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O2 mobile broadband

O2 overview

  • Mobile broadband contracts from 1 month (flexible rolling contract) up to 24 months, with choice of 3GB or 10 GB downloads per month
  • Pay as you go mobile broadband (PAYG) starts from £2 per day
  • Good range of free laptop deals (but no netbooks on offer)
  • Unlimited Wi-Fi access to over 7,500 hot spots

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O2 road test

O2 Road test
O2 Huawei E160 dongle
Downloads
rating -3 stars3 stars
Uploads
rating -4 stars4 stars
Most stable
rating -5 stars5 stars
Coverage
rating -2 stars2 stars
Feelgood factor
rating -4 stars4 stars
Dongle software
rating -5 stars5 stars
Overall rating
rating -3 stars3 stars

May 2009

Three of the six mobile broadband providers supplied us with the popular Huawei E160 dongle, including O2. Maybe it's a male thing, but we certainly preferred the cool matt black finish of the Virgin Mobile and Orange models, compared to the glossy white of O2. Overall we had high hopes for O2 on this trip, as it seems to have one of the stronger reputations in mobile broadband.

The E160 is a sleek and stylish dongle, even in white. Once popped into a USB socket the software installs immediately and we were ready to get online in just a couple of minutes, despite a couple of erroneous messages from Windows advising us to restart the laptop.

As you'd expect from O2, the dongle software interface was simple, modern and attractive. But while it was the most visually pleasing of the six interfaces on show, it didn't really tell you an awful lot on the front end. For example, it was not clear which kind of connection you were currently connected with (3G, HSPA etc) and there was no obvious indication of top speeds.

Overall, O2's coverage fell quite a way short of some of its competitors, as it failed to complete a number of our Mobile Broadband Genie speed tests. However, the speed tests the E160 did complete returned relatively strong results, coming in third overall for downloads (which included streaming video and audio and downloading podcasts) and runner up in the Downloader category. However, for downloading, it was a long way behind the eventual winners.

While coverage was disappointing, stability was quite the opposite, seeing O2 walk away with the Road Trip's Most Stable award. The dongle held its connection excellently, even when there was no data transfer. It was nice not to be continually disconnected in the countryside and through tunnels, although speeds were a way off the top contenders, Virgin Media and Vodafone. However, if you just want to sit back and let your laptop download some data while you do something else, this could be the choice for you.

Overall analysis of the Mobile Broadband Genie Road Trip 2009

by Chris Marling May 2009

About O2

In the world of mobile broadband providers, O2 is benefiting from a strong middle ground position between the old reliables and younger cooler (and/or cheaper) brands. O2 has a bit of both: while it has tended to follow its rivals in the mobile broadband UK market, it's marketing has a fresh, lively feel (such as sponsoring The O2 Arena). Its message of strong customer service - backed by a string of awards for its support - has helped it maintain a healthy market position. If you compare mobile broadband prices it is unlikely O2 will come out on top, but it would claim you are paying for extra quality.

The company started out as BT Cellnet (one of the original two UK mobile networks, alongside Vodafone), before being demerged from BT in 2001. After five years of independence it was snapped up by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica in 2006, where it continues to be a wholly owned subsidiary. O2 entered the 3G mobile broadband contract market in April 2008. This was a little behind some of its rivals, with the mobile internet provider claiming it had wanted to ensure the service would meet customer expectations. It released its first pay as you go mobile broadband dongle in December 2008. The ISP also started selling subsidised laptop deals later than its rivals, in March 2009, with a variety of Samsung laptops.

Vodafone and O2 announced a network infrastructure collaboration deal in March 2009. The biggest deal of its kind, it sees the two mobile internet providers merging their existing mobile sites while building new ones together. This is aimed at both improving coverage and future-proofing their combined network.

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O2 customer reviews

Show all 36 O2 Mobile Broadband reviews»

unhappy

by Mark
at 11:09 on 2 Jul 2009

Bought the dongle when O2 started the mobile broadband. I'm not a heavy user just need it for weekend travel. Usage has been fair though like all devices it can be really slow. I play WOW at weekends and have never gone over the allowance. Always checking the connection manager to make sure I am within it. This month I received an email to say I was approaching my limit, check the connection manager and it showed 988mb. Immediately thought a system error with O2, tried to reply to the email that came in the connection manager but can't, no reply available. Tried emailing the log of my connections in the manager but it was not allowed to go either. Continued using then found I could not get connected. Rang them yesterday to discover I had been disconnected - told I used 3.5 gb - 500mb over my allowance - and my bill instead of £14 was now £89! I explained that the connection manager has shown I have used 988mb this month, but was promptly told that it is highly unreliable - I should have checked online. But I explained their web site states that I can check my usage through the connection manager - here is the senence from their web site - "Windows users, you'll see your data usage above the View Usage button in Connection Manager. Click the 'View Usage' button to see details of your data bundle or change your settings."
But was still told that its unreliable and that the ONLY way to check usage is online.
I ended up cancelling the deal as I was on monthly contract after paying the £119 for the dongle. I now have a future bill for £89 - £75 for 500mb!!!! over the allowance and I still do not know how or where that usage came from.
Im not angry that I used over, if I did for I think the WOW may have been updating in the background as I played it, im angry because as I followed their instructions by checking constantly my usage on the connection manager, according to their web site, believing that it is accurate, only to be told now that it is highly inaccurate and I should not have been using it as a usage indicator.
£75 for 500mb over usage is immoral to say the least. How are these charges calculated, how does over usages of the same bandwidth and data cause the company that expense. Surely this is a penalty charge. Normally it is £2.33 for 500mb in allowance time - go over and that goes to £75 for 500mb!! HOW? Why s this being allowed to continue?
Anyway needed to let off steam. I still have mobile with o2 they hav good deals, but this mobile broadband is a serious money trap for them. If you get it dont go over your allowance and certainly dont believe the conneciton manager.
unhappy

by Fritz
at 12:52 on 30 Jun 2009

I've got the O2 PAYG E160 bundle. I work in Threadneedle street, london and the reception is RUBBISH (20%) and the modem only connects approx one time in 5 attempts, and very slowly at that.

My mobile phone is O2 and it gets a full 5 bars reception quality while the modem only gets poor reception. the E160 dongle is rubbish.

Complained to O2 and was told I was in a high usage area so the available bandwidth was limited. No sh*t Sherlock! - I'm 50 meters from the Bank of England. Of course theres going to be high usage.
neutral

by Nick
at 13:43 on 5 Jun 2009

I'm using the O2 USB dongle on Mac OS X in a fairly unstable / bad connectivity area in semi-rural Canterbury. Often my connection starts up HSDPA (cyan) and after a few minutes drops down through CDMA (blue) to GPRS (green). The latter is painfully slow and browsing the internet is practically impossible. I think the hardware is probably OK but the networks are not good at delivering a consistently strong signal. I also tried 3 in the same location and it was pretty much the same story.
neutral

by Paul
at 10:07 on 2 Jun 2009

I buy mobile phones and choose the network for my company (around 100 phones) I had 3 of the O2 Mobile broadband 'sticks'. O2 connection manager messed up 3 laptops and was absolutely unusuable. The industry say that O2 were fined because there system was over sold and doesn't work. I'm now using T-Mobile who's system works great in comparison.

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