is go with the provider with the best broadcast strength in your area Prefferably HSDPA if not 3G (they usually have coverage maps).

 

[colin79666]

I've got an o2 dongle and it is handy to have when out and about and as a backup but I could never some to have it as my main connection method. o2 also have this really annoying compression at their proxy server end which inserts JavaScript into ever page you visit (messing up some sites) and ruining the quality of images, not sure if other networks do this. Indoors its not all that fast and the connection software with it is horrible. Also a small traffic limit won't just make p2p unusable, iPlayer and YouTube also consume fair amounts so consider this before making a switch.

 

[manthatkidisscrewed]

tbh I've found the purpose built mobile dongels crap indoors just like Chris says. It probably doesn't apply for you if you're going to use alot of data but I just link my pc to my mobile and share it's 3G connection. I'm with Orange and i've nearly always got a perfect internet signal this way wherever I go. Can even use it remote control clients servers etc with no problems/lag. Very Handy

 

[Beverly Stayart]

Thanks for this helpful info.

 

[johnstoke]

Thanks folks, at the moment I am far from convinced of it's merits