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Author 3G-USB Broadband Dongles
Mark Carver

2008-02-17, 10:33 am

I notice an increasing range of these. Are there any short term (1 or 3 month
) contracts available, they all seem to be on 18/24 month contracts ?

I'm thinking in terms of using one to 'bridge the gap' while moving house etc.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.
Jono

2008-02-17, 10:33 am

Mark Carver brought next idea :
> I notice an increasing range of these. Are there any short term (1 or 3 month
> ) contracts available, they all seem to be on 18/24 month contracts ?
>
> I'm thinking in terms of using one to 'bridge the gap' while moving house
> etc.


Buy one SIM free and use an existing Voice SIM with a data bundle on it
that you can drop off when not needed?

<http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=141528>

They're not terribly cheap, hence the 12/18/24 month terms.

For that matter, do you have a 3G phone you can hook up with a USB
cable?


Soruk

2008-02-17, 10:33 am

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:25:20 +0000, Mark Carver <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>I notice an increasing range of these. Are there any short term (1 or 3 month
> ) contracts available, they all seem to be on 18/24 month contracts ?
>
>I'm thinking in terms of using one to 'bridge the gap' while moving house etc.


I saw an advert in Metro that implied 3 were now doing them on PAYG. 10
quid for 1GB (IIRC), then an eye-watering £1/Mbyte after that.

--
-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell Eridani Star System
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HVS

2008-02-17, 12:34 pm

On 17 Feb 2008, Soruk wrote

> On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:25:20 +0000, Mark Carver
> <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
> I saw an advert in Metro that implied 3 were now doing them on
> PAYG. 10 quid for 1GB (IIRC), then an eye-watering £1/Mbyte
> after that.


I think there's a fairly substantial up-front purchase cost in
addition to that, though. (Like phones, the price of the hardware
depends on the contract term.)

--
Cheers,
Harvey
Steve Terry

2008-02-17, 12:34 pm


"Theo Markettos" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message
news:lsv*q2H7r@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk...
> In uk.telecom.mobile HVS < usenet@removethiswhh
vs.co.uk> wrote:
>
> 100 quid for the HSDPA USB modem on PAYG:
> http://threestore.three.co.uk/payg/default.aspx
> (click on 'USB modem')
>
> Or you can use a 3G phone as a modem for no extra cost.
> If it's not an HSDPA phone it'll be 384Kbps rather than 1.8/3.6/7.2Mbps.
> (But think it's only Vodafone with 7.2Mbps).
>

Nokia 6120 is HSDPA and £99.99 on 3 PAYT

Steve Terry


Andy

2008-02-17, 10:33 pm


"Soruk" <soruk@bitbucket.eridani.co.uk> wrote in message
news:slrnfrgo88.ct1.soruk@zeskia.int.eridani.co.uk...
> On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:25:20 +0000, Mark Carver
> <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
> I saw an advert in Metro that implied 3 were now doing them on PAYG. 10
> quid for 1GB (IIRC), then an eye-watering £1/Mbyte after that.
>


I'm using 3's 3G to surf the net now with my old mobile (C975), £5 per
month with a 2 GB limit. download speed is a respectable 50+ kb/s.

You should look on eBay for some old 3G phones that have the software and
USB cable.


The Natural Philosopher

2008-02-18, 4:33 am

Andy wrote:
> "Soruk" <soruk@bitbucket.eridani.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:slrnfrgo88.ct1.soruk@zeskia.int.eridani.co.uk...
>
> I'm using 3's 3G to surf the net now with my old mobile (C975), £5 per
> month with a 2 GB limit. download speed is a respectable 50+ kb/s.
>
> You should look on eBay for some old 3G phones that have the software and
> USB cable.
>
>

Can someone tell me what te current speeds actually are? I have to write
a page of a website for someone to sell off a stall and do credit card
validation over a link like this: I would want to know how fast a data
rate we can expect.



Ian

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

On 18 Feb, 10:03, The Natural Philosopher <a...@b.c> wrote:

> Can someone tell me what te current speeds actually are? I have to write
> a page of a website for someone to sell off a stall and do credit card
> validation over a link like this: I would want to know how fast a data
> rate we can expect.


With the 3 Huawei E220 modem, and in an area showing 3.5G, I got a
maximum of 400kbps and an average of 300kbps. In a 3G / 3 bar area I
got about 40kbps.

Ian
alexd

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:03:08 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Can someone tell me what te current speeds actually are? I have to write
> a page of a website for someone to sell off a stall and do credit card
> validation over a link like this: I would want to know how fast a data
> rate we can expect.


Got 1.6Mbps from thinkbroadband.com and 1.8Mbps from speedtest.net on
Vodafone HSDPA dongle in laptop last week.

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The Natural Philosopher

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

Ian wrote:
> On 18 Feb, 10:03, The Natural Philosopher <a...@b.c> wrote:
>
>
> With the 3 Huawei E220 modem, and in an area showing 3.5G, I got a
> maximum of 400kbps and an average of 300kbps. In a 3G / 3 bar area I
> got about 40kbps.
>
> Ian

Right so no worse than a modem at least..and possibly ten times better.

400kbps would be utter luxury.
The Natural Philosopher

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

alexd wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:03:08 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>
> Got 1.6Mbps from thinkbroadband.com and 1.8Mbps from speedtest.net on
> Vodafone HSDPA dongle in laptop last week.
>

Ok..the issue here is that the portable will be operating in very
uncertain areas of reception - outdoors at shows and the like.


It looks like if it works at all, it will be around 40k-50k minimum.

So pages will have to be a few K at most. Think that is do-able.
Many thanks..
Iain

2008-02-18, 3:33 pm

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Can someone tell me what te current speeds actually are? I have to write
> a page of a website for someone to sell off a stall and do credit card
> validation over a link like this: I would want to know how fast a data
> rate we can expect.


Might be worth looking at http://www.mobilepos.co.uk before spending a
lot of time on this.
Whinging Courier

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm

In article <61r1uuF20paueU1@mid.individual.net>,
mark.carver@invalid.invalid says...

> I notice an increasing range of these. Are there any short term (1 or 3 month
> ) contracts available, they all seem to be on 18/24 month contracts ?
>
> I'm thinking in terms of using one to 'bridge the gap' while moving house etc.


3 do a PAYG, buy the dongle for a onner (that's a hundred quid to you)
and pay ten quid for a gig's worth of data which lasts a month.

That's all I know.
The Natural Philosopher

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm

Iain wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>
> Might be worth looking at http://www.mobilepos.co.uk before spending a
> lot of time on this.


MMm. Thats not half a bad idea..

Steve Terry

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm


"The Natural Philosopher" <a@b.c> wrote in message
news:1203337215.17490.0@proxy01.news.clara.net...
> Ian wrote:
>
> Right so no worse than a modem at least..and possibly ten times better.
> 400kbps would be utter luxury.
>

Just timed my Nokia 6630 via DKU2 USB datalead using 3 PAYT
on their 5quid a month packet internet deal.:
350kb/s down
55kb/s up

I would expect maybe double that with the 10qud a month broadband deal.

Sending this using it, on my laptop using aioe.cjb.net free Newsserver

Steve Terry


Mike

2008-02-19, 4:33 am

On 17 Feb 2008 18:00:35 +0000 (GMT), Theo Markettos
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

>50 quid for the USB modem on PAYG if you're a student or know one, buy
>before the end of the month:
>http://www.three.co.uk/personal/pro...d_/students.omp


This can be bought online if one has an ac.uk email address and a
promotional code. Anyone know what the code is?

Mike.

Ian

2008-02-19, 7:33 am

On 19 Feb, 00:22, "Steve Terry" <gFOUR...@tesco.net> wrote:

> Just timed my Nokia 6630 via DKU2 USB datalead using 3 PAYT
> on their 5quid a month packet internet deal.:
> 350kb/s down
> 55kb/s up
>
> I would expect maybe double that with the 10qud a month broadband deal.


Why would you expect it to be faster? That's pretty close to what I
got with the dongle.

Ian
Ian Smith

2008-02-19, 3:33 pm

Steve Terry wrote:
> "The Natural Philosopher" <a@b.c> wrote in message
> news:1203337215.17490.0@proxy01.news.clara.net...
> Just timed my Nokia 6630 via DKU2 USB datalead using 3 PAYT
> on their 5quid a month packet internet deal.:
> 350kb/s down
> 55kb/s up
>
> I would expect maybe double that with the 10qud a month broadband deal.


About 1Mbps down and 50k up using the Huawei E220 dongle (from a B&B
farmhouse near Ross-on-Wye at the weekend).

Be careful if you get the ZTE dongle - it can be dog to install. My
local 3 store has a pile returned that they've had to swap for the
Huawei.

regards, Ian S
LinkBot





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