whats the story with 3 3G Datacards?

watty

s_wrenn wrote:

I was thinking of getting a 3g data card but the traffic quotas are really low.
What’s the minimum recommended traffic quota to have if you’re going to be playing online games as well as surfing the net?
I’m talking about xbox360 and ps3 online games.

Which leads me to my next question, can a 3g data card be used to connect wirelessly to a xbox360 or ps3 (or wii for that matter)?

Via a Linksys or Netgear Ethernet/WiFI Router with 3G PCMCIA/PCcard, yes. Even PS2, PSP, DS etc too. But no direct connection.

But poor for action genre etc as your character will get shot/eaten. Bad ping times of 90ms to 200ms

puppydog

I wouldn't touch Three with a barge pole – for voice or data!

They have fewer roaming agreements than any other Irish network.

If you take your Three phone or data card on a business or leisure trip there is a good chance that you will have limited, if any coverage – depending on where you go.

Some of Three’s working roaming agreements are with networks that don’t support 3G! Even in countries that have several 3G networks, 3-Ireland’s sole roaming agreement is almost invariably with the worst network in that country with the poorest coverage and call quality.

Notwithstanding that, you will pay top price for both incoming and outgoing traffic.

The termination rate for calls to Three Ireland’s “network” is much higher than at least two of the other Irish mobile networks so it costs more for people to call Three subscribers – whether they are in Ireland or roaming.

Three-Ireland is little more than a shelf company trying to run a virtual network on other companies’ infrastructure.

It is at best a backstreet “branch” of Three’s British operation, which in turn is the probably the worst of any of the Three networks in Europe – trailing Three in Italy and Austria for example.

Three Ireland has been a waste of Irish UMTS spectrum. It is surely time that ComReg cancelled their license at the earliest opportunity and re-offered the spectrum to the market to someone who has the desire and resources to run a real network!

Puppydog

watty

I'd lay off visits to Chinese resturants for a while now puppydog. In case anyone is offednded.

cgarvey

Moved IoffL > Wireless

hotyogababe

Living outside Galway City. No DSL Broadband as the exchange has not been updated. I got a 3G datacard about two weeks ago. Went for the Mobile Broadband 3000 [3GB Monthly] for €49. Excellent speeds of 800kps download and 140kps upload. Way better than ISDN or dialup. Need to see how it works out with the download band of 3GB - it may end up being pricey - but so far so good. Talk later when the bills start rolling in.

Mycro

Do Vodafone & Three allow or prohibit VOIP with their mobile data cards?

watty

Not specifically, but the lack of good QOS and latency (170ms) make it poor.

Rozie

I don't understand the datacard thing, it doesn't seem to mention it on their site.

How much is it a month? What kind of speeds do you get? I seem to be able to get 3G in my area but I'm not 100% sure.

What about mobile broadband 250, the cheaper option. Is that any good? Would it be better than ISDN?

Sam Vimes

Rozie wrote:

I don't understand the datacard thing, it doesn't seem to mention it on their site.

http://three.ie/ihandsets/datacards.html

Rozie wrote:

How much is it a month?

39.99

Rozie wrote:

What kind of speeds do you get?

up to 3.6 Mbps but in practice less than that depending on coverage

Rozie wrote:

I seem to be able to get 3G in my area but I'm not 100% sure.

you can bring it back within two weeks if you're not satisfied

Rozie wrote:

What about mobile broadband 250, the cheaper option. Is that any good?

i'd recommend the "unlimited" 3GB one over the 250mb one if you want to use it for any kind of serious browsing. the 250MB is for businessmen who check email a lot and nothing else

Rozie wrote:

Would it be better than ISDN?

if you have the coverage, yes

mcaul

I've had the three datacard since January - it moved to high speed in mid feb and speeds are generally between 800kbs & 1.7mb depending on time of day and distance from transmitter.

I use it about 5 /6 hours a day for downloading and uploading onto a new shopping site i'm developing. - At this I still have not gone over 1.5gb in download in either February or March (so only used half my allowance)

I connect it to a PC using a USB pcmia / pc adaptor - £85 from www.roalan.com (it a bit bigger than the vodafone gadget but works great) or you can install a pcmia slot into a standard PC quite easily - cost about €35.

Overall the speed and constant connection is without fault and the portability allows me have BB connection in both the office and home for a single charge.

godskitchen

Mycro wrote:

Do Vodafone & Three allow or prohibit VOIP with their mobile data cards?

Both allow VOIP, I use it every day and it works perfectly