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Mobile Broadband?
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Nfl,
I was forced to use 3 mobile broadband for a period while awaiting installation of digiweb. The speed was reasonable enough for what I was getting, the only problem is that the service would cut occasionally. According to boards this is because their phone service takes priority, but I can’t verify any truth in that.
Overall I found it was ok for chat, email and the occasional youtube movie. If you can get a wired service, of course this is the way to go.
Neil
nfl-fan wrote:
A friend rang me yesterday to look at his PC… having switched from fixed line eircom broadband to O2 mobile he was wondering why his PC was so slow internet wise (he suspected he had some sort of virus).
Well… it turned out to be the O2 mobile broadband. With 4 of 5 bars light on the signal strength indicator I attempted to download a 10MB file… the data transfer rate, brace yourself, wait for it….
0.98kb sec at one stage up to a whopping 3.98kb sec at another stage
How on Earth can O2, Vodafone, Meteor and anyone else supplying these P.O.S. mobile dongles get away with it?
Because almost nobody really cares enough to do anything about it. You can go to lots of countries in the world that have much bigger land areas and more mountains than us and get a good mobile signal in most areas.
I see from our local (Wexford) press that our elected local government people (Council/Borough Council) have suddenly discovered that the MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) that was installed, at great cost and inconvenience some years ago, is not all it was supposed to be.
One of those self same members was on a local radio programme a few years ago when I was being interviewed about the disastrous state of our telecoms network (including broadband availability). I stated during that interview that in my opinion the MAN was a white elephant because (1) there were no services available on it and (2) the cost of connecting to it was extremely prohibitive. I also stated that the telecoms network in the country was totally inadequate to supply the services that we required (Not only broadband but even telephone lines in certain areas) due to lack of maintenance and investment.
Reaction to the programme and my outburst? Nada. Zilch. No irate listeners demanding action. No calls from irate planners and politicions refuting my outlandish claims. The “Ignore them and they’ll get fed up complaining and go away” syndrome.
Any wonder that companies can sell the dongles you descripe?
Theres always someone to be found who will say “Well my one works ok some of the time…” Yeh great.We continuously elect people who preside over these types of decisions. Anybody remember Ennis the “Information Age Town”.
Nothing like a Monday morning rant.
Thanks John.
John.
The entire thing is total horse manure John.
Who receives anything close to 3MB as per the advertisements… anyone?
3.98kb a second… I received data faster than that back in the days of dial-up 5-7 years ago.
How can these providers actually expect people to pay for that crap eh?
Me mate was lucky… he had a 7 day grace period which hadn’t expired yet… I told him to bring it back ASAP… otherwise he was tied in for 18 months.
Sorry Neil, thanks for the info… but to be perfectly honest someone would have to call to my door, give me one for free on a trial basis and come back and collect it from me if I didn’t like it… because I just won’t be making the effort to go seek one out myself.
These providers should be enforced to provide a set basic quality of service and if (when) you’re finding that your connection is unable to maintain that quality then you should be able to cut short contract with written notice and no penalty.
So called competition is supposed to enliven the market but when it comes to non fixed line broadband it just seems to miraculously evaporate. It’s as if the service hasn’t even been properly developed before it’s been introduced to the market.
I was fortunate enough to find a wireless provider in the North West here that provides me with 3Mb down and 1 up where Eircom can only provide 1024/384 respectively. It’s a reliable service now too.
I’m sure nfl, that you’ve checked out the local providers as much as possible but I know there are some that seem to slip under the radar, I only found mine by word of mouth locally.
Yeah a pal up the road lobbied some people together and with enough subscribers cut a deal with some bloke in Gorey who does satellite broadband or something along those lines. I’ve a farmer a quarter of a mile down the road from me, and 3 house a quarter of a mile north of me… the numbers just aren’t there in our area.
I’m not too bothered about the whole “not having it a home thing”… but I am amazed by these mobile dongles… I just can’t understand how you can fool people into thinking that they are a worthwhile acquisition, granted maybe in some places you might get something that borders upon decency.
And if Dublin-Joe does get a decent speed then why should Enniscorthy-Joe have to pay the same for a service that’s 10-20 worse than Dublin-Joes?
nfl-fan wrote:
Yeah a pal up the road lobbied some people together and with enough subscribers cut a deal with some bloke in Gorey who does satellite broadband or something along those lines. I’ve a farmer a quarter of a mile down the road from me, and 3 house a quarter of a mile north of me… the numbers just aren’t there in our area.
Great John Thats pretty rural.
I had to use mobile broadband for a while and in fairness it was a good bit quicker then dail up. Still slow though, I thought vodafone was a little bit better. With 3 and meteor there was no reception at all, but even with vodafone you can forget about watching anythig online. But you’re right. When you living rural you might as well forget about broadband.
I’m lucky I have it now through Perlico. But my neighbour who is living 20 meter away from me and get their phoneline from the ver same pole as me was just a little bit to late and couldn’t get it, because apperntly Perlico only have a x amount of slots and if you’re to late , thats it. The strange thing is that Eircom will not give it to them either. And that after sending them out a leaflet anouncing that BROADBAND IS NOW AVAILABLE IN YOUR AREA. yeah right
Anyway. relax and enjoy the countrysideWell… the area I live in is apparently now officially broadband enabled via 3 and the National Broadband Scheme.
I checked their website… looks like another USB Key job. Whilst they are guaranteeing upload/download speeds I’d still be sceptical… but they must be doing something different because the service is only available in certain areas and is on a phased rollout basis… which must mean they are installing some sort of infrastructure to accompany the USB key?
I’ve sent them an e-mail to see if I can get some clarification on things… we’ll see how it goes.
That being said… I’m living a happy enough life without the lure of spending half the night in front of the PC. It would be useful from a work perspective though.
There are certain vairables involved. One is the quality of the signal and another is how many people are using the signal at the time and the number of masts in the area. I have a 3 one. In Tipp town it is rubbish most of the time. I used it in Nenagh and it was as good as my landline. Really depends on when and where you are using it really. Get a free trial from some of them to see how well they work. I was reading an article a while back which claimed that broadband in Japan is currently running at 1000 times faster than in Ireland. Maybe we would be better off just using carrier pigeons.
After submitting a query to 3 about their service yesterday morning my phone started to ring, no number came up on the display, I was busy with work so I decided not to answer.
The phone rang again… and again… and again… in fact I was called about 20 times yesterday.
At about 7:30pm last night I gave in and answered the phone suspecting it might be someone from 3… and it was… Paddy from Bangalore.
So… Paddy from Bangalore answered the questions I had, from his script, and assured me that 3 were tied in with the Irish Government on this Broadband scheme and that they had to deliver… so I decided to sign up…
Now… here’s where the fun begins… the Spanish Inquisition commenced… to cut a long story short the questions I was being asked were bordering on an invasion of privacy…
“Where do you live?”
“Do you own the house?”
“How long have you been living there?”
“Where did you live before this?”
“Did you own that house?”
“How long were you living there?”
“Who do you work for?”
“How long have you been working there?”
“Where do you want the dongle shipped to?” – “My Parents” – “I need to contact my manager please hold”
“Where do you get your bank statements sent to?” – “To Work” – “I need to contact my manager please hold”
There was a load of other dialog in between all this… but Paddy needed to gather as much detail as possible because Three need to run a Credit Check… all this for a €20 a month USB Dongle!
In the end I got so p*ssed off answering questions… so I hung up.
Paddy from Bangalore called back… I killed the call.
Paddy from Bangalore called back again… I answered and said straight away “Please don’t call me again” and hung up.
I didn’t hear back from Paddy.
If I was applying for a loan from 3 I could understand all the questions… but considering that I was supposed to be paying them €20 I just thought the whole thing was farcical…. I mean there’s managing your risk… and there’s invadid people’s privacy and possible breaching data protection laws.
Fook 3…
J
nfl-fan wrote:
After submitting a query to 3 about their service yesterday morning my phone started to ring, no number came up on the display, I was busy with work so . . . .
. . . . . but considering that I was supposed to be paying them €20 I just thought the whole thing was farcical…. I mean there’s managing your risk… and there’s invadid people’s privacy and possible breaching data protection laws.Fook 3…
J
He wasn’t by chance a deposed Prince with so many gazillion dollars that he needed to transfer to a foreign bank account before the rebels slaughtered all his relatives and confiscated his inheritance? Did you get his email? :D
David
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