Anyone happy with Three mobile broadband?

Midnight Rider · 19-01-2011 2:20am #1

Hi, just wondering if there's anyone out there who's actually happy using Three mobile broadband? (or midband, if you prefer)

Seems like there's a lot of complaints about it on this board, which kinda sucks since I was thinking of using it (prepay) until I can get a more permanent broadband solution.

Reason I wanna go Three is the 20gb cap, and I think the Dublin coverage should be okay, which means the speed should average around 3mbps.

So, any satisfied Three customers out there?

jor el · 19-01-2011 11:04am

Midnight Rider wrote: »

I think the Dublin coverage should be okay,

Think again.

Midnight Rider wrote: »

which means the speed should average around 3mbps.

And again. Signal does not equate to speed, congestion is king on a mobile network.

No one else's experience will equate to yours, unless they're right beside you, so you will only be able to tell how good or bad it is by trying it out. Don't limit yourself to one network because of the cap. 20GB will be of no use to you if your speeds are less than dial-up.

Midnight Rider · 19-01-2011 5:45pm

^ So basically what you're saying is that any mobile broadband is something of a "gamble" thanks to a bunch of unknowable variables?

Well, to be honest I was just hoping for at least person to say they were happy with it, reading through the Three problems thread it sounds like no one is...

Ohh well, I'll try it anyways.

jor el · 19-01-2011 11:33pm

A gamble, that's not a bad way of describing them. Results will vary, that's about all you can guarantee.

It's harder to get people to say they're happy with something than unhappy, for the simple reason that when it's all working fine, they've no reason to looking into reviews about it. I know several people that use Three mobile midband, and are reasonably happy with it, along with some that weren't. Speeds can vary, but still be usable, just don't expect your average to be 3Mbps. That's more a peak, with the average being down at 1Mbps or lower, and the low point being anything from 0 upwards.

It might be better to consider Meteor, newer network has fewer customers and reportedly better speeds, though their coverage is the poorest, so you may not even have a signal from them.

Midnight Rider · 20-01-2011 7:46pm

jor el wrote: »

A gamble, that's not a bad way of describing them. Results will vary, that's about all you can guarantee.

It's harder to get people to say they're happy with something than unhappy, for the simple reason that when it's all working fine, they've no reason to looking into reviews about it. I know several people that use Three mobile midband, and are reasonably happy with it, along with some that weren't. Speeds can vary, but still be usable, just don't expect your average to be 3Mbps. That's more a peak, with the average being down at 1Mbps or lower, and the low point being anything from 0 upwards.

It might be better to consider Meteor, newer network has fewer customers and reportedly better speeds, though their coverage is the poorest, so you may not even have a signal from them.

True, no one is gonna come on and make a post about how satisfied they are with a particular service, people only tend to post when they have a complaint or grievance to air.

The thing about that though, is when people Google something like UPC Broadband and see nothing but complaints they come away with the impression that UPC Broadband is useless, so it kinda gives the wrong impression in some respects.

Anyways, looked at Meteor (their 14mbit service was tempting), O2, Vodafone, Three, eMobile, and came to the conclusion that Three was best suited to my needs. So Three it is then. I'll post my thoughts on the service, good or bad.

Thanks for the help and advice though.

downwithpeace · 20-01-2011 10:26pm

Three has been fine for me lately, even before christmas there was a noticeable increase in good speeds. Generally bad weather effects me but other then that i can't really think of any major issues in some time.

All the companies have the trial tests, do them all see what happens but remember that fast today doesn't necessarily mean fast tomorrow.

Midnight Rider · 21-01-2011 3:46pm

downwithpeace wrote: »

Three has been fine for me lately, even before christmas there was a noticeable increase in good speeds. Generally bad weather effects me but other then that i can't really think of any major issues in some time.

All the companies have the trial tests, do them all see what happens but remember that fast today doesn't necessarily mean fast tomorrow.

Finally! Thanks, it's good to hear someone's happy with the service.

I've used fixed, wireless and mobile broadband before so I kinda know what to expect. Mobile and wireless are never gonna be able to compete with fixed broadband, but still, they have their uses.

HarryPotter41 · 22-01-2011 7:54pm

Am quite happy with the service, live in a quiet country area which helps with speeds at home but also use it when I travel around the country and am happy with it there as well. Best of luck with it.

Midnight Rider · 23-01-2011 11:24pm

HarryPotter41 wrote: »

Am quite happy with the service, live in a quiet country area which helps with speeds at home but also use it when I travel around the country and am happy with it there as well. Best of luck with it.

Thanks, good to hear some people are fairly happy with the service. I'll post up how I find using it, and whether I think it's good, or bad.

trompele · 29-01-2011 2:25pm

I use mine as a spare internet (My vodafone link currently down).
These are the stats taken 5 minutes ago;

Using this on E585 since yesterday and works perfectly (prepay).

watty · 29-01-2011 2:57pm

It's of the nature of it that about 20% to 30% will be really happy and 20% will have terrible performance.

Anecdotal reports are totally worthless for Mobile compared to other technologies because of the extreme variable nature and also the different uses people have.

http://www.radioway.info/comparewireless/

traxx711 · 29-01-2011 3:36pm

Hello everyone, im new to Boards.ie

Im concidering purchacing 3G wireless broadband for 20 euro per month for the 25GB limit.

Im currently living in the North West region of Donegal in a 3 bedroom Mobile home. If anyone can help me as to give advice on what i would need to set up an internet connection. I can barely recieve a connention for my mobile phone (o2) so this had led me to worry about my Internet connection. I would like to have a broadband router as i will be connecting a laptop,PS3 and Wii. Will i require some kind of external antena if my connection isnt great? Any Help would be great.

seamus

HarryPotter41 · 29-01-2011 8:27pm

traxx711 wrote: »

Hello everyone, im new to Boards.ie

Im concidering purchacing 3G wireless broadband for 20 euro per month for the 25GB limit.

Im currently living in the North West region of Donegal in a 3 bedroom Mobile home. If anyone can help me as to give advice on what i would need to set up an internet connection. I can barely recieve a connention for my mobile phone (o2) so this had led me to worry about my Internet connection. I would like to have a broadband router as i will be connecting a laptop,PS3 and Wii. Will i require some kind of external antena if my connection isnt great? Any Help would be great.

seamus

Generally the website will have a map of their mobile broadband coverage, go to a shop and they can check out your location and ask for a trial ( generally 14 days ). My last modem upgrade with 3 I got the wifi modem which will allow you wireless access for everything.

Going to an actual shop is your best bet as at least that way you have comeback.

traxx711 · 29-01-2011 8:47pm

HarryPotter41 wrote: »

Generally the website will have a map of their mobile broadband coverage, go to a shop and they can check out your location and ask for a trial ( generally 14 days ). My last modem upgrade with 3 I got the wifi modem which will allow you wireless access for everything.

Going to an actual shop is your best bet as at least that way you have comeback.

ahh ok! thnx. so your saying i can have a 14 day trail free of charge right?
A mate of mine told me that the instalation has to be conducted by a call-out guy. i dont think thats true tho. If i can have the trail free or not, im sure 14 days is enough time for me to set somekind of network up.

HarryPotter41 · 29-01-2011 11:57pm

traxx711 wrote: »

ahh ok! thnx. so your saying i can have a 14 day trail free of charge right?
A mate of mine told me that the instalation has to be conducted by a call-out guy. i dont think thats true tho. If i can have the trail free or not, im sure 14 days is enough time for me to set somekind of network up.

Nope, great thing with mobile broadband is how easy it is to work, the dongle will load the software and off you go. Tell them in the shop what your needs are, most of them are extremely helpful.

watty · 30-01-2011 1:48pm

The other great thing is that it's Mobile. But it won't ever be Broadband.

The largest 3 allowance of 30GByte they claim is 300hrs browsing. Or an average speed of 0.222Mbps if "torrenting".

2Mbps video streaming will use up your allowance in 30hrs. Assuming it works.

CelticTigress · 30-01-2011 4:52pm

I have 3. I signed up in October when a new mast was built. At the time the mast wasn't active but I got a peripheral signal from other places. Top speed about 1.5 mbits on a good day.

The mast was SUPPOSED to be switched on during the week. I had to install an upgrade and that day, and I got about speeds of about 3.2... wow

But that was just that day. They haven't been anywhere as "good" since, so maybe it wasn't the mast being switched on. I'm only about a mile from it and in direct line of sight so I would expect it to be a lot better.

However it is better than the midband we haven't got. We're running a campaign and petition to get the exchange enabled for fixed-line (mine and the neighbouring village were excluded from the NBS, the 3 mast we have is not part of NBS). Don't hold out a lot of hope, but you never know.

Midnight Rider · 31-01-2011 4:27pm

Okay, so the average speed is 2mbps (booo!!), why even bother advertising it as up to 7mbps? It's like buying a carton of eggs and then, when you open them up at home, find only half of them are there with a little note saying, "Due to contention/congestion issues, you only get 2 eggs instead of the advertised 7. Kay, thanks, byeee!"

But hey, for web browsing, social networking, e-mails, maybe the odd Youtube video, and some iTunes stuff, it's not bad. It is what it is I guess, useful for light internet usage.

Someone mentioned PS3? Woah, I don't recommend any mobile broadband service for online gaming, you really need a wired connection for online gaming. And a lot of the game demos/arcade games available on Xbox Live or PSN can often hit the 1gig mark in size (I downloaded the demos for Little Big Planet 2 and Dead Space 2 last month, and LBP2 was almost 2gig! I was using a wired UPC connection at the time.)

So anyways, yeah Three mobile broadband is ok I guess. Don't really like the clunky connection software it comes with, and the speeds can vary, but it does more or less what I expected it to do. So yeah, fairly happyish, kind of...

Lol, video streaming, good one watty.:D

HarryPotter41 · 31-01-2011 5:37pm

Midnight Rider wrote: »

Okay, so the average speed is 2mbps (booo!!), why even bother advertising it as up to 7mbps? It's like buying a carton of eggs and then, when you open them up at home, find only half of them are there with a little note saying, "Due to contention/congestion issues, you only get 2 eggs instead of the advertised 7. Kay, thanks, byeee!"

But hey, for web browsing, social networking, e-mails, maybe the odd Youtube video, and some iTunes stuff, it's not bad. It is what it is I guess, useful for light internet usage.

Someone mentioned PS3? Woah, I don't recommend any mobile broadband service for online gaming, you really need a wired connection for online gaming. And a lot of the game demos/arcade games available on Xbox Live or PSN can often hit the 1gig mark in size (I downloaded the demos for Little Big Planet 2 and Dead Space 2 last month, and LBP2 was almost 2gig! I was using a wired UPC connection at the time.)

So anyways, yeah Three mobile broadband is ok I guess. Don't really like the clunky connection software it comes with, and the speeds can vary, but it does more or less what I expected it to do. So yeah, fairly happyish, kind of...

Lol, video streaming, good one watty.:D

I stream video with my 3 broadband connection and I have no idea what "clunky" connection software you're referring to.

Midnight Rider · 31-01-2011 7:10pm

HarryPotter41 wrote: »

I stream video with my 3 broadband connection and I have no idea what "clunky" connection software you're referring to.

Well, I find that surprising to be honest, not saying it's impossible, just that mobile broadband isn't particularly suited to video streaming because of the variable speeds and small download caps.

I personally find the connection software "clunky", I'd much rather connect through Windows, than some third party app. But hey, that's just me.

HarryPotter41 · 31-01-2011 7:44pm

Midnight Rider wrote: »

Well, I find that surprising to be honest, not saying it's impossible, just that mobile broadband isn't particularly suited to video streaming because of the variable speeds and small download caps.

I personally find the connection software "clunky", I'd much rather connect through Windows, than some third party app. But hey, that's just me.

You plug in to the usb socket, I run my laptop on wireless, hardly difficult and clunky. As for the streaming speeds they bear no relation to to download limit because the size of the file is what counts, all it does is buffer ahead so that the file has downloaded prior to you finishing watching it.Have no difficulty at all watching streaming online and my 30 gig download limit is perfectly adequate.

Midnight Rider · 31-01-2011 8:04pm

Never said anything about difficult, I said I personally found the connection software clunky, other people might not find it so, it's my own personal opinion, not stated fact.

All internet traffic counts toward your allowance, doesn't make a difference if you download it or stream it. And you might have no difficultly watching video streams, but I doubt the majority of people could say the same given average requirements for video streaming and the average performance of mobile broadband.

politics · 31-01-2011 8:08pm

just saw this thread had somehthing to do with internet providers and thought i would see what people found the best. I started out on BT but found the connection was fuzzy and everytime the phone rang the internet went, I have no moved to eircom 4th gen but dont find any difference in the connection, the internet still goes after using the phone and it costs me a bomb each month. Any suggestions?

HarryPotter41 · 31-01-2011 8:18pm

Midnight Rider wrote: »

Never said anything about difficult, I said I personally found the connection software clunky, other people might not find it so, it's my own personal opinion, not stated fact.

All internet traffic counts toward your allowance, doesn't make a difference if you download it or stream it. And you might have no difficultly watching video streams, but I doubt the majority of people could say the same given average requirements for video streaming and the average performance of mobile broadband.

Yes, all internet traffic, but because you stream at 2mbs it does not mean that watching a 50 minute video uses 6 gigs of your download allowance, it downloads the total size of the file. then it idles in the background.My internet wifi is plugged into my desktop and connects automatically to the internet so I don't have to do anything. Similarly my wireless connects automatically on my laptop.So absolutely no difficulty in any way, shape or form. Regularly watch shows on rte player with no issues as well as blinkbox.

Midnight Rider · 31-01-2011 8:47pm

politics wrote: »

just saw this thread had somehthing to do with internet providers and thought i would see what people found the best. I started out on BT but found the connection was fuzzy and everytime the phone rang the internet went, I have no moved to eircom 4th gen but dont find any difference in the connection, the internet still goes after using the phone and it costs me a bomb each month. Any suggestions?

My top three, in order of preference...

1. UPC
2. Magnet
3. Digiweb

HarryPotter41 wrote: »

Yes, all internet traffic, but because you stream at 2mbs it does not mean that watching a 50 minute video uses 6 gigs of your download allowance, it downloads the total size of the file. then it idles in the background.My internet wifi is plugged into my desktop and connects automatically to the internet so I don't have to do anything. Similarly my wireless connects automatically on my laptop.So absolutely no difficulty in any way, shape or form. Regularly watch shows on rte player with no issues as well as blinkbox.

I have to use a software app every time I wanna connect, called 3Connect, it's kind of pain to be honest. You're obviously getting a better connection than me, I couldn't even get RTE player to start up!

HarryPotter41 · 31-01-2011 9:01pm

Midnight Rider wrote: »

I have to use a software app every time I wanna connect, called 3Connect, it's kind of pain to be honest. You're obviously getting a better connection than me, I couldn't even get RTE player to start up!

The wifi E585 plugs into your usb and is recognised automatically and connects automatically without having to use 3connect. My speeds generally range between 2 and 5mps so happy enough.

lubo_moravcik · 11-02-2011 4:20pm

No. Service is kak, and customer support is soul destroying.
No

daithi2011 · 11-02-2011 9:29pm

I had it for a while. Had to get rid. Was terrible. And the customer service - I wanted to kill myself.

hotwhiskey · 11-02-2011 11:34pm

I have 3 a while now when i got it first download speed around 1Mbs so i decided to make my own D.I.Y antenna even do i was looking onto buying one last week but have decided not too. When i had set up my own D.I.Y antenna the speed was running from 2Mbs to 3Mbs constantly and sometimes reaching 4Mbs during the day so I'm well pleased for 20 euro a month and 15G usage.

Its better than 79 euro a month and 6G usage from Digiweb in which my 12 month contract is up next week. Bye Digiweb.

mossieh · 11-02-2011 11:41pm

I'm using three in a NBS area. Good line of sight to the mast and low contention. It rarely drops below 5mbps and has been extremely stable.
I have no complaints.

daithi2011 · 12-02-2011 1:59pm

hotwhiskey wrote: »

I have 3 a while now when i got it first download speed around 1Mbs so i decided to make my own D.I.Y antenna even do i was looking onto buying one last week but have decided not too. When i had set up my own D.I.Y antenna the speed was running from 2Mbs to 3Mbs constantly and sometimes reaching 4Mbs during the day so I'm well pleased for 20 euro a month and 15G usage.

Its better than 79 euro a month and 6G usage from Digiweb in which my 12 month contract is up next week. Bye Digiweb.

That sounds great.
How do you make one of those? Would it work with any networks dongle?

Anyone happy with Three mobile broadband?

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