Reply to: Mobile broadband - which?

[PerlOfWisdom]

O2 do a deal - £20/month for mobile broadband with free home broadband.

I use a constat ping in the background to keep the connection open - works a treat.
ping -t o2.co.uk

[TheFaQQer]

Those of you on 3 - did you get it through the business? If so, what paperwork (bills etc) did you need to take into the store before they'd give you credit?

I rang them, and had to fax a PO on company paper.

My new phone contract is on T-mobile, and I just took the company cheque book and a copy of the certificate of incorporation in. That was overkill, really, they said that the cheque book or a company debit card would have been fine.

[VectraMan]

T-Mobile do an occasional use PAYG scheme for £2 per day, plus £50 for the dongle.

I get a pretty solid T-Mobile 3G connection at home on my phone, so I've been tempted to get one just as a back up.

[FarmerPalmer]

Check coverage with all the operators. In 'Nam we only have Vodafone & Orange. I'm with Vodafone which has been ok until this last week when emails that I'm sending to my client have been going astray and turning up days later.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I get that as well sometimes, problem is if the dongle doesn't get a 3G connection, it will use the 2G network and then stay on it
I usually find disconnecting, then use a USB cable to allow me to position the dongle better and reconnecting will get a 3G connection.

I've also noticed some possible interferance with my wireless mouse

Mine's a bit different - I always get a 3.5 g connection but depending which route
I get, some websites just don't load

[DiscoStu]

Do any allow pay as you go, or something equally non-commital?

Was tempted with this when I was staying in a b&b bored silly. Coverage was crap, according to the maps on the various provider websites. Just because you can get a mobile signal doesn't mean you'll get a good (or any) mobile broadband connection.

Decided to leave it till the coverage improves, which may be a few years away yet, depending on location and locations you think you may be wanting to use it.

I have a PAYG Three dongle. Spent 6 months on a gig where there was no coverage, didn't have to pay for (not) using it

[PAH]

Do any allow pay as you go, or something equally non-commital?

Was tempted with this when I was staying in a b&b bored silly. Coverage was crap, according to the maps on the various provider websites. Just because you can get a mobile signal doesn't mean you'll get a good (or any) mobile broadband connection.

Decided to leave it till the coverage improves, which may be a few years away yet, depending on location and locations you think you may be wanting to use it.

[London75]

Those of you on 3 - did you get it through the business? If so, what paperwork (bills etc) did you need to take into the store before they'd give you credit?

Actually did mine online with The Link, got a free mini laptop for the wife and just entered the company bank account in the online form. There was nothing to pay upfront so all neat from my point of view.

[SantaClaus]

TMobile works fine for me in London. Usually it connects me with a fast HSDPA connection.

[voodooflux]

Those of you on 3 - did you get it through the business? If so, what paperwork (bills etc) did you need to take into the store before they'd give you credit?

Bought mine online with my business debit card - no paperwork required.

[Moscow Mule]

Those of you on 3 - did you get it through the business? If so, what paperwork (bills etc) did you need to take into the store before they'd give you credit?

[Spacecadet]

Three are fine until anything goes wrong. I am using an E71 with bluetooth and I get an excellent connection once I get on properly, however due (I suspect) to something in 3's network infrastructure, I sometimes have to disconnect and reconnect multiple times before I get a "good" connection. I have tried reporting this but all that happens is someone rings you back and suggests you reboot various things etc - they won't listen when you explain that your setup hasn't changed and several attempts mean you get a good routing points to duff infrastructure at their end. Overall, they are still better than Vodafone were before I changed though.

I get that as well sometimes, problem is if the dongle doesn't get a 3G connection, it will use the 2G network and then stay on it
I usually find disconnecting, then use a USB cable to allow me to position the dongle better and reconnecting will get a 3G connection.

I've also noticed some possible interferance with my wireless mouse

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Three are fine until anything goes wrong. I am using an E71 with bluetooth and I get an excellent connection once I get on properly, however due (I suspect) to something in 3's network infrastructure, I sometimes have to disconnect and reconnect multiple times before I get a "good" connection. I have tried reporting this but all that happens is someone rings you back and suggests you reboot various things etc - they won't listen when you explain that your setup hasn't changed and several attempts mean you get a good routing points to duff infrastructure at their end. Overall, they are still better than Vodafone were before I changed though.

[TheFaQQer]

I HATE my three connection because it's so tulipe where I stay in London.

If you don't mind having to reconnect every few seconds, it's great though. At one point I got a connection speed of 12.8k!!!

[Spacecadet]

I'm with Three as well, overall pretty good