Voda or 3 for 3G broadband

BendiBus

Now that I hate NTL and am without broadband for the next few weeks I'm going to try out 3G data.

Any recommendations as to the best provider? I really like the look of Vodafones dinky little 3G USB modem. Very Apple-esque.

DaBreno

Im using Vodafone 3G at the mo, no complaints but Im in a Broadband free area. IS NTL really that bad? 3G is slower.
The USB modem is grand, a nesessity if you have Dell as the Datacard wont work with em. One thing I found is that there are currently no wireless routers for the Modem, only the datacard.
Tis pricey at €50 a month.

rebel.ranter

O2 will have a 3.6M service in the next few months, looks very good.

mobby

DaBreno wrote:

Im using Vodafone 3G at the mo, no complaints but Im in a Broadband free area. IS NTL really that bad? 3G is slower.
The USB modem is grand, a nesessity if you have Dell as the Datacard wont work with em. One thing I found is that there are currently no wireless routers for the Modem, only the datacard.
Tis pricey at €50 a month.

I have a Dell D600 Laptop and works fine with the Datacard no install issues at all.

Blaster99

BendiBus wrote:

for the next few weeks I'm going to try out 3G data.

Min 12 month contract.

DaBreno

mobby wrote:

I have a Dell D600 Laptop and works fine with the Datacard no install issues at all.

Ok. I was told for more than person(including the voa shop) they wouldnt work with the Dell Inspiron laptops or Media center PC's.

rebel.ranter wrote:

O2 will have a 3.6M service in the next few months, looks very good.

Cool ! Got a link for this?

BendiBus

Blaster99 wrote:

Min 12 month contract.

Sorry, just a badly constructed sentence. I know about the 12 month contract.

6digitnumber

I have vodafone 3g and i'm dead pleased with it. I'm living in Cork city and I'm getting 1.2Mb/s and a good quality of service. It is pricey at 50 quid, and the 5gig cap is a bit mangy, but I dont have a phone line and I didnt have LOS for digiweb so this works for me. The speeds and cap should increase later on in the year though, if o2 introduce 3.6 I'm sure vodafone will follow suit.

optiplexgx270

Depends on the Dell laptop model. The newer Inspiron ones do not have pcimia slots any more hense the usb mdem. I have built in on my dell latitude d820 which is cool no datacard or aerial (Just a sim under the battery). There IS a wireless router for the Voda datacard on the voda site: http://www.vodafone.ie/sme/mailonthemove/laptopconnectivity/3grouter/index.jsp

wirelessdude

media centre edition has some issues for both the data cards and usb modems...work for voda and use both on an ongoing basis....both give same level of coverage but for pure ease of use the usb modem wins handsdown....another network upgrade early next year will push the speed up to 3.6mb....any questions pm me

optiplexgx270

I know you say PM but would you have a time frame?

wirelessdude

i'm here at the moment

optiplexgx270

I mean for the network upgrade to 3.6

BTW OP id go with Voda not 3

DaBreno

wirelessdude wrote:

another network upgrade early next year will push the speed up to 3.6mb....any questions pm me

Can you tell us if this will be rolled out across the whole country? Or do individual 3G masts need to be modified for an upgrade like this?

wirelessdude

3.6 upgrade is due sometime in the spring as far as i know...would expect it to be in place before the consumer launch...think it is just a software upgrade and will have min 70% population coverage..currently stands at 59%

vibe666

sometime in the next three months 3 are going to be rolling out their mobile broadband service to all the countries they cover (inc. Ireland). from what I've read it's already on trial in the UK and will be rolled out over the 1st quarter of 2007 across their whole euro-zone.

this will mean you will have a fixed cost for mobile calls and data along with skype and streaming media from your home pc etc. and no more paying per mb used.

The X-Series from 3 will be priced like fixed line broadband. It will offer use of mobile internet services free at the time of use, for a flat fee. The X-Series from 3 will be available in the UK from the 1st December 2006 and in 3’s other markets around the world in early 2007. Each 3 company will provide further details as they launch X-Series in their markets.

you can read the full press release here: http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Nov2006/3926.htm

three ireland already have info on the x-series on the website too, here: http://xseries.three.com/

i know it's no good if you're looking for access today, but it's something very much worth factoring in if you are going to sign up for a 12 month contract with someone.

cold_filter

DaBreno wrote:

Ok. I was told for more than person(including the voa shop) they wouldnt work with the Dell Inspiron laptops or Media center PC's.



QUOTE]


Thats not the case the card will work any laptop that has a PCIMIA slot though most newer ones have the express card slot and i dont think voda will be bringing out an adapater.
Vodafone will be launching a 3.6 service before march 07

uncle_sam_ie

DaBreno wrote:

Ok. I was told for more than person(including the voa shop) they wouldnt work with the Dell Inspiron laptops or Media center PC's.



Cool ! Got a link for this?

The Vodafone sales people don't have a clue. I was told by them that the data card wouldn't work on a Mac. They said it would only work on a Dell running XP. Which is completely wrong. I've got it running fine on both my Macs running OS X threw a Linksys router.

Sam Vimes

uncle_sam_ie wrote:

The Vodafone sales people don't have a clue. I was told by them that the data card wouldn't work on a Mac. They said it would only work on a Dell running XP. Which is completely wrong. I've got it running fine on both my Macs running OS X threw a Linksys router.

i could maybe understand them saying just xp but only a dell???

having said that, i phoned 3 asking about their one and the agent had never heard of it. at least voda told their staff it exists

DaBreno

uncle_sam_ie wrote:

The Vodafone sales people don't have a clue. I was told by them that the data card wouldn't work on a Mac. They said it would only work on a Dell running XP. Which is completely wrong. I've got it running fine on both my Macs running OS X threw a Linksys router.

Maybe they meant the card wouldnt plug directly in a Mac? The datacard should work with any device provided its pluged into a router and your pc/laptop can pick up the wireless lan.
(Btw how much did you pay for the Linksys router? I cant seem to find em cheap anywhere).

Glad to hear the rollout is just software. It may be the end of time before Eircom ever get around to upgrading our telephone exchange and I was afraid that 3G masts in remote areas would suffer the same fate.

emaherx

uncle_sam_ie wrote:

The Vodafone sales people don't have a clue. I was told by them that the data card wouldn't work on a Mac. They said it would only work on a Dell running XP. Which is completely wrong. I've got it running fine on both my Macs running OS X threw a Linksys router.

Technically its not running on your Mac its running on your router, any web enabled networked device can use it through the router.

But to say it will only work on a Dell is silly and its not even limited to XP.
I have mine working in the PCMCIA port of my Linux laptop running Fedora Core 6 (Took a bit of tinkering to get working). I would imagine you can get OS X to use it also.

uncle_sam_ie

Commander Vimes wrote:

i could maybe understand them saying just xp but only a dell???

having said that, i phoned 3 asking about their one and the agent had never heard of it. at least voda told their staff it exists

Dells, that one threw me as well. You think they'd want to train their staff a little better. At least send them a memo. Staff that are well informed=€€€€€€€€ but, apparently management just doesn't get that one.

uncle_sam_ie

emaherx wrote:

Technically its not running on your Mac its running on your router, any web enabled networked device can use it through the router.

But to say it will only work on a Dell is silly and its not even limited to XP.
I have mine working in the PCMCIA port of my Linux laptop running Fedora Core 6 (Took a bit of tinkering to get working). I would imagine you can get OS X to use it also.

Sorry, I should of said "work with"

Cabaal

emaherx wrote:

Technically its not running on your Mac its running on your router, any web enabled networked device can use it through the router.

^
he's right you know, unless you can actually get it working with your mac by connecting it directly to your mac then Vodafone sales are still 100% correct

uncle_sam_ie

Cabaal wrote:

^
he's right you know, unless you can actually get it working with your mac by connecting it directly to your mac then Vodafone sales are still 100% correct

The only reason it won't work with newer laptops is because they come with the new Express card slots and not the PCMCIA slot. The card should work on the older Powerbooks that can take the card. The box that the card comes in even say's it will work with OS X. So the sales staff are not 100% correct. I never said I had a new Macbook Pro. I just said it was an Apple laptop. They flat out said it wouldn't work on a Mac. Only a Dell running XP.

ronano

I presume you need a vodaphone bill pay to avail of 3g broadband,what's the cheapest contract to get ? i only want it for the broadband

Sponge Bob

data is a contract on its own and you can keep your phone ready to go.

to get the subsidy on the card you must sign a 12 month contract

Voda looks like the best bet (by far) for me , I would avoid O2 and 3 with 2gb and 3gb caps respectively and an excess charge of about €1000 per Gb thereafter.

Voda also (probably) have the best coverage although 3 have improved recently . O2 is pretty far behind them

pm.

when its eventually available throughout ireland will it be good for gaming???

DaBreno

Depends on the cap I suppose. Ive also found that the connection quality varies with the weather. At the moment the wind is howling and the Signal quality is lower than usual. It wouldnt do if you got cut off at the wrong time...

Having delt with different versions of their 3G PC datacards I have developed a hatred for vodafones mobile data division. bear in mind this doesn't apply to their USB thing as I havn't tried it yet, but where I work we have had loads of them. From the nokia pure GSM, to early gprs only to the brand new 3.5G ones.

* The software (mobile connect) is terrible, frequently requires reinstalls and often refuses to connect. Usually a reinstall is the only solution. Sometimes, just for fun the reinstall or upgrade with refuse to work requiring digging in the registry to manually remove it. I've little faith in their software people to actually provide reliable software. Oh and the card itself frequently isn't recognised by the laptops.

* At times, whatever ingenious way their 3g network is setup, private ip address get routed on to the 3G network. This frequently causes problems with VPN software as generally lans use these address ranges.

* The cards are used by sales people who roam in other countries. The cards sometimes fail to roam in other countries and sometimes the roaming network will bar the card because it has an incorrect firmware version. Update firmware problem solved right? Wrong! At one time vodafone listed different firmware versions required in order to roam in a different countrys. :mad:

* Pings will be in the 200ms range so forget gaming.

* Get a 3g phone and check if you have 3G coverage where you live because its within a more limited distance of the mast.

Based on their datacard track record my advice is avoid like the plague.

optiplexgx270

pm. wrote:

when its eventually available throughout ireland will it be good for gaming???

Oh dear god no. The pings are VERY high. I've never tried to play online with it but with pings of 200-300 why would I when my home bb is 20-40?