sherpa
Guest
Hi All,
Anybody had experience of the best and fastest dongle for use on the road.
Anybody had experience of the best and fastest dongle for use on the road.
derekfaeberwick
Guest
It really depends where you are. Best overall IMO is vodafone, but where I live it's 3.
ajs
Guest
there's a dongle thread somewhere on here..
it went on for years...millions of posts...
regards
aj
biggirafe
Guest
I would agree with Derek I have a Vodaphone, but it depends what you mean by best,
3G coverage is patchy in the UK, some suppliers have areas better covered than others, some none at all
no single operator IMHO has this sewn up but Vodaphone seems to be best. Costs vary,
Will you be going into Europe? Again the best dongle in the UK might not be best in Europe, certainly costs vary a lot in this area.
This site is pretty good
Top 10 Broadband » Mobile Broadband Dongles - Mobile Internet Dongle Deals & Information (misspelt 'Dongal' / 'Dongals')
Also have a read through this thread, some of us have been looking at the FON WiFi network which seems to be worth looking into
http://www.wildcamping.co.uk/forums/general-chat/8328-internet-europe-6.html#post82937
Pioneer
Guest
Aj, thought the fastest dongle on the road was you
regards,
Bill.
regards,
Bill.
derekfaeberwick
Guest
Aj, thought the fastest dongle on the road was you
regards,
Bill.
Surely you meant NOT on the road?
ajs
Guest
derekfaeberwick
Guest
Never mind, think of the nice clean licence.
Firefox
Full Member
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3 is pretty good on reception. I've got one. What really p's me off though is the fact any unused bandwidth expires 30 days after activation. This makes PAYG more like a contract. I can't see any reason for it other than they afford to rip off users in what is still a fairly limited market. I did ask why this was the case and the reply given was that it was "developing technology." Probably would be more honest to say, competition has not developed enough to force them to provide a fair service.
Canalsman
Guest
I use a 3 dongle and I have found it to work well.
I got mine on a cheap contract rate because I'd swapped my mobile to 3 as well.
Worth a look for potentially cheap ongoing access.
Their website at 3 - Mobile Broadband gives pretty good and accurate coverage maps too.
PS 3 shares the Orange network - all part of the same group.
I got mine on a cheap contract rate because I'd swapped my mobile to 3 as well.
Worth a look for potentially cheap ongoing access.
Their website at 3 - Mobile Broadband gives pretty good and accurate coverage maps too.
PS 3 shares the Orange network - all part of the same group.
Last edited by a moderator:
l77 tuf
Guest
t mobile for me i can even get signal in peak district were as my daughter uses 3 and she not got coverage
derekfaeberwick
Guest
I've never had 'no coverage' with Vodafone, but it has happened quite often with '3' .
In poor reception areas voda goes 2g, I don't think '3' does this, possibly it does with a bit of interfering, I'm not sure, but Voda does this automatically.
In poor reception areas voda goes 2g, I don't think '3' does this, possibly it does with a bit of interfering, I'm not sure, but Voda does this automatically.
Solwaybuggier
Guest
3 does drop back to 3G - you just need to select "3G preferred" in "Networks" rather than "3G only". I've got 3 & Vodafone dongles - got the latter because I was fed up with topups expiring on 3, with most of the value unused.
So far I've found Vodafone coverage no better than 3, tbh - very unimpressed though with Vodafone's "help line" (sic) who told me twice that the software didn't support dropping back to 2G where no 3G coverage. A bit of digging round on their website revealed it does so (as you say.)
The other pain with Vodafone is having to unlock their Content Control - which stopped me checking prices of a bottle of brandy! Not difficult to get removed, but you do get fed up with call centres after a while.
derekfaeberwick
Guest
Agreed,but I've used voda the length and breadth of the country and found the coverage to be exceptional.
biggirafe
Guest
You can do this via your login on their web pages, but I would agree their call centre is not good, we are a business user and try our hardest not to phone them unless we are left with no choice. Having said that does nayone know of a good telecoms call centre
Baggins
Guest
I found 3 pretty useless and very slow. In fact there was a recent report in the trade press that they had some stores withdraw from the market due to poor coverage and many returns.
My BT dongle that cost a tenner with my home broadband contract gets a signal almost anywhere but was USELESS for roaming in France. Additional recent benefit was that they gave all registered users a free Gig a month for 18 months - that I like
My BT dongle that cost a tenner with my home broadband contract gets a signal almost anywhere but was USELESS for roaming in France. Additional recent benefit was that they gave all registered users a free Gig a month for 18 months - that I like
Solwaybuggier
Guest
I think they're all useless for roaming in France!! Unless you have a very very healthy bank balance that is...
We just use McDonalds & other free WiFi places in France - if we were there for longer we'd probably "find" a native address and buy a local PAYG dongle.
dependencies
Guest
Well I just bought an 02 by mistake hoping it would work with my apple laptop which you can have cheap if your interested £20