16 posts tagged “3 mobile broadband”

Technology is great but, like women*, it comes with a lot of hassles and sometimes you wonder if it's really worth the effort.  That's where I am right now with this mobile broadband malarky.  Is it 3?  Is it Huawei's E220 modem?  Is it the local cell tower?  Is it this Vista laptop?  I have no idea, much like women, it's a complete mystery to me... way too many variables and hard to pinpoint where to place blame.

So, that's why I've not really posted anything.  Each web page takes forever to load, this is really a trip down memory lane to 1998, although in 1998 there weren't many webpages that clocked in at over a meg!

So much for my 5 gig a month - I doubt I could use up that allowance in a few months at this rate!

*or, if you're a woman or gay, substitute women for men (as appropriate)

So, I'm staying with my sister for a few days and she's just moved into this lovely new place.  All's well and good except she doesn't have ADSL enabled yet (any day soon!) oh, and no Sky - but I can manage with Freeview for a week.

Anyway back to the broadband... I really do miss my crappy 2 meg at home.  Sure it's slow compared to 98% of the rest of the country, but it sure beats whatever the hell I'm getting from what is supposedly an HSDPA connection right now this minute.

To be fair though, I have a sneaky feeling there's some kind of conflict between my dongle and this Vista laptop as the same sim works fine accessing the same shoutcast streams when in a phone (her DAB reception is, as we say in England, pants).

Oh well, we'll probably be switched on tomorrow.

If you've got a 3 phone and/or have 3 Mobile Broadband you should pay close attention to this post.  Might save you £24 per year!

As I've been relying more on mobile broadband in the last month than ever before (I'm still off the grid ADSL-wise!) I figured it would be best if I logged into my account to check my usage.  Did I get a shock!  No, I hadn't used more than my allowance, quite the opposite.  What I saw was a £1 charge for paper billing.  Seeing as I pay just £7.50 for my 3 Mobile Broadband, an extra £1 for a bit of paper I never even asked for seems pretty damn steep!

I knew they were about to charge for paper billing for phone customers - they sent out a couple of letters regarding my phone account.  Never once did I get a letter regarding my seperate broadband account.  I'd already switched to ebills for my phone (although I still have another active account open which I haven't been able to opt-out of but that's a whole different story...)

So to sum up.  If you're a 3 customer on a monthly contract and you have either their phone service, broadband or both - opt for ebilling right away.  As it's £1 per month per SIM, that's £24 per year if you have both.

Unfortunately I can't receive the ebills on my own laptop as I use Linux and that doesn't support SMS.  Looks like I'll just have to make a point of checking My3 myself every month.

My life without ADSL.  My struggle.  My pain.  My hope...

I think it's about a month now without broadband at home.  How am I coping?  I'm baring up.  I make a daily trip to a nearby ADSL-giving centre run by a couple of volunteers (I affectionately call them 'my parents') and that helps stave off my information and communication hunger.

Back at home I've come to rely on mobile broadband from 3.  But, like any relief effort in a disaster zone, communications with the outside world can be problematic and prone to interruptions and slow downs...

Seriously, I'm so glad I've got mobile broadband right now.  Had I been migrating my ADSL service earlier this year (like originally planned) I'd have gone spare without a dongle.  It's not quite a lifesaver, but it's pretty damn useful nonetheless.  I think the mobile operators should seriously look into dongle rentals for those that don't have a use for them normally, but are switching providers or moving house and nead something to fill the gap.

Now for the moan!

I keep getting disconnected.  I keep getting slow downs.  I keep pondering whether I need to reconnect or wait the waiting out.  I keep having to reboot to get the dongle connecting again.  And this keeps winding me up and is beginning to test my patience!

Is this an issue with 3's network?  3's Huawei E220 dongle?  The laptop I'm using?  I have no idea.  I have a feeling there's a bunch of issues at work here rather than just one.

Now for the good news... my router from Sky has just been delivered!  I doubt I have service yet but I'll plug it in later and check.  The fact that I now have the router would seem to confirm that things are in progress and that there shouldn't be any more snafus.  Fingers crossed!

Today's call centre phone calls have been a lot more fruitful than those of the previous few weeks, certainly more than Friday's!

Tiscali gave me the wrong MAC code.  They told me so straight away today.  And get this, I only had to call one number and speak to one person and she spoke crystal clear English!

Why was I repeatedly given the wrong code before?  Who knows?!  Was I doubtful the new, corrected code was right?  You betcha!  Was it right, did it work?  Well according to Sky (my new provider) it's all peachy...

I did question the Sky CS about it as they told me before that the invalid code was fine (and then failed to inform me after that that it wasn't!)

I've been told by Sky it could take upto another 14 working days from here.  So I could be without broadband well into the middle of November.  So, through no fault of my own, nearly two months without ADSL.  Cheers Tiscali, cheers Sky.  Good job I've got 3's Mobile Broadband - I don't know what I'd have done without it*!

It's interesting to me that Sky didn't even offer to credit a month of free broadband to my account or throw a Box Office movie or two my way.  In real terms it wouldn't have cost 'em a penny and they'd have had themselves a happy bunny willing to recommend them to friends and family.

Oh well.  At least they've kept me as a customer as despite wanting to cancel and try switching yet again, I've decided to stick with them.  It's just not worth the world of pain trying to cancel whilst in the process of 'beginning' and I've kinda got hooked on Sky+ (even if I've had a series of failed recordings over the weekend).

*Actually I do, I'd have set up a one-man refugee camp at my parents' house.  Seeking both shelter and contact with the outside world!

Of course it's not, Toys R Us are giving 'em away for £269!  I'm sure that, unlike the Eee PCs of yore, you can now walk in to most branches and pick one up.  If not, it's a free delivery.

£600 - £269 = £331 for 24 months worth of Orange mobile broadband (capped at 3GB p/m)

£331 divided by 24 = £13.79 per month for 3GB

Good deal?  No.  Why not?  I think it's bullet-time...

• The Eee PC 900 is a pile of poop
• You don't want to be paying it off two years down the line
• There are far better sub-notebooks/UMPCs on the market now for a similar price (that includes different Eee PC models)
• £13.79 for 3GB would've been okay once upon a time but now, it's a paltry amount
• Shop around and you may well be able to get 5GB p/m for just £7.50 (I'm paying just under £7 through cashback)
  

This isn't just a dig at Orange's deal.  No, in this here blogger's humble opinion all of these laptop bundles offered by the UK networks and the likes of PC World and Carphone Warehouse, are a waste of time and a waste of money.  I've yet to see a compelling deal.  3, I'm including in that list too!  It's the complete opposite of the handset deals that are offered and one has to ask why?  I mean, I couldn't just go out and buy my Nokia N95 8GB - it would simply have been too expensive.  Doing the maths, the subsidised handset with a renewed contract was simply the cheapest, most practical way.

Anyway, it's a surprise that to me that most sites aren't stating how bad these deals are.  The only way it's remotely justifiable is to compare the cost with a hire purchase deal or the hit you'd take paying it off on a credit card over that time period.  T3 seem to be the first ones to point out the obvious.  The only thing I'd take issue with is them stating that the 900 model is one of the better Eee PCs.  Seriously, even the tiny-screened 701 is better value for money, has a better battery and is actually usable when mobile.  The newer 901 isn't much more expensive, has a better battery, bluetooth and the fabled Atom processor.  Seems a no-brainer, no?

By the way, the first comment is interesting.  The poster complains about the quality of T3's article (which I'm doing too) but ends up comparing apples with Oranges.  Like I said, shopping around you can get a better deal.  It shouldn't be too hard finding 5GB for £7.50 from 3.  There are nearly always half price deals on (they could keep the prices at that point but then if they ever decided to put prices up, they'd be reports of them putting their prices up.  Clever eh?)

You're on the train home, you have your laptop out and you feel the urge to post!

I'm on my Eee PC 900 (I'm no longer a happy bun-Eee but that's a whole other post!) and typing away with barely any battery left (see previous typing inside brackets!)

I'm using the Huawei E220 and my new mobile broadband contract.  It gives a new lease of life to my Eee (but don't get me started on the battery... see other brackets!)

I've also got my trial Nokia 6220 Classic with me and it's holding up well.  Shame I had no luck in syncing my calender with it... I tried my best but clearly my best wasn't enough!

Slightly misleading title as my trial 3 Mobile Broadband dongle hasn't gone back just yet.  However, it will in the next day or two.  Although I never got the thing working with my Eee PC (I used it with a Vista laptop instead) and, even though things weren't always 100% hunky dory, I still decided I needed to look into getting one for myself.

So, tomorrow I should be having delivered a Huawei E220.  I'll be getting up to 5 gig a month for £6.91 and the dongle thrown in.  Looking around, I think that's got to be the best mobile broadband deal in the UK at the moment.  And using 5 gig on mobile broadband can actually be more difficult than you'd imagine (I know from experience!*)

Anyone interested in the deal should check HotUKDeals out.  It's the site where I found this - oh, and by the way, you'll need Quidco.  If you've got a Linux flavoured Eee PC (or perhaps another non-Windows subnotebook) you *have* to go for the E220.  That's the only one that works out-of-the-box.  The direct link to the offer is for a different Huawei dongle but thanks to some resourceful folk on the deal's comments page you'll be able to select the E220 without any problems.

*Keep away from 720p video podcasts on Miro and you'll be fine!

I was flicking through the crud that makes up over-the-air digital TV in the UK last Friday and struck upon something interesting.  Bid Down or Price Up (or some channel along those lines) had a 3 Mobile Broadband dongle up for grabs and the fella selling 'em was unintentionally funny.

Is it just me or does he suggest that a one-off fee gives you unlimited access to mobile internet?   I didn't get all of it on video, I missed the bit when he talked about unfortunate people signing up to a 12 year contract.  With PAYG mobile broadband you didn't have to worry about that, he said.  I don't know about you, but I've never worried about signing up for 12 years with any service.

It's a shame that they have to go through all that nonsense to sell what is actually a good product.  Maybe they've just gotten into that habit because of the usual stuff they try to push?

Oh, here's some more gems:

I was just checking out some goodies Ewan at SMS Text News was unboxing/unwrapping - he'd filmed himself doing so using Qik on his phone.

As you can see above, Qik doesn't always like cellular connections - I'm currently using mobile broadband and that smilie isn't really smiling...

To be fair, my experience of mobile broadband is that it doesn't always like buffering web video.  But then again, I do get the same thing from time to time on a ADSL connection at home.