May 2008

Neil Bird from iGadget Life has kindly pointed out that there are only a few days left to sign up and receive half price mobile broadband; the offer ends this Saturday, the 31st May. Existing customers of 3 can receive a 50% discount on line rental when taking out an 18 or 24 month contract which means mobile broadband can be yours for as little as £5 a month.

Neil mentions how he’s just recommended the deal to a friend who’s taking the leap on to the property ladder for the first time, which Neil realises is an expensive process and internet access can be an expensive addition. “This is where 3’s great offer of 1GB for £5 a month appealed, as she is already a 3 subscriber (thanks to me)” writes Neil. “This means that no landline is required, and she will be able to surf the net for next to nothing!” As Neil points out, where else can you get broadband, be wireless, and surf the net where ever you like, all for £5 a month?

You can sign up to 3’s half price deal here, but only until Saturday!

NEWSFLASH! We’ve just had it confirmed by 3 that the offer has been extended to the end of June, so that’s half price mobile broadband tariffs for existing 3 customers for another month!

Those chaps at CNET have taken it upon themselves to review the 3 mobile broadband USB modem and seem fairly pleased with their findings. Joseph Hanlon is the chosen reviewer, and much prefers the latest incarnation of the dongle, claiming that it has a “sexier new body”. He does have a “tiny, niggling complaint” about the design: “it’s that the cap which covers the USB connection on the front can’t fit on the back of the modem when it’s in use, making it somewhat easier to lose.”

Joseph compares the performance of both the new and old dongle side by side, finding they both reach speeds of between 1.5Mbps to 2.4Mbps, though he’s disappointed that the new dongle doesn’t out-perform the old one. Joseph concludes that although the technology of both is good with the “pleasingly zippy”, he looks forward to the later upgrade that will increase speeds to up to 7.2Mbps, which is when he thinks the new dongle will come in to it’s own. It’s therefore quite suitable that Joseph gives a final score of 7.2/10.

You can read the full review here.

‘Hands0n’ of Talk3G has reacted to the news of 3 desire to focus away from “up to XMbps” in their advertising tactics and he’s pleased with what he’s heard.

Quite rightly complaining “it is extremely rare to see these [maximum] speeds as a reality… where even Vodafone’s 7.2Mbps HSDPA users are complaining about sub-Megabit speeds in 7.2Mbps areas”, Hands0n quotes from the 3 website which explains theoretical maximum speeds and what factors will affect them (which can be found here). He thinks “One has to hand it to Three, the foregoing is a very honest and frank statement of the facts relating to mobile broadband and what to expect in terms of data speeds. It is indeed a leading step to take and I would encourage the other mobile operators to do likewise.”

Read the whole thread here and let Hands0n know your take on the matter.

There’s been a couple of interesting threads regarding 3 mobile broadband recently: one on Urban75 forum the other on boards.ie. In the Urban75 thread, ‘miss direct’ writes that she’s thinking of signing up to 3 mobile broadband using the half price deal as she’s an existing customer. She asks if 3GB a month will be enough, and also how fast the service is. ‘ChrisFilter’ reckons 3GB is “enough for browsing” but maybe not for downloading music or streaming TV programmes, while ‘Tricky Skills’ of London tells of his 1GB a month deal, claiming “It’s great for me… Connection is good and the speeds are fine for browsing”. If you’ve got any experiences to add, head on over to Urban75.

Meanwhile on boards.ie, ‘Glenman’ reports that he’s getting a great 3G signal despite living “in the middle of the hills near the Bluestack mountains on the back road between Glenties and Ballybofey”. Sounds charmingly rural! He asks whether 3G is transmitted by most of the masts in Ireland, to which ‘sesswhat’ links to a map on the 3 website which can be used to check coverage anywhere in the country. When conversation turns to Vodafone’s coverage ‘Jimmycrackcorm’ follows this up by writing “3 have the best 3G coverage in the country” Have you any experience of using 3 mobile broadband in Ireland? Let the members of boards.ie know what you think.

John Mulligan, of the Irish Independent, has news on 3 Ireland awarding BT a €44m contract “to expand its network infrastructure and roll out faster mobile broadband services.” The article reports that 3 hope it will “significantly boost” the number of mobile broadband customers (currently 80,000) “making it the leading provider of mobile broadband services in [Ireland].”

Mulligan also writes that Robert Finnegan, managing director of 3 Ireland, “believes that mobile broadband rather than fixed-line internet could eventually become the consumer standard.” BT are due to finish their technological support by the end of 2008, enabling 3 to deliver the industry standard speeds of up to 7.2Mbps. 3 also hope to boost the number of mobile cell mast locations from 70 to a whopping 770 within the next three years.

Read the full article here

According to the news department of MobileShop.com, 3 Mobile Broadband has the ability to be flexible, something they rate quite highly.

So if you will consider 3’s service as a well-toned yoga junkie, bending, contorting and basically being at peace with the world then you’d be on the right track. Taking their lead from the Australian PC World website, MobileShop pass on praise for the device’s connectivity and pleasurable small proportions it holds. All good stuff.

In light of this, what else is there to do other than go into the revolved half moon position…

Liam from greenhughes.com has been musing once again on the combination of the Eee PC and the 3 Mobile Broadband dongle (you may remember a previous article from April in which Liam helped readers get the dongle working with the Eee PC) and has some interesting thoughts on how far mobile internet has come. Believing the Eee PC and the 3 dongle to be “two [of the] hottest gadgets this year”, Liam thinks the two together make “a whole new computing experience”, as he relates it to the kind of change we experienced in communications when the mobile phone was introduced to the masses.

Liam creates some interesting parallels between the way we use the internet and the history of using phones before mentioning how 3G pricing structures “are a bit more reasonable making it an option for a regular [mobile] internet connection”. The next stage, in Liam’s view, is integrating the dongle into the Eee PC so mobile broadband is ready to go straight out of the box. - this next step could, he concludes, “usher in a whole new age of convenience in computing”.

We’ve already featured news of the PC World and 3 collaboration in the article Take what you can get… However, we thought we’d let you hear what Ewan thinks of the deal.

Writing at SMS Text news Ewan has come across a the appealing offer: PC World have teamed up with 3 to offer a free laptop to anyone who signs up to a 3 Mobile Broadband package, or £350 off of a higher spec laptop. To get this rather tasty offer you just need to sign up to an 18 month contract at £35 a month and the laptop is yours! Ewan thinks it’s a good idea, stating “I do like the subsidised model applied to laptops. Very smart” and he thinks it should help to convert more people to mobile broadband. More details of the offer can be found here.

Tech Radar have reviewed 3 Mobile Broadband and have come out of the other side impressed.

The introduction explains the advancement in the technology that surrounds connecting to the web via 3G and its genuine competitor to Wi-Fi credentials. Once into the details, there is mention of the value of mobile broadband and how 3 is currently offering existing customers half price deals.

Pleased with the promise of plug and play being actually that, Tech Radar conclude, “It’s fast, affordable and 3’s 3G and HSDPA coverage is impressive. Whether you’ve got an ultra-portable notebook that’s missing its internet when out and about, or just want an alternative to home broadband for your desktop PC, 3 Mobile Broadband is a solid option.”

Read the full review here.

3MB loves to reference any piece of cinematic history, and that is what Top Gun is. So when Stephen Waddington titled his 3 mobile broadband ‘Need for Speed‘ we were prompted to re-enact some key scenes and listen to Kenny Loggins - ace.

Recently, Stephen was able to give his 3 dongle some testing while out on the road as he has begun to favour the 3G connection over Wi-Fi. While not always as quick, rarely does he struggle to get a connection and subscribing to a 3G operator as opposed to multiple Wi-Fi suppliers is definitely better value.

His first test was on the M3 where connection didn’t drop once and he was able to browse the web comfortably. There were moments where speeds did fall beneath 1mps, however, which meant that the VPN connection to his office suffered and Outlook froze. The next test was on the train from Paddington to Reading where the connection wasn’t as quick and dropped twice, which highlighted a fault as Stephen manually reconnected. He considered that due to the inevitability of a modem disconnecting the lack of a setting for automatic reconnection appears to be an oversight. In the article are graphs detailing the finer nuances of the dongles performance should such things take your fancy.

Despite still being keen to test the dongle in further locations, Stephen is confident enough to conclude with “Granted 3G speeds are not always as fast Wi-Fi but the ease of connection and low cost makes this a Wi-Fi killer.” Yeeha, Jester’s dead!

ITWire’s Alex Zaharov-Reutt has spent a good proportion of the first page on his article about 3’s wire free dongle debating the wire. This is in light of the renaming of an article on CNET which was changed in accordance with 3 having not ‘dropped’ the dongle but, as Alex points out, having just released a new one.

So consider that all sorted and delve into his words and figures around the Australian release of the USB dongle. Alex gets stuck in with no number-based piece of information left in the wilderness, plus, any guy who can get you to keep reading after four paragraphs of wire or no wire discussion has a certain something.

Skype Nomad Rebecca is on a round the world trip and is keeping in touch with people via YouTube, her blog and also, as demonstrated by this video, her Skypephone. Her objective is to “not stop to sleep or eat. She will do everything on the move, using as many different forms of transport as possible” and the Skypephone is one method she can use to organise her trip while on the go. In the video, she explains what the 3 Skypephone is, mentioning the different colours it’s possible to get it in, demonstrates how to access Skype and uses it to call her friend Zoe in London. All in all, it’s a beautiful demonstration of the ease of communication using the Skypephone.

Gadget News have a small piece on the 3 dongle in relation to the MacBook Air that they’ve been playing with for the past couple of weeks. Though they love the Air, the one problem they’ve been having is “a lack of mobile broadband solutions.” Though there are USB ports for wireless broadband “most of them are hideous dongle things that just don’t suit the Air’s pleasing, minimalist design.” Enter the 3 mobile broadband dongle- Gadget News like the look of it as well as the fact that “It plugs straight into a USB slot and away you go”. Two salient points boiled down to the basics, just what we like to see.

Chris from Mobile Tech Addicts has just become a 3 mobile broadband customer and promises to publish his thoughts and findings over the next few days, including opinions on coverage and download speeds. There is mention of Chris not being able to get a connection in his rural location, but he’s not worried as “the purpose of the modem is for when I am visiting clients whom are all based in the city so it’s not an issue so far.” Chris also includes information on the specs of his ZTE MF622 USB modem, which is well worth a read. We look forward to reading Chris’s review!

There’s an interesting question on Yahoo! Answers from Noodles, a new customer of the 3 dongle. Firstly Noodles asks if she can send SMS texts from the dongle to a mobile phone, and then asks for more details on charges.
Though there are some answers, (kiki informs her that you can indeed send messages), a full explanation can be found on the mobile broadband section of the 3 website here, and states:

Can I send SMS messages using the E220 Modem?

Yes. Simply open the 3 DataModem Software and select the Envelope icon at the bottom of the screen.
For both Pay monthly and Pay As You Go customers, when you send text messages this way, you will be charged a standard rate, or it will be taken out of your allowance if you have a text Add-on.

Take a look at the question at Yahoo! Answers and let Noodles know if you have anything to add.