Broadband on the Go - What are the options?

dulpit

Hey, so guy i know asked me to look into what options are available to him to be able to pick up internet on the go...

He's getting a new laptop, so it'll have wireless and all that, and it'll be a fairly decent laptop, (not top of the range but still decent)

Here's what i know about what options are available:

1. Rely on the wireless, using wi-fi hotspots and stuff - problem is if there is no hotspot around then no internet

2. Get something like a datacard thing from 3 or vodafone - expensive? What's the quality?

He's generally all over the place, so it would need to be something nationwide... The one thing is that he is heading to Australia for a few weeks in August, (wedding) and he'll need to be able to get at emails etc from work. I presume that the wi-fi option there might work (if he can find a hotspot) but the datacard won't. Correct?

Is there any options i'm missing out? Any suggestions?

JNive

datacard would, but on roaming rates. Also, with hotspots etc you are limited to browsing through your browser as far as i know, so that limits a lot on what you can do.

if he really needs something nationwide, then he is probably best off getting something like the Vodafone or O2 package. ( The 3 offering for 20/month is 3G only so you wont have 2G GPRS coverage outside towns/cities )

watty

O2 also appear to have edge on some GSM masts, which is nearly as fast as "bare" 3G

Maximum speeds:
GSM 14.4k
GPRS 56k
Edge 220k
3G 384k
HSDPA 1800K or 3600K depending on network.

Except for GPRS and GSM, real speeds are lower as more users connect or signal is poor.

A suitable Quad band card with GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSPDA will work many countries but buy a local SIM as roaming charges on data are 1000's of euro.

dulpit

Ok well after talking to him, primarily he'll be using the internet for some brief browsing, but it's mainly for accessing his work emails on the go. (email is with outlook afaik)

JNive wrote:

( The 3 offering for 20/month is 3G only so you wont have 2G GPRS coverage outside towns/cities )

Does this mean that if there's no 3G coverage you won't have the net? And with the others (vodafone & o2) if you leave 3g coverage will you still be able to get the net, just slower?

jor el

For nationwide I'd suggest Vodafone or O2 as the both have the fallback of GPRS (or EDGE aswell for O2) when outside 3G coverage. OK for getting your emails and so on, would essentially be like dial-up. As said 3's modem for €20 a month is the cheapest but there is no coverage outside their 3G areas, so outside the major cities and towns he might get nothing at all. I think 3's datacard (which is a lot more expensive) does have 2G/GPRS fallback to Vodafone's network. Probably better to stick with O2 or Vodafone though.

dulpit wrote:

The one thing is that he is heading to Australia for a few weeks in August, (wedding) and he'll need to be able to get at emails etc from work. I presume that the wi-fi option there might work (if he can find a hotspot) but the datacard won't. Correct?

If he's staying in a hotel then they might have free Wifi for guests. Other than that see what Watty said. I think a datacard or the USB modems being offered by the operators in Ireland will be SIM locked though, so you'd need to unlock it. Have no idea how, if at all, this can be done though.

Does this mean that if there's no 3G coverage you won't have the net? And with the others (vodafone & o2) if you leave 3g coverage will you still be able to get the net, just slower?

Exactly. Should get dial-up speeds outside 3G.

dulpit

watty wrote:

A suitable Quad band card with GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSPDA will work many countries but buy a local SIM as roaming charges on data are 1000's of euro.

Where would you get one? And are they expensive yokes?

dub45

If he needs to get emails from work why not just use a Gmail address?

Also this is a handy site which shows hotspots worldwide. http://www.jiwire.com/