mobile internet

[dor]

Whilst out at the weekend I noticed one of the phone shops doing a mobile wireless broadband deal for £10 per month. I think the provider was 3.

 

£10 per month for up to 1GB of download, then 10p per Mb after that.

 

Don't have a use for it myself at the moment, but it looks like quite a good deal to me for anyone that wants broadband on their boat. Compare it to Vodaphone at £25 per month!

 

Other deals as well, e.g. 3MB per month for £15.

 

See http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_s...and_/detail.omp

[Yamanx]

Yes that looks a pretty good deal, but its contract isnt it?

 

Orange is £12 per month unlimited download and is not contract

[carlt]

3's a good deal but their coverage is lousy. Don't believe the 90% coverage hype, that's phone coverage only and it doesn't drop to gprs, when the 3g signal goes

[moggyjo]

3 neighbours have gone over to 3 the £15 deal, they tried Orange first but sent it back as it was so slow. We are in a good area for signal strength on most networks here. Travelling around alot so far the only places I have had a problem with 3 coverage has been Pembroke around Solva and on a farm somewhere nearish to Burton on Trent.

Edited February 6, 2008 by moggyjo

[dor]

Yes that looks a pretty good deal, but its contract isnt it?

 

They also do a non-contract option, but the overusage is much more expensive.

[MoominPapa]

Whilst out at the weekend I noticed one of the phone shops doing a mobile wireless broadband deal for £10 per month. I think the provider was 3.

 

For interest, I've been working on the "cheap mobile internet" problem and come up with a workable solution. I run Linux, not Windows or MacOS, so that's an additional contraint, since not all the hardware out there works with Linux. Since I don't liveaboard, I use this intermittently and a contract with heavy fixed costs isn't much use.

 

I bought a Sierra Aircard 850. These seem to be readily available on Ebay and run OK under Linux. They support 3G (eg broadband speed) but I'm currently only using GPRS (fastish dialup speed) to avoid heavy contract costs. The hardware is a PC-card, so make sure your laptop has a cardbus slot. There's a socket for an external antenna.

 

I bought a suitable mag-mount antenna, with a 2m cable from http://www.antennas-online.co.uk/ who seem to be better value than the boater's phone co.

 

I use a T-mobile PAYG sim card. These seem to come pre-enabled for data. The cost is .73p per KB, which is huge, but it's limited to £1 per day, so the effective cost is just that. You can also pre-buy five days for £2.50, halving the cost on trips.

 

I've not used this extensively yet, but it's certainly good enough for email and web-browsing, but probably not video.

 

If there are any more Linux-heads out there I'm happy to give the gory setup details.

 

Moomin

[carlt]

My favoured network is t-mobile, for coverage and cost. Just a mobile connected via the usb cable, though. 3g is the same price as gprs on t-mobile btw.

[Scotty]

I've found that the best balance is to invest in an unlocked datacard and have pay as you go sim's for three, orange & t-mobile.

 

Like the MoominPapa i've also got a Sierra Aircard 850 it's an HSPDA card capable of 7.2Mbps

I run it on windows using the Teslsrta Connection Manager which makes connection very simple and meters my usage.

 

Three is great if I can get a signal, it's gprs seems faster than orange's 3g

and when I can get HSDPA then it's as good as broadband.

Three do an 'add on' called broadband lite which is £10 for a month up to a 1gb,

or broadband plus which is £15 per month for up to 3gb limit

(you must be able to meter your usage and not go over the limit)

 

Orange has better coverage but never seems to be very fast,

again they do 'extras' and 'orange world unlimited access for a week' is £5

 

Then there's t-mobile who will charge a maximum of £1 per day for 'web and walk'

 

Using a mixture of the three different networks i can usually get some coverage, but none of them have enough coverage for me to sign up to a contract.

Edited February 6, 2008 by Scotty

[whammy]

I had a contract with T mobile, web and walk - £20 a month for internet on my lap top via a data card. The problem with us boaters is that we are inside a steel box with small windows so reception is often a problem. I purchased a antenna booster which plugged into the data card but the connector was so fragile it soon snapped off. My contract with T mobile ran out so I thought I would try the USB modem with 3, I am now very happy with the £15 a mont 3 gig a month package. The advantage of the USB connection is you can extend the cable and have it dangling next to a window. The coverage in my area is superb and is much faster than the T mobile web and walk data card. I am over half way through my first month and have only used 540mb of my download limit and have been on line for about 54 hours so the 3 gig limit will be enough for me. Not sure about the coverage for 3 in other areas but as with other providers you can check on their web sites if you area is covered.

[carlt]

I had a contract with T mobile, web and walk - £20 a month for internet on my lap top via a data card. The problem with us boaters is that we are inside a steel box with small windows so reception is often a problem.

Surely you mean "The problem is that many boaters choose to settle for a steel box" My phones internal antenna works perfectly, inside my boat.

[pearley]

I am, currently with T Mobile Web & Walk but I find the coverage, as a CCer, very patchy. When my contact is up I'll be looking around.

Edited February 6, 2008 by pearley

[sueb]

I am, currently with T Mobile Web & Walk but I find the coverage, as a CCer, very patchy. When my contact is up I'll be looking around.

 

I am very happy with my Orange contract and £5 a month unlimited eve & weekend 3G or gprs whichever is available. Vodafone was a nightmare.

Sue

[Big John]

I am very happy with my Orange contract and £5 a month unlimited eve & weekend 3G or gprs whichever is available. Vodafone was a nightmare.

Sue

Why was it a nightmare, Sue?

[Baloo]

in preparatiuon for our future life afloat we have cancelled our home service and

we bought a three modem yesterday. £100 pay as you go.

we don't like the idea of contracts as prices are fixed and its another thing for the postal address

 

at the moment you have choices of

£10 top up for 1 gig dowloads

£15 for 3 gig

£25 for 7 gig

the twist in the tail is that your top up is only valid for 30 days so you can't just operate on 'economy of scale'

we have yet to assess our usage but by my reconing if we are likely to use more than 1 gig in 20days then the the £15 top up each time is the most economical.

Edited March 10, 2008 by Baloo