8 responses to “Don’t be dangled out on a dongle: 3’s HSDPA modem in action”
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Thanks for the review Antony. It came exactly at the right moment as we’re buying some dongles this week. I agree with you that the quality of the actual network/connection ultimately wins so we’re going with Vodafone.
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I was with 3 on a 12 month contract with a k800i. I was very happy with them, especially because you can use data, and ring the UK, in several countries that have 3 networks for the same price as in the UK. However, their customer service is terrible. When I went to Australia for 3 months I asked them if I could drop down to a very low plan just to hold my number and my account with them. The best they could offer was £5 off, down to £30 a month. By this stage my contract was over, and I was wanting to get a new phone with 3 on my return. I couldn’t even transfer to prepaid and back to contract with 3. So I transferred to another prepaid provider and moved over to O2 on my return.
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Interesting to read your review – I’m a dongle newbie (still at the shrieking/giggling stage when engaged in conversations about it on the train). My only experience is of the Vodaphone E220, which (albeit with no previous experience to compare it to) I’m really pleased with.
My journey eastwards from Brighton has no wireless, but the dongle is terrifically quick to connect and keeps me online all the way.
The only thing I would say is that sometimes it brags about having a 3.6Mbps connection when it patently has nothing of the kind – once I get into the sticks, it downgrades to 53Kbps or thereabouts, but seems slow to admit it.
How about a dongle debating forum? Dongle Wrangle, perhaps? -
Les Dongleurs?
Thanks for letting me know it was useful, Tom. I had a hunch it would be… which is partly why I agreed to test the device.
3 just need to sort the software I out I think – they definitely have the edge on pricing / contracts. As for customer service, you hear horror stories about all operators, don’t you… although when it happens to you its always more galling…
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Interesting road(warrior) test Antony. I’m on 3 and use my HSDPA modem inside my LG Viewty which I find to be mostly excellent, even when hurtling towards the continent on the Eurostar, one niggle is I’d like a shorter USB cable.
I’m getting my Mum a dongle for her birthday this weekend, the 1GB Lite from 3 should be enough for her, and if I do it in my name it’s only £5/month as I already have a contract – bargain! (Oh, and because she’s just got an Asus EEEPC and the fantastic forums recommended the Huawei E220 as the best plug and play option).
BUT 3 customer service angers me as always, incompitent as they are to get my correct address in their database. Result? 3 failed credit checks in the store, before they told me they were credit checks – grrr.
Their product is the best, their service abominable, mind you after my Vodafone Singlepoint days I don’t think anything will be bad enough to sway be back to the red side… -
I’m glad someone can get a signal with the 3 dongle! I spent 3.5 hours on a train from Edinburgh to Crewe yesterday and had one 15 second connection, during which I downloaded lots of email to which I then couldn’t reply. While in Edinburgh (all right, Livingstone) I had one connected session of 40 mins, then nothing. The ‘signal’ indicator seems useless – it can show 5 bars and yet you still get no connection, or it shows no bars but your software tells you that you have an HSDPA connection. This is the ZTE version I’m using, incidentally, on an Acer laptop. Are there any settings anyone knows about that could ensure a better connection? I’ve tried it at home today and got good connection speeds, but I just can’t believe I had virtually no connection at all on the West Coast Main Line …
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I have recently been using the Hauwei and sometimes its ok but in shepards bush it seems useless. I often use my nokia n73 as a modem with the mac although customer services dont understand how as I only ment to be able to use it to get internet on the phone. And my nokia is connecting to the mac wirelessly! I only got the dongle because I was told I was over unlimited limit of 1Gb shame as dongle seem to suck and i had to get 18months for the 9Gig option. Maybe I will look at getting a vodaphone dongle as well, certainly not sure about renew phone contract which has just finished
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Can anyone help???
I signed up for the 3 mobile broardband in july,and for the first month everything was fine,but after that,the service has gone downhill (RAPIDLY!) the service now wont allow me to watch any type of video from any website without it stopping about ten or 15 times during each video to load the next part of the video. it also takes the time a cup of tea takes to make for each website to load, which ,as you can imagine is frustrating and almost makes me want to snap the dongle in half. So I phone 3 up and you end up talking to india. I must admit, their polite,helpful and respectful of the customer they are talking to, but it seems they are restricted to a certain number of things they can do.I have spoke with them on many occasions, and they test the speed of the service ,the area your in, and also ask you to try the modem in other computers to prove that its not a fault on my computer. By the way, each time you speak to them, you speak to a different person,and each person repeats the last persons ideas, of testing things, other computers and doing the speedtest. One member of the 3 support team in india even had tried to sweet talk me by suggesting i could get a full refund of the service since i signed up, Which is extremely unlikely, as nearly all forums suggest that nearly every1 has problems.Hardly likely their going to refund 80% of their customers. Does any1 have any idea’s as to what i can do now.seems no has been able to get their contract scrapped without paying up
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