[miffed]

I am not really into '3 bashing' for the sake of it these days , I honestly feel they have come a long way in nearly all departments (except CS possibly , haven't really had much to do with them since my contract days )
The PAYG mobile Broadband offering I took up , for example , offers great value and great flexibility.. My only beef is the 'real world' performance

If I use it at home , I get a pretty continuous 2mbps+ which is more than great TBH , I am over the moon with this , faster than I ever dreamed I'd be surfing on a mobile device !!) - Of course , this in not really a lot of use at home though - the whole point is to use the device in places where there is no wifi connection (unlike my home)
My place of work is still in the stone age , offering dial up only , so I regurlarly alternate my wireless options there - now this is where I'd have thought my 3 dongle would excell , but nope , Although I get a full signal , it is only vanilla 3G , and regardless of whether I am surfing / downloading large files (or trying to!) ..I'll only be seeing Now , I had to put this down to location (after all , I get a blinding speed at home (where I'll never need it !)) but the reality is , this situation reccours whenever I call upon 3 for my mobile access
At the moment I am visiting my Parents (also in the stone age!) .. and although I have a continous sky blue light (HSDPA) - I am still only seeing a top speed of around 120kbps
I am a lttle dissapointed about this , regardless of reasons/ explanations /excuses , the fact remains that Three Mobile broadband never seems to be there when I need it - or more acurrately it is THERE , but it's half asleep
Most of the time I end up using my T-mobile signal , which does not give a great top end - but is does seem to supply a consistant 900kbps wherever I am , athough we are led to beleive that 3's coverage 'trumps' T-mobiles , it just goes to show that coverage is not the be all and end all !

[bsrjl1]

Does the coverage map show you should get HSDPA at work? Not all of the southern network has been upgraded...

[miffed]

Haven't seen the coverage map , but the modem itself is able to distinguish between standard 3g and HSDPA

[Ben]

Yeah, you get different coloured lights to indicate what type of connection you've got, which is nice.

Interesting about not all of the southern network being upgraded yet, bsrjl1. With all the hype around mobile broadband I hadn't really considered that there would still be vanilla 3G floating around out there.

miffed - maybe you should up your usage in the slower locations, try and give Three a nudge into sorting them out?

[bsrjl1]

The overview coverage map is at http://three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/mobile_broadband_/rollout_map.omp and you can see most of the South is in Phase 5 - 2008. Now maybe they're holding off upgrading most of the south until the TM partnership kicks off, and they can get rid of the NEC sites or perhaps it's just taking them a long time to upgrade?

[Hands0n]

That is a very honest map by 3, uncommonly so it must be said. I suspect that miffed's problems are the sheer volume of 3 Mobile Broadband sales, they did rather take off. Isn't this the experience that our Talk3G bretheren from Ireland suffer similar performance/availability issues late last year? At that time the Mobile Broadbadn had been oversold, under-resourced or a bit of both.

It is a shame that 3 decided to leave the south east till last, it is the most densely populated part of the country and is more likely to suffer any network weakness.

It makes me glad that I went Vodafone for my Mobile Broadband. I did seriously consider 3, even going into their Bluewater store and checking it out in real life. But they were unable to get anything above 3G's 380Kbps, even with the HSDPA light showing. Wisely, in hindsight, I decided to go elsewhere.

But it does puzzle me why miffed is only getting sub-3G speeds. Unless their backhaul is being over-subscribed he should be seeing the full 3G speed.

[miffed]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/259142799.png


Ah , thats a bit better this morning - not sure what happened to the upload though !
Typical ! I am only here for another hour or so :mad:

Just typical of my luck that is !

[gorilla]

Well, there is a big thread on three's deal over at hotukdeals (http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/169805/3-mobile-broandband-half-price-for-/). Seems to be popular.

[Ben]

Popular indeed. If you're a Three customer already then mobile broadband certainly is a bit of a steal. Still, ouch if you go over the limit.

[miffed]

Popular indeed. If you're a Three customer already then mobile broadband certainly is a bit of a steal. Still, ouch if you go over the limit.

A bit of a steal is one thing - as long as there is enough to go round , which my recent experiences suggest there isn't

I have to be honest , I'd rather pay a bit more for a robust , reliable service

[3GScottishUser]

3's mobile broadband is a great deal if you are an existing 3 customer.

I suspect it will get better when they combine their network with T-Mobile's 3G.

Meantime it's a bit hit and miss. In Glasgow 3 have huge areas with little coverage of their own even after 5 years!!

Roaming on Orange for data is a waste of time, its about as useless as Orange's data tariffs!!

Rule of thumb: If you can get 3's 3G coverage then the mobile broadband could be worthwhile (bearing in mind the nasty excess charges) but if there is doubt return the dongle and run a mile from it.

[Ben]

I didn't think allowing customers to return things that don't work as advertised was the done thing these days? ;) Ordering online has its benefits I guess.

[getti]

Modems can be returned within 3 days of purchase

[chaslam]

HHHmm, I thought I would take up the offer of half price broadband from 3. How you can miss the chance to get 3GB of data for £7.50 a month with a free modem!

Anyway, having used it on PAYG for a couple of days and being very impressed with the speeds (>1mb constantly) I thought it was a good investment just to keep on my keyring and take around with me.

It arrived today, and well, im a bit dissapointed. When I used the PAYG modem about 2 months ago it was great. I have full HSDPA coverage in my area may I add. Got my USB stick modem this morning, got home from work, plugged into my computer to test the speed, and got a bit of a shock. well, all I could say is I was getting WELL below HSDPA speeds. Infact, I was getting well below standard 3G speeds. I did a test, and the most I got was 200kbps. WOW!

Just done another test now, and speed is still terrible although noticeably better.http://www.speedtest.net/result/262674952.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

I think i will try it again tonight and maybe in the morning, and if it hasnt improved then it will be going straight back. I dont even live in a well populated area! Im sure that it hasnt shot up with that amount of 3 customers in my area!

Update: Literally seconds after doing the last test ive done a new one. Is this some sort of joke? http://www.speedtest.net/result/262676606.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[chaslam]

hhmm now this is odd! Sorry to post 2 posts so close to each other, but im starting to wonder if I have a faulty modem? Ive just tested it on the PAYG modem with contract sim, and these are the speeds I got:

Original USB modem http://www.speedtest.net/result/262679109.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

stick modem: http://www.speedtest.net/result/262680523.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Very odd! Seems like the USB stick modem its alot less powerful as the E220 version!

EDIT (AGAIN): Now ive put it back in the USB modem (E220) and its now only getting 200 max! This is VERY VERY strange! What is going on? I cant see how the 3 network in my area has gone from being really fast to almost useless in less then 3 months!

[bsrjl1]

The antennae is a lot smaller in the stick compared with the USB modem. In the same conditions it's ~2 CQIs lower. None of these modems are going to get a decent speed without a diversity antennae. I'm not sure if cards like the Option Globetrotter (3G+?) with an external port can use both an internal & external at the same time?

[chaslam]

But still, below 3G speed when in HSDPA coverage? Its not really acceptable. Besides, i spend all day selling vodafone ones and they are fine. Not quite as powerful as the pebles, but you can still get 2mb out of them easily!

[miffed]

But still, below 3G speed when in HSDPA coverage? Its not really acceptable.

This is exactly what I tend to get , there seems to be "sticking point" of 120kbps :mad:
The only place I get decent speeds constantly is at home - (which is like some kind of cruel joke TBH )

I have pretty much given up on it now - I use my T-mobile connection via my phone to get DECENT HSDPA now :(

[paulbds]

I got mine from 3 shop in Trafford Centre at half price £7.50 for 3 Gb. I have BB @ home but this is a steal for using eBay etc and avoiding the company Firewall.
I don't know how 3 can afford this but what the heck and the price is fixed so long as you keep your mobile contract with 3.
I didn't even realise about this offer part from the fact I came across it by chance on the 3 web site. There are a couple of people at work a little pi$$ed off because they got a contcat last Sept/Oct at the higher price and a smaller d/l limit
I have no connection (groan!) with 3 apart from being a satisfied punter

FWIW I live/work on N Wales Coast (LLandudno/Colwyn Bay/Bangor) and has the upgraded network since last year

[Hands0n]

In central London (E1 area) I got some 4.8Mbps on the Vodafone USB Stick. Back home I regularly get 1.8Mbps and a bit higher at times. The thing I have noticed though is that speedtest.net is very unreliable at reporting speeds on these 3G/HSDPA modems - the test is very short and does not seem to run long enough to allow the HSDPA to kick in.

Ben has suggested doing something a bit more practical like downloading a large binary from the Microsoft site or similar where you can read the download speed off the dialogue box.

[Ben]

Indeed, the most reliable way to do a true speed test is a large file download (or upload, if you want to check that) to/from a fast server. The MS site is usually a pretty good bet. If you really want a solid result, do multiple downloads from multiple sources at the same time and simply add up the transfer rates (this ensures you're saturating your connection, not the connection of any one server).

Don't forget a simple ping to somewhere like www.google.co.uk will show you your latency. Anything below 300ms and you'll have a pretty acceptable browsing experience. Much more than that and, even with all the bandwidth in the world, you're going to notice the wait between pages loading.

I think the mobops will get good at handling these larger volumes of data very quickly. They wont rest on their laurels while their networks become saturated and a brand new extra revenue stream goes down the toilet. We're still on the first/second generation of USB modems, I expect those will improve also.