June 2008

3mobilebuzz is beginning to feel quite close to the RV community. It is not something I imagined I’d be writing about, I mean, it doesn’t instantly fall under the umbrella of interest when one is thinking about communication technology. However, here we are, and the recreational vehicle is featuring again albeit briefly, courtesy of the blog Fulltiming.

Fulltiming refers to living ‘full-time’ in your motor home, and as part of this Stew, Shona and Jessica make use of a 3 mobile broadband dongle. At a recent wedding at the Cedar Hotel in Stowmarket, Stew was impressed with the signal and decided to make use of it by uploading 38megs worth of photographs. The dongle “handled it fantastically”, which led Stew to comment favourably on 3’s place in the mobile broadband market currently.

The full article is here, where you can also learn something about fulltiming…

As the iPhone looks toward making an impact in the Australasia territories, 3 have had to revert to old fashioned ’strength in numbers’ tactics.

SMS Text News report that only three of the four main operators in the region will be getting the Apple device. That’ll be the confirmed Optus and Vodafone and the due to be confirmed Telstra. This leaves out 3, who seem to have been unable to broker a deal for iPhone to be brought into the 3 inventory. In light of this they have turned to consumer power, setting up this site where 3 users can leave messages for Apple declaring their reasons and desire to see the iPhone on the 3 network.

As Julia states in the SMS piece, it is unlikely that this will sway opinion, especially as normal avenues have not been fruitful for 3. However, it’s good to see them doing their best - a sentiment shared by 3 service users if the comments left on the It’s Good to be 3 site are anything to go by.

Back in April we featured, on the hallowed pages of 3mobilebuzz, the forum of Motorhome Facts as its users discussed the possible solutions for getting broadband on the move.

Well, they’ve been up to more of the same - with ActiveCampers asking if “£120 for 18 months mobile internet at 3Gb a month” is indeed the bargain he thinks it is. The majority of responses appear to concur. A response that saw ActiveCampers go for the deal, along with the self-confessed procrastinating Rallier who stated “This offer has made me take the plunge.”

After not being impressed by 3 when using their phone service, Jimmyb01 was tempted back. Tempted by the PAYG dongle, the lack of the tie in contract and the £49.99 price associated with it.

Things have turned out well, so much so that Jimmyb01 has given the 3 mobile broadband a 5/5 star review at Broadband-Help. He has so far been “absolutely delighted with [the] product, superfast reliable broadband.” Coupled with simple and easy setup he approves entirely; he’s topped up and has been streaming video like an internet viking.

Read it all here.

The news of the offer by NatWest to give students banking with them £50 off 3’s mobile broadband has been given the SMS Text News treatment.

Patrick writes the piece, making amusing references to his own and Ewan Macleod’s student days. It seems Patrick’s younger days revolved around cider and 40 winks in the library, whereas Ewan applied for a student account back in the days when the only extras you got were a smile, book vouchers and a railcard. Can you believe that? Apparently people in banks used to smile?!

Anyway, Patrick sees the offer as trying to entice the “tech-savvy” student who is aware of the advantages of a laptop and constant connectivity, so much so as to see them as a necessity. They also kindly link through to the relevant section of the NatWest site, just as I have done in the middle of this sentence.

Through the back pages of 3mobilebuzz there was occasional discussion on the possibility of dongle world domination, especially if mobile broadband was being built in to laptops as standard, i.e. a slot for a sim card.

At Broadband-Finder they’ve written about a piece of research that backs this up. Carried out by Berg Insight the research presented in a published report estimates that the current number of laptops with mobile broadband connectivity, a measly 8.4 million will boom to 49 million by 2013. This is working on the integrated laptops being good to go within the next few years. The advent of the mobile broadband dongle as Broadband-Finder points out indicates that in terms of technology we are ready for this jump.

It is intriguing stuff predicting the future of mobile technologies, and the implications for service providers. The full article is here.

Despite seemingly conforming to Our Man in Newcastle’s pledge:

“I hereby pledge that I, Our Man in Newcastle, will never post to my blog/Twitter/Facebook etc from an airport/coffeehouse/conference to comment on the availability, or quality of, WIFI.”

Stephen Newton has broken any alliance he may have had, blogging from a moving train via his 3 mobile broadband dongle and telling us so.

Deciding that despite the possibility of a slower connection through mobile broadband Stephen sees the dongle positively. Believing that this is balanced by the price, especially when you consider how expensive WIFI access can get.

He did have signal issues going beyond Bolton on the Manchester to Preston line and felt that the device needed to be less dependent on user intervention regarding dropping connection and getting reconnected. However, this was not enough to put him off, describing the dongle as “Great for when you’re on the move.”

3 is in cahoots with NatWest for the benefit of students, it would seem.

Those entering into the world of academic studies are set to earn themselves some perks should they decide on Natwest for their banking needs. Alongside discounted rail fares and interest free overdrafts are a couple of vouchers. One for £100 off an Asus laptop and one for £50 off 3 mobile broadband. Good stuff! And if you are able to jump in before the end of October, a Microsoft Lifecam will be sent your way also.

This new package has “evolved” due to customer needs, according to Mark Worthington (head of graduate and student banking at Natwest), and is covered by both broadband genie and TechWatch.

Rob Gallagher of Telecoms.com has been trialing a 3 dongle and it has got him thinking about the seemingly repeated mantra that ‘consumers of the latest gadgets don’t want details; they just want to know what it can do’.

In the case of mobile broadband, the example he gives was that at a recent event, executives suggested whether a network can provide 8Mbps is more or less irrelevant to a consumer; they just want to know if they can access Facebook and YouTube. This is something Rob disagrees with; an assertion backed, he believes, by history.

The past (and now present) desire to over-hype expectations at what a product can do immediately sours a brand-consumer relationship, as those buying into to the details feel as if they have been duped when a product falls short of what is promised. Rob makes note of the recent Vodafone retraction around the claims that their broadband service delivered speeds of up to 7.2Mbps; a statement that was forced by an Advertising Standards Agency ruling. Currently Rob is using the 3 dongle and, although more realistic in the speeds that are given as achievable (3.6Mbps), he is still falling short of this.

The issues are, Rob believes, that the companies involved have simply placed the bar too high and that addressing the situation is merely a case of managing what can be expected from the consumer side. 3 get a positive mention in regard to their software that tracks and logs speed and data usage, meaning that a user is fully aware of the service they are getting. It is in this area where the service needs to be expanded; this will promote a far more satisfactory relationship between a brand and its customers.

A move such as this would be beneficial to all involved and, with Ofcom’s introduction of a code of conduct, surely now is the time to address it. As Rob states in his conclusion, providers should be “working out ways to go above and beyond the letter of Ofcom’s code of conduct. From now on, their motto should be: “Customers really do care about the technical details, because it lets them know what they can do.”

It is an interesting and crucial point for the mobile broadband marketplace as it stands right now, and it would be good to hear any thoughts you, our eminently informed readers, have on the subject. Let us know.

For Rob’s full post click here.

This time it’s broadband genie that have been looking into 3’s broadband starter kits. They’ve been created to make that first leap by a consumer into the world of thorough connectivity a little less awkward.

The PAYG package means that users can get online straight away using a dongle preloaded with data, alleviating the need for that first top up. Once the existing credit is used up or expires, the dongle can then be topped up like a normal PAYG device. Pricing is presented in a pleasing table format within the broadband genie post.

At Overclockers, HarryPainful asked fellow contributors about getting himself some mobile broadband access. After initial confusion involving <F0rb> over whether a question had actually been asked people began to offer a few options.

In the end HarryPainful plumped for 3’s service, and is by the evidence of his posts, happy: “went for 3 in the end, £15 a month for 3gig, 12 month contract. Seems like the best one out there, the others are all 18/24 month. And I can use Skype over it :)” When informed of the PAYG option, he explained that the free dongle and short 12 month contract were the pull that made him discount the top-up alternative.

To read the full Overclocker thread, click here.

A tiny whippet of a post pointing to Ant UK’s assessment of Channel 5’s Gadget Show, which featured a 3 mobile broadband dongle as part of a segment where the presenters put citizen journalism head-to-head with the more traditional methods.

Despite Ant’s highlight being a presenter waving his laptop above his head while stood on a motorway bridge attempting to do a traffic report, there does appear to be at least a little value in what went on with regard to the dongle testing. Admittedly Ant might not be in full agreement here, but you can follow the link in his post to the Gadget Show site and make up your own mind up.

Tony Blews has hooked himself up with a 3 mobile broadband dongle, the Huawei E220 to be exact, and has given a run down at TonyBlews.co.uk on what he’s got for his £50 and how it is working out so far.

Like others before him, Tony found the installation process of the dongle effortless; refusing in true man-with-a-new-gadget style to read the instructions. Instead just plugging it in and expressing delight at the non-requirement of an installation CD, as the software required is all on board the USB modem. Tony approves of such simplicity, “Take a note, USB device makers: This is the way forward.”

Before going into the pricing details in terms of add-ons, Tony does the speed test, demonstrating that from his perspective, they are more than adequate, especially in comparison to the mobile phone he was using previously.

So overall a happy camper, who has to get a gold star for writing a solid 3 mobile broadband first impressions review that includes the terms, thingummy and flibbertigibbet, I’ll let you discover the context for yourself.

The popular 3G forum has seen a little discussion sparked by ‘The_Fellowship’, who asks whether he can place the SIM card from his 3 Mobile Broadband dongle in to a 3G phone, thus using it as a modem. This is so he can use the modem wirelessly over Bluetooth instead of using a USB lead.

Wenklaw thinks it shouldn’t be a problem as the same content is delivered whether it’s through the USB dongle or a mobile phone. Alan_semple adds to the discussion, explaining that although the access point names (APN) are different (3internet for the dongle, three.co.uk for the phone), they both work on either device. He continues: “The 3internet APN has a shorter number of hops” when going to a URL, and confirms “a SIM card with the £10 “Mobile broadband Add-on” will work, and you can access the internet via the Bluetooth modem”. Alan also notes that a SIM card with the £5 internet add-on will not work in a USB modem!

It may be short and sweet, but the Plugged In Blog is impressed by the news of Eee PC and 3 dongle togetherness. Something he read on a review specifically relating to an Asus Eee PC 900.

His thoughts, “…for under £300 you can get a laptop with a 3+ hour battery that boots in about 30 seconds and will give you access to the Internet anywhere. That’s amazing.” When it is put like that, I guess it is. Though not everyone has found setting the dongle up on Linux a completely straightforward process, thankfully though the means and methods are posted here and here by Liam Green Hughes and also here by Dale Lane.