3 mobile broadband - 'any' positive experiences?

Surion

Hi guys,
Just reading the BIG post above and was shocked at the response about 3. I went into their shop on Thursday on Grafton st, asking about this. I'm in big dispute with NTL (surprise surprise) and thought this would be a great alternative...and cheaper!

Basically - does anyone have ANY positive experiences of 3 mobile broadband??

I told the guy, I work from home and game a little (mostly wow) and cos of that breaks in connections wud be very important to me. He said, a few weeks ago...he would have told me to wait awhile as the service had too many 'tweeks'. But now would be ok. So I continued to ask about contention ratio etc....now I don't know too much about all these things but god, he DIDNT know. Just kept calling me 'sir' all the time.

So he didn't know much...but disappointed to think my 'out-clause' from NTL is ruined...is it...is it???

ps...I was going to move my mobile over there too....myabe I'll check that thread too.

ongarite

the last 10 pages of the BIG thread don't show any improvement, infact its nearly worse. Gaming with it would be impossible I would imagine.
Thats said, there will always be some people happy with it, depends where you are and how many people trying to use that mast, etc....

fatboypee

ongarite wrote:

the last 10 pages of the BIG thread don't show any improvement, infact its nearly worse. Gaming with it would be impossible I would imagine.
Thats said, there will always be some people happy with it, depends where you are and how many people trying to use that mast, etc....

Any Mobile based Broadband will be poorer than DSL, for general surfing, its really horses for courses. I live in a place where I can't EVEN get wireless broadband. My only option is phone dial-up :mad: , but in the willidge, 3 Broadband seemed to fly-along (had a loan of a mate's card). 3.6mbps seemed constant (expect thats just the 3 GUI putting up a label with "3.6mbps" written on it tho..

I'd say a good few ppl who want BB on the move will opt for this (as it seems cheapest of them all at the moment), but, if you've any option of DSL then errrr no... not worth it imho

FBP.

smellslikeshoes

As a technology 3G/hspda is slightly above dialup and should only be seriously considered if you need mobility or can't get any other type of broadband. That goes for 3,02 and vodafone. Any decent none mobile broadband (dsl, cable, fixed wireless) would be a lot better in terms of speed, reliability and importantly for you ping.

Firetrap

From reading the biiiig thread above this one, I'm led to believe that it's a microwave type technology and is affected by rain. Should be interesting, leading into the great Irish winter.

CptSternn

When 3 Ireland first rolled out their wireless broadband, it was brilliant. I was getting 2-3 meg connection speeds constantly, everything worked fine, and I was able to use my Xbox360 Live account to play FPS games.

Now, I get speeds up to 50kbps, and even that is spuratic, sometimes it doesn't connect at all or I get 0.0 transfer speeds for hours on end. I get dropped every other day - it just disconnects for no reason, and many services like IM (instant messengers like Yahoo or Windows Live), FTP, SMTP, and others just won't connect anymore.

So I *had* a good eperience which lasted about 2-3 weeks after signing up, then it all went to ****e.

smadger

I can be affected by rain. I've seen performance drops in heavy storms.

However, since I have 3 'broadband' that's only a drop from 'really crap speeds' to 'really really crap speeds'.

To the OP: I do work for home. It's kinda ok for that, but I imagine it would depend on what you were doing. I use VNC over a SecuRemote VPN. As long as I'm only doing text editing its sort of usable.

Reading emails ok too, but again over VPN, so I'm not seeing the issues a lot of other posters have with mail. It's all pushed down one port for me. However, if you need to download/upload large files, be wary. You're in for a lot of heartache.

I also play online games (specifically LOTRO). Sometimes it works and sometimes its hair-pulling frustration even trying to log on. Once logged on, it's very stop-start. Like having lag, but due to packets going lost. You'll get the same with WOW, I guess. Forget online shooters.

Even web browsing is a pain. Having to click on a link 5 or 6 times to get it to load becomes very tedious very quickly.

Personally, if I was in your position I'd stick with DSL (sounds like that's an option if you're in an area covered by NTL. If DSL is not an option, then I'd pay the extra money and go with O2. If I didn't have this contract hanging over me, I'd be with them now (I'm considering getting it anyway).

3 is cheap, but it's like buying dvds from a market trader. You know it's only going to lead to disappointment!

Surion

Thank you all very much, as it happens I use mostly VPN access to office network - but unfortunately I would be receiving/sending large files at the same time. Well...thank you all for the info. Looks like it's curtains for that 3mbb!! Nonetheless, NTL will not escape my wrath for long...I'm going to move broadband to another DSL then.

Agian....really helpful...thanks!

sur

Ronald McDonald

Hi, and before i go any further - i wish to say am a long time "browser of boards but afraid to post" type of person.
i have broadband at work - and all i need to download i do there, but at home my access is limited to dial-up. Dial what i hear ye say?!! But in the country, broadband is a myth, something we wish to have in the future!!! I have researched wireless broadband until i was convinced i didn't need it it was that bad but took the plunge and bought the "3" broadband. Having briefly looked at the other "3" thread i know i am taking a chance saying this......but compared to nothing (dial-up) "3" is a kinda option here,wireless is terrible slow, no-one else wants to come here so some form of wireless is the only way i can go. Now youtube and the likes - forget about it, "3" broadband is for surfing only, takes half an hour to watch a 30sec clip (do all that at work during lunch!!) but for everything else like reading the news and checking weather - it is OK, and only OK.
Hope this post isn't too long or boring and will post an intro (at work!!) soon.
Chat ye soon.
Reggie.

Rozie

smellslikeshoes wrote:

As a technology 3G/hspda is slightly above dialup and should only be seriously considered if you need mobility or can't get any other type of broadband. That goes for 3,02 and vodafone. Any decent none mobile broadband (dsl, cable, fixed wireless) would be a lot better in terms of speed, reliability and importantly for you ping.

See now, this is just stupid.

It annoys me when people say certain things are "worse than dialup" or "slightly better than dialup" when they're not.

People on O2 and Vodafone have been getting download speeds around 500 k - how the hell is that remotely like dialup? 56 K dialup has download speeds of FIVE k a second, 100 times less. The maximum speed you can get with dialup is about 18 k/sec download with dual channel IDSN.

So anything over that is "broadband" after a sense, and is a workable speed with browsing.

3's network is just incredibly poor and has some serious issues.

smellslikeshoes

Rozie wrote:

See now, this is just stupid.

It annoys me when people say certain things are "worse than dialup" or "slightly better than dialup" when they're not.

People on O2 and Vodafone have been getting download speeds around 500 k - how the hell is that remotely like dialup? 56 K dialup has download speeds of FIVE k a second, 100 times less. The maximum speed you can get with dialup is about 18 k/sec download with dual channel IDSN.

So anything over that is "broadband" after a sense, and is a workable speed with browsing.

3's network is just incredibly poor and has some serious issues.

I think you have your figures mixed up 56k dialup is not 100 times slower than 500k, its about 8-9 or there abouts, but I won't hold that against you

I never said it wasn't broadband,I said it was slightly better than dialup which it is. It can't be compared to proper broadband because of the possible fluctuations in speed, reliability and latency that is inherent with this technology.
And please don't lecture me on what Vodafone or 02 users have been getting because I have both. In fact I was one of the earliest adopters when vodafone came out with their unlimited product and have been happily banging away on it for around 14-15 months now. Not to mention having a try at 3 before all their troubles.

I regularly get in and around 1meg on my vodafone and sometimes higher on 02 but would I compare it to a 1meg dsl line? HELL NO! Would I prefer using a 1meg dsl line? HELL YES!
The fact is even if you compare it to the lowest level dsl broadband offerings in Ireland (which are low by anyones standard) it can't compete. Users using this technology have to deal with a lot of variables regardless of network such as Cell breathing, Distance from Cell, Users on Cell, Erratic ping, Not to mention the times when it doesn't feel like working and disconnects for no obvious reason

As a technology its only slightly above dialup compared to proper broadband and I stand by my original statement which I consider 100% apt.

kikel

I've had Three and don't have any positive experiences even though i had a full 3G signal. I've got my money back after alot of hardship and hairloss. Currently with vodafone which is 100 times better. I won't say vodafone is perfect but it does work.

JonathanAnon

I have mine set up as my home broadband solution. Works great and it's extremely cheap. 20 quid a month. Feck all really.

One important thing - There is no point in getting one of these things unless you can get four bars. With two bars you only get download speeds of 5/10Kbps. My advice would be to test it out at every window in the house and see if you can get four/five bars. If you can you need to work back from this point to the PC, whether with a long USB cable or whatever.

But like I said, I have it up and running and it works great. I am testing a new 3G router that operates with the USB datamodem next week.