3G Dongles/Mobile Broadband

jamesward93

jamesward93

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Just a quick trhead to get general opinions on the best 3G mobile broadband provider out there. This is probably geared more towards the sports photographers out there, but all feedback is more than welcome.

I currently have a dongle on contract with O2, and whilst it servers me fairly well i am becoming increasingly frustrated with the inability or extremely slow speeds when trying to wire images from pitchside. I know that a lot of this will be to do with the fact there are large crowds all with mobile phones and the structure of the stadium.

I am looking for a PAYG option as a back up so asking for recommendations / experience of others
 
jamesward93 said:
Just a quick trhead to get general opinions on the best 3G mobile broadband provider out there. This is probably geared more towards the sports photographers out there, but all feedback is more than welcome.

I currently have a dongle on contract with O2, and whilst it servers me fairly well i am becoming increasingly frustrated with the inability or extremely slow speeds when trying to wire images from pitchside. I know that a lot of this will be to do with the fact there are large crowds all with mobile phones and the structure of the stadium.

I am looking for a PAYG option as a back up so asking for recommendations / experience of others
Click to expand...

Think im right here in saying Three mobile have the largest 3g coverage in the UK so maybe three mobile are a good bet for you.
 
dont have any problems with orange, and i live on the isle of wight were there sometimes the coverage is not good.
 
1/ I'll bet you have the old model dongle, E160 or older.

2/ Can anyone else in the area you are working receive 3G? perhaps you are in a non 3G area.

You can check the O2 mobile broadband coverage via postcode here
 
I've used T-mobile and Vodafone; both have been fine, but obviously 3G coverage (and therefore speed) varies a lot depending on where you are. T-mobile was the faster of the two when I ran a speed test, but the Vodafone dongle was an old one, which could affect things.
 
always used three.co.uk and payg... i only have to wire maybe once or twice a month so PAYG wins :)
 
I use my 3 mobile on a plan with unlimited internet, tethered to my laptop by bluetooth or usb. Works fine, speedtest.net gives me about 760kbps down, 250up, in an area of decent signal and over bluetooth.
 
Three have a 30 day contract option which gives 5gb for £15/month which is one of the better deals out there and you're not tied into it.
 
I'm on O2 PAYG as well.
I do find it pretty flakey trackside, but my pal on 3 seems to get more consistent connecitons.

Sometimes I just plug my phone in via USB and use that (T-Mobile)

One advantage with O2, is the fact you can connect to cloub/BTOpenzone for free.
Which many stadiums use as their payg wi-fi
 
I get 1gb from three that lasts 30 days for a tenner... you send up to 20 pics from pitchside at less than 1mb each then 1024 mb is gonna last a month... if your sending over a thousand pics from pithside in 30 days then yer doing well :)
 
I'm on Orange as well...I threatened to leave and they did me a contract for £5 per month based on my highest usage, plus they gave me a new dongle for free...much better and much faster since.

In addition, I too can connect to BT Openzone using a login...which is handy for the Millennium Stadium, as its the only network that actually works.
 
I used a Three dongle on PAYG which worked well when there was a signal (I guess they all work well if there is a signal :) )

Vodafone did a PAYG that cost more per GB but the credit didn't run out after 30 days like most other providers).

For my money the best option now is the Three MiFi.

This provides a wifi signal so you get two advantages -

  1. You can connect 5 devices at the same time
  2. you can put the MiFi dongle in a place where it gets good signal, and you can sit a few metres away in a place that's convenient for your work
Details here
 
I used a three PAYG whilst I was waiting for my phone line to be connected when I moved into my house, never had a problem with connection, and was surprised to see how far the 1gb went. The connection was also nice and quick which was quite surprising, was expecting to wait hours for anything to happen.

If you are looking at using it more I think they do rolling contracts which are really quite good value.
 
Oh yeah I forgot about my new tool duh!

I have an application on my winodws based mobile, that turns it into a WiFi router just like the MiFi. Not tried it in anger yet.
 
admirable said:
1/ I'll bet you have the old model dongle, E160 or older.

2/ Can anyone else in the area you are working receive 3G? perhaps you are in a non 3G area.
Click to expand...

I have the E169 dongle, which may have been replaced with a newer model now, im not sure.

I had a 3G signal on my mobile, but cant say if any of the other togs were able to send over a 3G signal.

I am tempted to give the '3' dongle a go
 
If you have a smart-phone you can tether it to your laptop and save paying for either payg or contract mobile broadband.
I know T mobile allow this but I don't know about the other providers.
Even if they don't allow it I can't see how they could tell whether you care connecting via the phone itself or tethering.
 
Are you on Windows 7?
 
g4gxl said:
I used a Three dongle on PAYG which worked well when there was a signal (I guess they all work well if there is a signal :) )

Vodafone did a PAYG that cost more per GB but the credit didn't run out after 30 days like most other providers).

For my money the best option now is the Three MiFi.

This provides a wifi signal so you get two advantages -

  1. You can connect 5 devices at the same time
  2. you can put the MiFi dongle in a place where it gets good signal, and you can sit a few metres away in a place that's convenient for your work
Details here
Click to expand...

Same thoughts from me. I previously used a regular USB dongle for about 12 months before switching to the Mifi and I love it. Can use my laptop, ipod and ipad at home all at the same time (excessive, I know, but possible!).

I'm on the 5GB for £15/month tariff. Expensive compared to fixed broadband I guess, but the speed in my area is actually better and more consistent on 3G!
 
i use 3.co.uk on a contract, i started paying £15 a month for 5gb data but then they had an offer of £10 for 5gb for new customers, i rang up and complained so they dropped mine to £10 a month, thay did the same about 2 months later, i saw a deal on moneysupermarket where 3 were offering 5gb data for £5 a month to the first 100 new customers who signed up, i complained yet again and got mine dropped to £5 a month, im also allowed unlimited texts as well.

Cant fault it, never had anything less than very good signal strength even out in the sticks.
 
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apkent said:
Same thoughts from me. I previously used a regular USB dongle for about 12 months before switching to the Mifi and I love it. Can use my laptop, ipod and ipad at home all at the same time (excessive, I know, but possible!).

I'm on the 5GB for £15/month tariff. Expensive compared to fixed broadband I guess, but the speed in my area is actually better and more consistent on 3G!
Click to expand...

Just noticed your comments, see mine above and do as i did to get it down to £5, you just need to search for the offers though as theyre not widely advertised and never on their website, the money comparisson websites are a good place to start.

Dont put up with something anyone offers to "new" customers, i got a free SKY HD Box for my multiroom box by complaining and ive also just got half price line rental from Sky as they were offering it to new customers but not existing ones, ring up and moan until they get fed up and if that doesnt work threaten to pull out.

I also got £50 credit on my gas bill by complaining and threatening to move elsewhere, they also threw in one of those electric monitors to see what your spending on each appliance.
 
Hmm, I likes the look of this mifi thingy- anyone do a good review??
 
apkent said:
Blimey, I'll go and have a search right this minute!
Click to expand...

He, he, ive just complained to 3 again as they have just reduced the price of their 15GB allowance to £15 a month which is what my original 5GB allowance cost me, they have agreed to upgrade me to 15GB from 1st August and all for £5 monthly.
 
well here is my 3 USB dongle speed (£10 per month)


and here is my Landline speed from Talktalk pro (£24 per month)

 
picked up a 3 dongle at the weekend. Had a quick test and speeds seemed good, but will give it a proper run out on Wednesday night. Will be using at a stadium where i know i have had issues with O2 before.
 
Hi Brad.

Yes a quick update. I have now used the 3 Dongle to wire from 4 games and have tested in other various locations. So far the performance has been superb, always had a signal and uploads speeds have been superb, even from stadiums where i know the O2 one had serious issues.

So to quickly summarise, very happy and would definitely recommend using the 3 mobile broadband
 
nightmare on a stick I call 3G dongles, my sister has one, Vodafone, always drops out and sometimes refuses to connect, however when it works, it's great

:)
 
I'm with 3 and wire from pitchside from all premier league grounds. I don't use the dongle as my lappy has a built in sim card reader. The speeds in London are amazing! If you have a 3 phone then you get a good discount, I got 5Gb a month for £7.50, I'm never gonna use that but its half price as I have my phone contract with them.
 
I have a built in 3g card on this laptop, used 3 for over 18 months never had a problem, just had an anniversary offer of a free netbook which I didn't need so negotiated a massive discount from £15 per month to £5 recently.

Last job we had Vodaphone which was generally reliable (also had built in 3g on the works laptop) new job we use O2 which is not as good for me, sometimes I can't get online and it'a pain taking the 3 sim out to try that...

I would choose 3 everytime, reliable, inexpensive and easy to contact, plus I use Quidco which gives an even bigger saving...
 
I have a mifi bought it for the sole purpose of using on my hols in Spain, unlocked it from network ;) currently running a vodafone es sim, awesome piece of kit, good battery life, great speeds up and down, did use it before coming away on 3 and was well impressed, much quicker than using my Iphone and MyWi
 
This may be a really stupid question, but do 3's pay-as-you-go top ups for MIFI and mobile broadband dongles only last for one month or do they last indefinitely until you've used the top up data allowance (I think they do 1GB, 3GB and 7GB top ups)?
 
orinoco said:
My 3gb lasts 90 days
Click to expand...

That's great -thanks. I was just a bit confused from reading the following on 3's help pages:

''How long are top-ups valid for?
There's no expiry date for Top-ups. Add-ons stay active for 30 days from the date you buy them. ''

I guess an ''add-on'' is something you buy if you are on a pay monthly contract and temporarily want more data allowance (and is not the same as a payg ''top-up'').
 
I had Three mobile broadband but ditched it after a few months. It regularly dropped out but the big killer for me was that it didn't support FTP. Three intentionally block the FTP ports. I switched to Vodafone and everything is perfect. It stays connected throughout my working day without interruption.

Andy.
 
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