Mobile Broadband from 3 - any opinions?

[shelby68]

Anyone actually using either 3 or Vodafone?

I'm torn between the two - three wins on price, but I'm not sure about the speed you get outside of their turbo areas; vodafone says 7.2 Mbps but is much more expensive.

Orange and O2 are out, since they don't do a modem that will connect to my laptop, since they are PCMCIA cards only. T-Mobile is more expensive than three and slower than Vodafone, so they're out.

Any opinions from actual users on what three or vodafone are like?

I had a Vodafone pcmcia card last year was ok if expensive, then I got a bill for 130 quid for 2 weeks usage, when I queried it they said it was right, but I argued the usage software they provide with the card said my bill should have been about 20 quid, eventually (3 months later) they admitted the software had a bug in it and didn't record usage correctly and promptly credited the whole bill, didn’t use the card after that and got a t-mobile one.

[kirk]

I've actually had a few more issues connecting while I've been playin about this evening, as well as mswsock.ocs (or something similar) errors. I'm not ruling out my Vista build though ('tis a bit of a mess at the momenet) so I'm going to go for a rebuild when I get time and try to update the Vodafone Mobile Connect Lite software if I can. When I'm connected things are fine but I can't always connect after a reboot etc.

[gadgetman]

Been working fine for me on 3 for about a month now.

[r0bly0ns]

I had a Vodafone pcmcia card last year was ok if expensive, then I got a bill for 130 quid for 2 weeks usage, when I queried it they said it was right, but I argued the usage software they provide with the card said my bill should have been about 20 quid, eventually (3 months later) they admitted the software had a bug in it and didn't record usage correctly and promptly credited the whole bill, didn’t use the card after that and got a t-mobile one.

We had problems with Vodafone as well, we got 2 free 3G cards with our laptops with £20 worth of credit free, about 18 months ago.

However everytime we used it we were charged for it. After the 3rd assurance that it wouldn't happen again, it happened again so we haven't used them since.

[shelby68]

We had problems with Vodafone as well, we got 2 free 3G cards with our laptops with £20 worth of credit free, about 18 months ago.

yea I got 2 cards as well when I phoned to complain my first one hadn't turned up 2 days later both of them did.

[KevinS]

Vista64?

I'm currently using the Vodafone PCMCIA unit, but coverage is poor if you are out of the major areas (like I am at the moment with only a GPRS connection).. I'm thinking of jumping to 3 as I currently have my mobile phone with them and can get decent speeds out here (not HSDPA but better than GPRS & EDGE)..

The question is: Does the 3 Mobile Broadband support Vista 64bit? I tried asking 3 and all I got was yes, it supports Vista..

[kirk]

Well, as a further update - I continued to have problems with the ExpressCard from Vodafone - upgraded to version 9.2 of the Vodafone Mobile Client, took out the SIM and put it in a normal phone (as advised by Voda) - I even rebuilt my Vista laptop in case it was the OS, all to no avail.

Sent Vodafone Business an email earlier today saying that it is probably hardware related IMHO and that I would like a replacement, got an email back earlier stating they have located the issue and that they would get back to me with a resolution asap. (yeah right, I thought)

Tried it tonight and I've had no problems whatsoever! I've disconnected and connected many times and each time I'm straight in. Hopefully all is resolved now, thankyou Vodafone; if things stay like this I'm mucho happy Even GPRS speeds are pretty good and most of the places I end up are covered by 3G where the speeds are frankly great! Even had the "Adult Filter" removed as I requested

[KevinS]

The question is: Does the 3 Mobile Broadband support Vista 64bit? I tried asking 3 and all I got was yes, it supports Vista..

Answering my own question: It does support Vista 64bit (well, there is a Vista64 folder under the drivers), which is great news for my new laptop..