Cell Phones in Great Britain - need mobile broadband

Author

need mobile broadband - newbie query

hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk

2007-09-19, 12:33 pm

Newbie query...

I need to be able to take my laptop around the UK and use it to access
the internet at a broadband bandwidth, preferably around 4MBit/s.

Please could someone tell me

a) what kind of item do I need to buy to stick into the laptop to
enable such access (i.e. what is it actually called - please excuse my
ignorance!)

b) what kind of account would you recommend me to open with a telecoms
company, meeting the following criteria:

i) large downloads at no extra charge (10GB per day would be great,
but I don't know what is standard nowadays)

ii) unlimited time connected

iii) payment up-front, e.g. pay-as-you-go, or quarterly, or
whatever, but with no direct debit or "standing instructions" - i.e.
they send me the bill, and if I don't pay, that means I don't want the
service for the subsequent period

iv) accessible almost everywhere in the UK (i.e. I don't
necessarily need it at the top of Mount Snowdon, but I don't want it
if it's only accessible within the M25)

If what I've just written indicates misunderstandings on my part, I'd
be very grateful to have them corrected!

Many thanks in advance!

Michael

Andy Burns

2007-09-19, 12:33 pm

On 19/09/2007 16:56, hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> what kind of item do I need to buy
> i) large downloads at no extra charge (10GB per day would be great,
> iv) accessible almost everywhere in the UK

A genie lamp?

hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk

2007-09-19, 12:33 pm

On Sep 19, 5:03 pm, Andy Burns <usenet.july2...@adslpipe.co.uk> wrote:
> On 19/09/2007 16:56, hanrahan...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
>
> A genie lamp?

What's the nearest then? :-)

Michael

Andy Burns

2007-09-19, 12:33 pm

On 19/09/2007 17:16, hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> What's the nearest then? :-)

With 3G-UMTS will be lucky to get 385kbps and coverage on orange is IME=20
variable, I think the vodafone USB modem is 3G-HSDPA which is supposed=20
to allow up to 4Mbps, I've no idea how likely you are to get that in=20
practice.

You need a 12 or 18month contract with them
for =A395/month you get the first 200MB included, above that you pay per =
MB.

So if you want 10GB/day let's say 5 days a week, less the included=20
200MB, is 199800 MB per month at =A34.25/MB, is =A3849,245.00 per month p=
lus=20
VAT takes it to just under =A31million per month.

I do think this'll be cheaper
[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& item=3D180159967265[
/url]

Graham

2007-09-19, 12:33 pm

<hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1190217406.188902.109740@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Newbie query...
>
> I need to be able to take my laptop around the UK and use it to access
> the internet at a broadband bandwidth, preferably around 4MBit/s.
>
> Please could someone tell me
>
> a) what kind of item do I need to buy to stick into the laptop to
> enable such access (i.e. what is it actually called - please excuse my
> ignorance!)
>
> b) what kind of account would you recommend me to open with a telecoms
> company, meeting the following criteria:
>
> i) large downloads at no extra charge (10GB per day would be great,
> but I don't know what is standard nowadays)
>
> ii) unlimited time connected
>
> iii) payment up-front, e.g. pay-as-you-go, or quarterly, or
> whatever, but with no direct debit or "standing instructions" - i.e.
> they send me the bill, and if I don't pay, that means I don't want the
> service for the subsequent period
>
> iv) accessible almost everywhere in the UK (i.e. I don't
> necessarily need it at the top of Mount Snowdon, but I don't want it
> if it's only accessible within the M25)
>
> If what I've just written indicates misunderstandings on my part, I'd
> be very grateful to have them corrected!
>
> Many thanks in advance!

You might want to tell us a bit more about why you need such access.

If for example you wish to attend business client sites and download large
files while there, you would be better advised to make specific arrangements
with each client for the use of their broadband service. This will probably
be beyond your technical knowledge (but you can learn) and may also be
beyond the capability of the technical staff at the client site.

In certain areas (hotels, Norwich city centre, etc.) there may be a WiFi
service. It's doubtful whether 4Mbits/sec is available, but 1Mbit/sec might
be. A wireless adapter in your laptop (probably built-in if the laptop is
fairly new) would allow you to exploit this. Costs from free to about £10
per hour, I think.

Others here tell that there are so many unsecured domestic wireless networks
that you should be able to park outside any house in a city centre or suburb
and steal what's available.

A GPRS data service from the likes of Vodafone will guarantee about
9.6kbits/sec (yes, about one sixth of the speed of a good dial-up modem!!!)
anywhere in the UK that you can get a voice signal. This is fine for
text-based emails and viewing this newsgroup. Many PDAs use this and some
people find the performance acceptable. You might get better performance in
some locations. For email the cost is manageable.

A satellite service (with a dish on the roof of your car) would certainly
give good download speeds - potentially as high as you've asked for. Costs
might be £1,000 to £10,000 per month with some significant up-front costs,
since I think most satellite service providers assume you want their
receiver dish fixed to a building! However, the BBC and the like use such
techniques for getting TV images back to the studio from remote locations
(Iraq or the like).

Somebody in the civil engineering industry will come along to tell us about
the techniques they use to provide fast internet access at site offices -
but these may well be telephone lines with ADSL installed for a day, week or
month as necessary. Seriously, if you can plan ahead and have fixed
locations, this is feasible and might cost only a few hundred pounds. Since
most of the cost is likely to be based on fixed 12-month contracts then
using it for a day is a bit expensive, especially since it could take
several weeks to set up.

-- Graham J

Eeyore

2007-09-19, 3:33 pm

hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> Newbie query...
>
> I need to be able to take my laptop around the UK and use it to access
> the internet at a broadband bandwidth, preferably around 4MBit/s.

You're in for a BIG disappointment if you think it can be done with a mobile
phone !

Graham

Jono

2007-09-19, 3:33 pm

Andy Burns presented the following explanation :
> On 19/09/2007 17:16, hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
>
> With 3G-UMTS will be lucky to get 385kbps and coverage on orange is IME
> variable, I think the vodafone USB modem is 3G-HSDPA which is supposed to
> allow up to 4Mbps, I've no idea how likely you are to get that in practice.
>
> You need a 12 or 18month contract with them
> for £95/month you get the first 200MB included, above that you pay per MB.

£25 per month + VAT, actually & the first 3Gb is included.

Voda's high speed network is available in London & some airports.

Andy Burns

2007-09-19, 3:33 pm

On 19/09/2007 19:46, Jono wrote:

> =A325 per month + VAT, actually & the first 3Gb is included.

I took the prices from
http://www. vodafonebusinessshop mailA=
ndData.UsbModem72& WT_ref=3DEBU_DEST_WO
R_USB

but I didn't read down to the fair use policy, so as the =A325/month one =

only stated a price per 24h I took the travel option, which priced per=20
MB instead ...

Even on the =A325/month deal, with 3GB/month included, that leaves the O/=
P=20
paying for the remaining 197GB/month, or more realistically being=20
chopped off. :-)

Owain

2007-09-19, 3:33 pm

hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> Newbie query...
> I need to be able to take my laptop around the UK and use it to access
> the internet at a broadband bandwidth, preferably around 4MBit/s.
> Please could someone tell me
> a) what kind of item do I need to buy to stick into the laptop to
> enable such access (i.e. what is it actually called - please excuse my
> ignorance!)

You have a choice of:
1. wi-fi wireless networking using local hotspots
2. '3' mobile data using the cellular phone network

> b) what kind of account would you recommend me to open with a telecoms
> company, meeting the following criteria:
> i) large downloads at no extra charge (10GB per day would be great,
> but I don't know what is standard nowadays)
> ii) unlimited time connected
> iii) payment up-front, e.g. pay-as-you-go, or quarterly, or
> whatever, but with no direct debit or "standing instructions" - i.e.
> they send me the bill, and if I don't pay, that means I don't want the
> service for the subsequent period

They vary but for wi-fi you could start at www.tesco.com/wifi they are
resellers for "the cloud" network of hotspots

> iv) accessible almost everywhere in the UK (i.e. I don't
> necessarily need it at the top of Mount Snowdon, but I don't want it
> if it's only accessible within the M25)

Do you need true "anywhere" access eg in a road layby, or would having a
network of hotspots suffice. A lot of BT phone boxes are now hotspots.

Owain

Jono

2007-09-19, 10:33 pm

Andy Burns explained :
> Even on the £25/month deal, with 3GB/month included, that leaves the O/P
> paying for the remaining 197GB/month, or more realistically being chopped
> off. :-)

Indeed. Vodafone wouldn't chop it off - they'd just send a very large
bill.....then chop it off.

The words cloud & cuckoo land spring to mind. 10Gb/day !

Soruk

2007-09-19, 10:33 pm

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:26:11 +0100, Graham <graham@nospam.zen.co.uk> wrote:
>
>A GPRS data service from the likes of Vodafone will guarantee about
>9.6kbits/sec (yes, about one sixth of the speed of a good dial-up modem!!!)

You should be able to get at least 28.8Kbps over GPRS - on Orange I've
managed to get nearly 5Kbyte/second on downloads - are you confusing this
with the 9.6Kbit/sec rate of GSM dial-up data?

--
-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell Eridani Star System
MailStripper - http://www.MailStripper.eu/ - SMTP spam filter
Mail Me Anywhere - http://www.MailMeAnywhere.com/ - Mobile email
Second Number - http://secondnumber.matrixnetwork.co.uk/

Andy Burns

2007-09-20, 4:33 am

On 20/09/2007 01:24, Soruk wrote:

> You should be able to get at least 28.8Kbps over GPRS - on Orange I've
> managed to get nearly 5Kbyte/second on downloads

Yes I've got that speed on Orange GPRS

> are you confusing this
> with the 9.6Kbit/sec rate of GSM dial-up data?

On orange dial-up can connect at 14.4 with HSCSD, but it's 2-3 orders of
magnitude removed from the original requirement ...

Clint Sharp

2007-09-20, 4:33 am

In message < 46f15b97$0$8424$db0f
efd9@news.zen.co.uk>, Graham
<graham@nospam.zen.co.uk> writes
>Somebody in the civil engineering industry will come along to tell us about
>the techniques they use to provide fast internet access at site offices -
>but these may well be telephone lines with ADSL installed for a day, week or
>month as necessary.
Can only speak of experiences at client sites but yes, that's spot on,
telephone lines with ADSL installed into portable buildings using a VPN.

>-- Graham J
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
Clint Sharp

Graham

2007-09-20, 4:33 am

"Soruk" <soruk@bitbucket.eridani.co.uk> wrote in message
news:slrnff3fdt.f0f.soruk@zeskia.int.eridani.co.uk...
> On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:26:11 +0100, Graham <graham@nospam.zen.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> You should be able to get at least 28.8Kbps over GPRS - on Orange I've
> managed to get nearly 5Kbyte/second on downloads - are you confusing this
> with the 9.6Kbit/sec rate of GSM dial-up data?

I was working on experience from when GPRS was first offered. The reference
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Gener...
_Service suggests that
you may be able to achieve 80kbits/sec download with 20 kbits/sec upload,
but in the worst case Multislot class 1 (downlink slot and 1 uplink slot)
with CS-1 coding scheme it's clear that 8kbits/slot is all that can is
guaranteed. So clearly I was confused, but not to any creat extent

The implication is that this performance is available with 98% coverage.
It's not clear what coverage is available for the faster speeds, and of
course it is the faster speeds that always feature in the advertising ...

The link at http://www.vocal.com/data_sheets/gprs1.html suggests 1 timeslot
(CS1) offers 9.05 kbits/sec.

My point was to show the guraranteed worst case data rate to be expected.
For background operations like text-only email delivery this is probably
acceptable, but I doubt it is useful for anything else.

-- Graham J

hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk

2007-09-20, 7:33 am

On Sep 19, 5:58 pm, Owain <owain47...@stirlingcity.coo.uk> wrote:
> hanrahan...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
> You have a choice of:
> 1. wi-fi wireless networking using local hotspots
> 2. '3' mobile data using the cellular phone network
>
>
> They vary but for wi-fi you could start atwww.tesco.com/wifithey are
> resellers for "the cloud" network of hotspots
>
>
> Do you need true "anywhere" access eg in a road layby, or would having a
> network of hotspots suffice. A lot of BT phone boxes are now hotspots.

Yes I need access e.g. in a layby, so the hotspot networks as provided
by Spectrum Interactive would not be suitable. Nor would leeching. So
I guess I will need something like the '3' mobile data service. Is it
possible to access this without using a mobile phone as such, i.e.
just by sticking a dongle into a laptop?

10GB/day was just a figure off the top of my head for the maximum I
might possibly want to download in a day. I could live with a much
smaller figure :-) I guess I can go to an internet cafe for big
downloads.

Likewise 4MBit/s but I would hope to get a lot more than 56k...

Thanks for the link to

http://www. vodafonebusinessshop USB

Am I right to think that if I buy this item and pay for a 12-month
contract, it connects by itself to the mobile phone network, and is
therefore all I need? Or do I need a mobile phone too?

Cheers,

Michael

Andy Burns

2007-09-20, 7:33 am

On 20/09/2007 12:51, hanrahan398@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> Yes I need access e.g. in a layby, so the hotspot networks as provided
> by Spectrum Interactive would not be suitable. Nor would leeching. So
> I guess I will need something like the '3' mobile data service. Is it
> possible to access this without using a mobile phone as such, i.e.
> just by sticking a dongle into a laptop?

you can get the USB dongle, or a PCMCIA card for laptops

> 10GB/day was just a figure off the top of my head for the maximum I
> might possibly want to download in a day. I could live with a much
> smaller figure :-)=20

I should hope so :-)

> I guess I can go to an internet cafe for big
> downloads.
>=20
> Likewise 4MBit/s but I would hope to get a lot more than 56k...

Seems you won't find 4Mbps HSDPA in a lay-by just yet, but you will get=20
"normal" 3G at about 1/10th that, most people thought 512kbps=20
down/256kbps up ADSL was great after dial-up.

> Thanks for the link to

> Am I right to think that if I buy this item and pay for a 12-month
> contract, it connects by itself to the mobile phone network, and is
> therefore all I need? Or do I need a mobile phone too?

You just need the soap-on-a-rope without a separate phone, actually they =

*do* allow it on PAYG, but then you pay =A3170 up-front and =A38.50 for e=
ach=20
24hour period in which you use it (subject to 500MB fair usage within=20
that 24 hours) which is actually not too shabby.

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