what mobile broadband

[dreadnought]

hi,just wondering what wi fi boaters are using and if they are happy with there provider,i`m currently on 3 but the contracts about up and thinking of moving,any recommendations please,many thanks

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, dreadnought said:

hi,just wondering what wi fi boaters are using and if they are happy with there provider,i`m currently on 3 but the contracts about up and thinking of moving,any recommendations please,many thanks

 

We have been with Three for many years and have found that their coverage is pretty good across almost all of the system. We simply use a phone and 'hot-spot' off it - no fancy WiFi or Mifi, aerials etc.

[GUMPY]

Consider this, if you have been with 3 a couple of years then the yearly increase will be pegged at 4.5%, if you sign a new contract now then the yearly increase will be 3.5% plus inflation so at the moment 14%.

That is one reason I haven't bothered to look for a new tarriff as it would have to be at least 10% cheaper than the £15.65 I pay now to be worthwhile.

[jeanb]

4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

We have been with Three for many years and have found that their coverage is pretty good across almost all of the system. We simply use a phone and 'hot-spot' off it - no fancy WiFi or Mifi, aerials etc.

Similar here, been with 3 for about 10 years and we also use their mifi. 

[Jo_]

He has 3, I have EE. Between us there's never a problem but, on balance, I usually get better coverage than him.

 

(And when I rang a month ago to say I was thinking I ought to leave EE because of the April increase, they reduced my monthly cost to below what was it and there is no increase in the next year and then they said ring again to negotiate the next contract!)

[Tony1]

 

I would give some thought to your cruising pattern before making a final decision. 

I found when I was in a marina in 2021 their wifi was shockingly bad, and I had to rely on hot-spotting with my phone. 

EE did not work at all at that marina, but I could get just enough signal from O2.

So if you're going to spend lots of time in one location, try to find out if your favoured supplier has decent coverage in that spot.

If you're CCing its less of an issue. I find that having two options is great if internet is really important to you.

O2 has good coverage in most places, especially using a mast on the roof linked to a wifi router indoors. But there have been one or two spots where O2 had nothing, and my fallback was to use my EE phone as a hot spot. 

I dont think I've found anywhere in the last 18 months where neither of them worked at all.

It also changes from year to year. In summer 2021 I couldn't get anything from either O2 or EE when I moored near Platt Lane bridge 

on the Llangollen, but when I checked as I passed the spot a few weeks ago, you can now get a half-decent signal on both EE and O2. 

 

PS- I was never able to get to the bottom of this, but worth a mention.

I was told that EE mobile phone SIMs (which I use for internet) only allow a maximum of 100Gb of hot spotting per month (regardless of your monthly data allowance).

I have heard you can use gifting as get around this, but the person who had the problem called theier customer services and could not resolve the problem. So check if you are allowed to hot spot for all of your data allowance. 

Some have fair usage policies that might limit you if you are a very high-data internet user. 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Tony1

[jeanb]

Upper Heyford has been our blackspot these last few years.

[Paul C]

The only way to know if a particular place is in a not-spot is to try it - the coverage maps won't be super useful in areas without postcode lookup/housing etc. To that end, I'd also recommend getting a no contract or 1 month contract deal, and be prepared to switch and try another (or a few others).

 

Each time you switch to a different provider you'll need to edit/update the APN on the device - it might do it automatically, but mine didn't.

 

I did some extensive tests last time I was out and about, and concluded that no one network is better than the others, its just that some areas favour one, some another, some areas are good and some are bad.

[robtheplod]

We use Vodafone, but not heard anyone else on the forum does......

[Rob-M]

Just now, robtheplod said:

We use Vodafone, but not heard anyone else on the forum does......

When my work phone was on Vodafone it rarely had a signal on the boat.

[robtheplod]

Just now, Rob-M said:

When my work phone was on Vodafone it rarely had a signal on the boat.

I do hear people not rating vodafone but we've never had any dead spots  ... 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

28 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

We use Vodafone, but not heard anyone else on the forum does......

I use Vodafone

does me alright

 

I used to get dead spots in places on the shroppie, such as High Offley,

but last year there was no problem

[haggis]

We use EE and it is very unusual not to have a signal. My phone has stacks of data and I keep the MiFi topped up so that Iain's phone ( on O2) can get internet access. Where the signal is a bit iffy the MiFi gets a better signal than my phone probably as all it is doing is accessing the internet while my phone has other things to do. We don't have any ariels but the MiFi is usually near a window. 

[Paul C]

1 hour ago, robtheplod said:

We use Vodafone, but not heard anyone else on the forum does......

 

Vodaphone is pretty good coverage nationally. On the canals, where there's sometimes local issues (of being in a valley etc), there's some dead spots, but then that's true of all the other networks. As said before, no single network is significantly better or worse than any other.

[Feeby100]

Ee no problem what so ever 

[Jak]

We have Virgin mobile unlimited data.  The SIM is in a little Huawei mobile router. It connects to a small stubbie mag mount ariel attached to the roof. Virigin uses O2. Only got a deal on it as a Virgin cable home customer. Its a good setup. Amazed how much difference the tiny aeriel makes. We gave up on a telly ariel years ago as we can stream tv live as well as Amazon, Netflix, etc. Using a firestick or internet telly. 
 

its a really good and cheap set-up 👍👍 unlimited data makes so much difference.  Never need to worry. 
 

[IanD]

16 hours ago, Paul C said:

The only way to know if a particular place is in a not-spot is to try it - the coverage maps won't be super useful in areas without postcode lookup/housing etc. To that end, I'd also recommend getting a no contract or 1 month contract deal, and be prepared to switch and try another (or a few others).

 

Each time you switch to a different provider you'll need to edit/update the APN on the device - it might do it automatically, but mine didn't.

 

I did some extensive tests last time I was out and about, and concluded that no one network is better than the others, its just that some areas favour one, some another, some areas are good and some are bad.

 

What area did you cover?

 

From looking at the coverage maps, some places there isn't much difference, in others -- especially rural canal ones -- there are big differences, and from where I've looked it seems EE generally has the best coverage with Three second -- but sometimes the positions are reversed...

 

In case people are unaware of it, Better Internet Dashboard is a very useful site for checking coverage of all the networks.

 

https://bidb.uk/

[blackrose]

I use the Ofcom coverage checker

 

Broadband and mobile coverage checker - Ofcom

[IanD]

14 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I use the Ofcom coverage checker

 

Broadband and mobile coverage checker - Ofcom

 

BIDB gives you a lot more useful information, showing coverage and type (e.g. 4G/5G, indoor/outdoor) for each of the networks, making comparisons much easier.

[cuthound]

18 hours ago, Rob-M said:

When my work phone was on Vodafone it rarely had a signal on the boat.

 

That was my experience when my phone was on Vodaphone.

 

Currently find EE have the best coverage overall, but every network will have dead areas so best to see what works best for the areas you cruise most.

 

There are plans for the mobile phone companies to share masts to improve coverage but progress seems to be slow.

Edited April 3, 2023 by cuthound
To add the last paragraph

[IanD]

3 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

That was my experience when my phone was on Vodaphone.

 

Currently find EE have the best coverage overall, but every network will have dead areas so best to see what works best for the areas you cruise most.

 

There are plans for the mobile phone companies to share masts to improve coverage but progress seems to be slow.

Depending on how much data you need, if you want to use EE then the Scancom pre-paid SIMs are good deals -- for example their "rural broadband" unlimited SIM is £229+VAT and runs until 8 Jan 2025, 21 months from now works out at about £13pcm:

 

https://www.scancom.co.uk/products/rural-broadband-data-sim-ee-prepaid

Edited April 3, 2023 by IanD

[Tonka]

19 hours ago, robtheplod said:

I do hear people not rating vodafone but we've never had any dead spots  ... 

That does surprise me because I am on Vodafone and Culcutt Marina is very poor for signal. Is it OK in Ventnor Farm ?

[Paul C]

9 hours ago, IanD said:

 

What area did you cover?

 

From looking at the coverage maps, some places there isn't much difference, in others -- especially rural canal ones -- there are big differences, and from where I've looked it seems EE generally has the best coverage with Three second -- but sometimes the positions are reversed...

 

In case people are unaware of it, Better Internet Dashboard is a very useful site for checking coverage of all the networks.

 

https://bidb.uk/

 

I did a whole thread on it: 

 

Its also why I mentioned to take online coverage checkers with a pinch of salt, and to actually try it out in places. For whatever reason (probably being in the base of a valley half the time), canals are weird for coverage and you can get pockets of poor reception (and probably other pockets of excellent).

[LadyG]

On 02/04/2023 at 11:42, dreadnought said:

hi,just wondering what wi fi boaters are using and if they are happy with there provider,i`m currently on 3 but the contracts about up and thinking of moving,any recommendations please,many thanks

Well is it going up?

I have a SIM and a phone contract. I changed my requirements and the SIM went down  by £8, phone up £2.55

That was three, see my other posting 

Not that I am a fan, I thought I was better with the devil I know. 

I believe there will be better deals.

Edited April 3, 2023 by LadyG

[Paul C]

I think he meant "about up" as in, its a fixed term contract coming to its end, not a price rise.

 

Of course, some providers are raising prices too, that's a separate issue.

 

Personally (for a main mobile phone) the switching process is so easy, I've always kept an eye on prices and switched as/when needed to follow the savings. For a data connection thing, I've never gotten into a long contract and/or always been able to cancel without incurring more costs or credit file markers etc.