[Gllug] Internet connection through mobile phone

[Andy Smith]

Hi Christopher,

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 10:09:59PM +0000, Christopher Hunter wrote:
> No!!!  3G is largely unavailable (in 80% of the country, it's a figment
> of the "service" provider's imagination).  Where it does actually exist,
> it's flaky as hell - it's not reliable enough for even the most casual
> use.

I can only say that my experience is very different.

I have a "3" broadband dongle for Internet access whilst out and
about, and in most locations it works absolutely fine.  So far these
locations have included out and about in London, at home in TW14, in
a couple of hotels in Dublin, Plymouth, and Looe (Cornwall).

It even works sometimes on train and car journeys, though it can
drop out for several minutes at a time then which is frustrating.

A few months ago we moved house and BT cocked up and took over 2
weeks to supply us with a phone service.  During this time I used
the broadband dongle for all my Internet needs, on a 1GB/month plan.
Obviously I didn't try to download anything big, watch videos etc
etc but otherwise my usage was no different, by necessity.  No real
problems, I think it dropped out for about 5 minutes on one
occasion.

I'm really glad that mobile broadband exists, it makes my life a lot
easier.  I'd never replace the DSL service with it for all use, just
because I don't want to worry so much about how much I'm
downloading.  But if *I* can get by then I can't see why a light
Internet user can't too.

> It's also seriously expensive, when you compare data rates and
> download allowances with other media.  Don't go there - it'll just lead
> to tears!

It's not expensive if you stay within the limits of the service.  If
you need to download a lot then it's not a good solution.

Cheers,
Andy

-- 
http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

<GeorgeWBush> I'm still banned on #ubuntu-uk though. Or should I say,
  #ubuntu-anti-trans
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