Mobile Broadband

[Tarquin Farquhar]

Why do they call it 'broadband'. I have been trying to use a Vodafone mobile broadband USB dongle in the middle of a city centre and it's giving me speeds of 2 KBPS and sometimes speeds in BPS too. Poor value IMO and worse than dial up modems.

I had thought Vodafone had superior network capability, but clearly this is not the case.

A dongle will use 3G if it is available in that spot, GPRS otherwise. 3G is broadband, faster than my home connection. GPRS is the mobile phone network, slower than dialup on a landline. That's the difference, and it's not just across the country, it can change across the room.

[DimPrawn]

I have Orange,Vodafone and Three dongles.

Even when it says the connection is 3G+ (HSDPA) the latency and connection speed you actually get (not what the dongle says you have theoretically) is appalling.

Apart from emergency usage, DON'T bother, it's nearly a big a scam as paying for CO2 emissions.

[fullyautomatix]

I have Orange,Vodafone and Three dongles.

Even when it says the connection is 3G+ (HSDPA) the latency and connection speed you actually get (not what the dongle says you have theoretically) is appalling.

Apart from emergency usage, DON'T bother, it's nearly a big a scam as paying for CO2 emissions.

I agree. My experience entirely. It does look like a scam to me. If they sell me a mobile broadband dongle it should give me broadband speeds in urban areas. I do not especially care what technology they use, be it 3G or GPRS or any other. It is their problem. They sold me the dongle so it is their problem installing the infrastructure.

[doodab]

Why do they call it 'broadband'. I have been trying to use a Vodafone mobile broadband USB dongle in the middle of a city centre and it's giving me speeds of 2 KBPS and sometimes speeds in BPS too. Poor value IMO and worse than dial up modems.

I had thought Vodafone had superior network capability, but clearly this is not the case.

I got a full 7.2mbps, but I was in one of their offices at the time.

[SuperZ]

My tip is to use Firefox and disable images if you're in a poor 3G location, providing it is of course text mostly that you are reading when surfing.

I've used a Vodafone 3G dongle since 2007 and only pay £8 a month now for something like 3GB of data. Most of the places I have worked must admit have had poor transfer speeds with the thing but it has still been useful for me when in hotels and when renting apartments near client locations. I'm kinda out in the sticks with a client now and it still works albeit not at the full 3G speed. But with images turned off it's still usable and for £8 a month it's worth it.

[SantaClaus]

Got Vodafone and it works fine in London for internet surfing.

When 3G+ connection is showing, its almost as fast as my wired connection.

[DimPrawn]

Hey Santa, how's the dirty spekulation going?

Making some good money?

[SantaClaus]

Hey Santa, how's the dirty spekulation going?

Making some good money?

Spekulation is so dirty right now, I can smell the filthy lucre from here

[ASB]

Got Vodafone and it works fine in London for internet surfing.

When 3G+ connection is showing, its almost as fast as my wired connection.

In Bloomsbury last week I was lucky to get 2kbps with Voda. Oh well.

[Paddy]

Why do they call it 'broadband'. I have been trying to use a Vodafone mobile broadband USB dongle in the middle of a city centre and it's giving me speeds of 2 KBPS and sometimes speeds in BPS too. Poor value IMO and worse than dial up modems.

I had thought Vodafone had superior network capability, but clearly this is not the case.

You need a proper antenna, (cost about £30-£100) then it works.