Mobile internet is increasing in speed all the time thanks to the popularity of the service and increased competition. It’s worth reading up on download speeds before you sign up to a provider and think about what you will be using your mobile broadband for.
Mobile internet usually starts at around 2Mbps, which is similar to speeds that you might get from a home broadband connection. The fastest connections are currently at speeds of around 7Mbps, which is pretty quick, fast enough for most on-line games and heavy downloads.
For the most up-to-date information on broadband speeds check out the Providers section on the Mobile Broadband Genie home page.
It’s worth remembering that speeds advertised by broadband providers always indicate an ‘up to’ speed rather than a guaranteed download speeds. All manner of things can affect the speed that is received by a customer including 3G coverage and time of day.
3 claim the speed can be 2.8 MByte/sec provided you are in the turbo area, but they have taken so many customers that they cannot provide the speed more than 500 kbit/sec.
If you live in certain areas you might not even reach 3G, the best I can get on 2G is 42kbit/s, + no foreseable service upgrade in my area– that`s life
On T-Mobiles service up in London the modem generally was on the HSDPA signal (blue indicator light) and the speed seemed O.K. Down in Dorset where there is a good T-Mobile phone signal my plug in USB modem is down to an average of 5 BYTES PER SECOND . A bit slow even for me and ‘OL MacDonald
I use two laptops, but only use one at any one time. Are the USB modems linked to a particular laptop or can I just replug it to use the other laptop?
My 3G vodafone connects at 384 kb/s approx and is good enough for general use. I would not use it it for downloading or online gaming as I have not upgraded package to the 3G limit yet.
Have been with T-Mobile since Oct. 2007. Normal download speed is around 400Kbit/sec. Speed varies considerably and often download simply ceases for minutes at a time. Have seen spikes up to 1.2 meg, but never more than a momentary spike. Very unusual to get through a complete You Tube video without frequent pauses and buffering. Suspect voip would have a hard time due to the arbitrary lapses/ceasing of downloads. Upload shows consistant speeds of around 300Kbits/sec - very stable. Hope the 3/T-Mobile site sharing deal improves things for 2008.
I have tested 3 Mobile Broadband.
For online games (WoW, Eve et al) the ping is 500-750ms. Not playable for PvP or Raiding.
I agree with the previous poster; got 3 Mobile Broadband, and definitely not suitable for WOW, as the ping is usually between 400 and 800 ms, sometimes going all the way up to 2 secs. If you want to play, hands off 3!
Yeah, 3 claims 3mb speed but the peak I had so far was 540k even so just one time. Sometimes an analog modem at 56k performs better than this so called 3g broadband. I am very disapointed. It should be ok for checking email while traveling but apart from that I can not see a more productive use.
Much mention made of Vodafone at 7.6 Mbits/sec but in reality they only provide it in a very small number of postcodes central London plus Airports. According to their site they have no plans to extend coverage at this high speed.
I have had 3g wireless broad band for a month now. Ok for most surfing and download speeds of around 500 to 700 Kb/sec. One occasion got 1.7 Mb/sec. Early morning it is fast but evening slows down quite a lot. Just looked at download speeds for Belgium, theirs is super fast with Skynet - lightening fast.
i took the t mobile contract for 24 months… could anyone suggest if t mobile is good / or is vodafone a better option????
t mobile has no download limit, but voda has 5gb pcm
plz suggest?
I have t-mobile it’s ok but not good for online gaming
Anybody has suggestions What is required
I’m thinking of going with 3 - the £15 3gb package. Does anyone know if this would be suitable for video calling/webcam on msn?
Anyone tried to get online in North Wales, I need to find something that will work on our campsite in Sarn Bach nr Abersoch.
Jue.
Hi June i have a vodaphone dongle and works with us at Aberystwyth west wales if thats any good bye.
Does anyone knows if orange or Vodafone are able to decent play online games?WOW
I play on SecondLife a lot. My wired broadband (only available) only gives me 100 - 200kbps. So even 500kbps would be better and give me mobility. I currently have T Mobile… Web and Walk on my phone. But thinking of their laptop package. I know max speed is not good… but it sounds like most people are are getting around same speed in reality whatever the published ‘max’ speed is.