Vodafone to introduce flat rate wireless broadband

Patrickof

I signed up for the service n Saturday and while it didn't get set up until yesterday it's working fine at 384K. I also understand the speed is to be increased to 1.2M shortly. I haven't ran any speed tests yet but microsoft update website ran fairly well - a lot faster than dial up anyhow.

Cost is also €49 per month and I was told the cap is 5Gb.

I guess the SIM can be slotted into a PDA and used there also though I didn't try that yet.

cgarvey

Patrickof wrote:

Cost is also €49 per month and I was told the cap is 5Gb.

Oh goody .. have you seen the first bill yet? I just want to be certain that there's no SIM rental / account maintenance charge.

.cg

Patrickof

There were ads in the Sunday papers (well in the SBP anyway) saying that the card is only €49 if bought with an unlimited account before July 31st.

BTW, I've searched around, elara looks like the cheapest place for the linksys router. Though I only did UK and Ireland suppliers.

Urban Weigl

Posting this from a Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G/GPRS data card and Linksys 3G router. I'm over 3 miles (5km) from Ballyhaunis, which has the nearest 3G base station. Getting "good" signal strength, and it's wicked fast! Obviously I won't use Skype because of the terms of conditions, but I tested it, and the sound quality is crystal clear, with no interruptions. Vodafone also tell me that they're planning more 3G base stations around this area.

jwt

Good news, would you mind testing your speed at http://www.irishisptest.com/myspeed.php please?

I'd suggest the hosting365 one as well but well.......:D http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054956774

John

Urban Weigl

243kbps down/39.7kbps up according to the speed test, but it feels faster: web browsing actually feels comparable to a home ADSL connection. And I think Vodafone will be upgrading to HSDPA within months, which will boost speeds to up to 1.8 megabits (probably more like 1.2 megabits in the real world, under good conditions).

Also, I just heard that there's a second 3G base station going up in Ballyhaunis at the moment, which "will speed things up indirectly, because not everybody will be connecting to the same base station anymore".

Added: Round trip ping time was 176ms during the speed test.

Urban Weigl

Here's why I don't trust the speed test results:

1. When I go to a web page and download, for example, a Flash movie, I get a solid 47.3 kiloBytes per second download speed.

2. When I ran the Skype test, my computer was uploading at 7 kiloBytes per second. This is higher than would be possible were the speed test results accurate.

Cantab.

Urban Weigl wrote:

243kbps down/39.7kbps up according to the speed test, but it feels faster: web browsing actually feels comparable to a home ADSL connection. And I think Vodafone will be upgrading to HSDPA within months, which will boost speeds to up to 1.8 megabits (probably more like 1.2 megabits in the real world, under good conditions).

Also, I just heard that there's a second 3G base station going up in Ballyhaunis at the moment, which "will speed things up indirectly, because not everybody will be connecting to the same base station anymore".

Added: Round trip ping time was 176ms during the speed test.

HSDPA is very nice. You can expect a lower bound of about 1.2M bits/sec in an urban environment. The air-interface and network technology is just magical.

Also, in order to deploy 3G/HSDPA, a greater base station density is required. The electromagnetic radiation is also far more penetrative and of greater power density which is a local residents group's nightmare!

Sponge Bob

Good @ 5km is a bit higher than I initially thought I would have thought marginal @5km and good @ 3km

Urban Weigl

The land is quite flat around here, and I suspect that, apart from a few trees, I have line of sight. I also put the router besides a window facing in the right direction. My Siemens Gigaset DECT phone easily manages 2km (still get half the signal, couldn't test it further because I'd be on the other side of a hill).

Connection Time : 11 Hours 9 Minute 25 Seconds

I'm also surprised, though. I was thinking I'd have to order an outdoor antenna if I wanted to connect at 3G speeds from home. According to the Vodafone coverage map, I'm at the line where it goes from patchy coverage (orange) to GSM/GPRS only (green).

Sponge Bob

Urban Weigl wrote:

. According to the Vodafone coverage map, I'm at the line where it goes from patchy coverage (orange) to GSM/GPRS only (green).

I would be interested in hearing more from people who are using the 3G service at or near the orange/green intersects on that map (linked earlier in this thread )

I had assumed that the 3G service worked only in the red bits and to the red/orange intersects and that it would be mainly GPRS in the orange bits.

I may have to be nice to Vodafone for a sustained period if the HSDPA works in the bulk of the Orange bits on that map ....even if only at 200k down.

Patrickof

Set up the Linksys 3G router last night. We're right on the edge of the red to orange transition, just outside Portlaoise. Speed test (Irish Isp one) reported 320kbps download and 42kbps upload.

The linksys router only says "Good" for signal level - anyone any idea how to better measure that? I want to put it in the best location in the house to ensure it stays good - though its probably alright where it is.

Blaster99

So are any of you now getting broadband of sorts where ADSL is not available?

The red bits, is that HSDPA now or does it just indicate future coverage?

Patrickof

Yep, now getting broadband where the only other option is satellite - (amazingly we're only 2km from Kilminchy exchange in Portlaoise).

We're on the edge of the red bit, getting around 300kbps, so its not as fast as DSL but its one hell of a lot better than dialup!!!

And will get better over time.

I don't suppose anyone here has a schedule of when vodafone are rolling out the higher speeds?

Blaster99

Excuse my ignorance, but what's the difference between red and orange on Voda's coverage map?

Sponge Bob

red deffo 3g
orange . needs quantifying , maybe 3g but to what extent

hence my open question to the users on the outer fringe

Urban Weigl

Vodafone told me that 1.2 megabits is currently being tested in Dublin. The trials are running well so far, and assuming there are no problems, "it should be available everywhere there is currently 3G coverage in 2 months" (but he emphasised that there is no official date set). The current 3G connect card is compatible with the faster speeds, so no need for new hardware.

Blaster99

Did you get an answer? I kinda got lost in all the speed tests, ExpressCard, and pricing discussions.

cgarvey

And call number 5 says no line/sim rental. So that 3 x No and 2 x Yes .. I'm going to buy now while the averages are in my favour.

.cg

cgarvey

More of the tech talk (routers & ExpressCard, etc) moved to the other thread... so lets keep this on topic (which is about the service, availability, experiences, etc.), and leave the more techno stuff (which doesn't concern IoffL) to the other thread.

I'm guilty as well, but I don't know how to unban myself, so I best not ban myself just yet.

.cg

oghran

I basically just wanted to say that I spent most of yesterday (until 3am) setting up the vodafone 3G card on my gentoo linux laptop, and finally can safely say I have a true unmetered, unlimited connection ! Sadly Im nowhere near a 3G station, being only 2 of them in all of leitrim that I can see but at least I have a reliable cost effective dialup now with GPRS.

The speed isn't bad at all and in most cases its slightly better than my old eircom and bt dialups. The best thing is that its completely reliable, and there are no more timeouts, disconnects, or lags because of dodgy wiring, old telephone cables, or the seemingly crap telephone network around here. The other great thing is that it can be on 24/7 so overnight downloads and week long torrent sessions are a possibility again

If you are in a pretty rural location with no sign of ADSL, or even full 3G anytime soon Id still *highly* recommend this is as an alternative to the normal rip off dialup situation with eircom or BT. I just got a bi-monthly bill for 350 euros for being online every day of the month, so the 50 euro per month vodafone are charging for this is a god send.

By the way, there is no cost for the sim rental. Only the 40~ euro plus VAT for the connection. The cards are currently priced at 49.50 euros aswell so now is a good time to buy considering they used to be 150+ euros.

uncle_sam_ie

oghran wrote:

I basically just wanted to say that I spent most of yesterday (until 3am) setting up the vodafone 3G card on my gentoo linux laptop, and finally can safely say I have a true unmetered, unlimited connection ! Sadly Im nowhere near a 3G station, being only 2 of them in all of leitrim that I can see but at least I have a reliable cost effective dialup now with GPRS.

The speed isn't bad at all and in most cases its slightly better than my old eircom and bt dialups. The best thing is that its completely reliable, and there are no more timeouts, disconnects, or lags because of dodgy wiring, old telephone cables, or the seemingly crap telephone network around here. The other great thing is that it can be on 24/7 so overnight downloads and week long torrent sessions are a possibility again

If you are in a pretty rural location with no sign of ADSL, or even full 3G anytime soon Id still *highly* recommend this is as an alternative to the normal rip off dialup situation with eircom or BT. I just got a bi-monthly bill for 350 euros for being online every day of the month, so the 50 euro per month vodafone are charging for this is a god send.

By the way, there is no cost for the sim rental. Only the 40~ euro plus VAT for the connection. The cards are currently priced at 49.50 euros aswell so now is a good time to buy considering they used to be 150+ euros.

What kind of speeds are you getting (is it about 45k?) and, are you locked into a 12 month contract.

oghran

Well when I was using Windows I would get connected between 53.5k and 57.5k which isn't bad compared to the 33k to 44k of eircom. The normal ping hovers around the 700ms mark though going down to 500ms very occasionally which isn't great, but the actual download/browsing speeds are relatively unaffected by this.

Its still not disconnected on me and the ping hasnt been up there at the 20 second mark yet, which was a very frequent occurence with Eircom. To be honest Ive been impressed with its solid consistency as I thought being wireless it might be less reliable but its definitely not the case.

Oh, and yea I had to sign up for a twelve month contract. Id imagine I still wont have full broadband by the end of it, and even if I do it would make a great backup connection.

cgarvey

Card is €49 including VAT. Subscription is €49 including VAT, and there's no additional SIM/line/account admin/rental fee.

If you get 18 month contract you get free insurance on the card.

First month is free, as per advertsing.

With no areial (supplied) attached to the card, in a 3G area with 3 of 5 bars enabled, I'm getting 180ms to boards, with no loss over about 3 mins, via INEX. 300-305ms pings to TX, US.

Irish ISP test reports 251kbps down, 60k up.
The card driver installs an NEC PCI>USB converter .. so me thinks it wouldn't be that hard for 'em to make a USB version (to solve Mac/New Dell/PCs without PC Card problems).

Now, I must run and do some work for Damien *cough*

obelbobel

why are the ping times so slow and has anyone tried to game with there setup?

cgarvey

Are they high? I would have expected that for a distant non line of sight wireless tech, but that's just me. I haven't tried gaming, no, but I'd imagine you'd be pushing the "online experience" into a "bad" category with those pings. I haven't tried though.

I drove around Dublin and 3G connection held up no problem.. a couple of near 1sec pings, but it held the connection. I'm down in GPRS land, and I've dropped the connection once (in about 2 hours). In GPRS land, the external ariel makes a bigish difference (vs no difference in 3G land). Pings to boards are a bit all over the place "min/avg/max/med = 310/552/832/530" .. on a 3 (out of 5) signal. There has been some loss at times (5-10% in short bursts, every now and then). Still though .. it's a hell of a lot better than the 2K dialup I was getting (which has recently been upgraded to 12Kbps) here.

Patrickof

I tried Call Of Duty 2 last night, saw most of the pings to the servers in the 240+ range and it wouldn't let me onto some game servers saying they were for "low ping clients only". I could get on to some though and it worked fine.

obelbobel

vodafone already have there super 3g hsdpa laucnhed in the uk claiming ping times have dropped down to 120ms from 300ms. so must be only a matter of time here

http://www.computing.co.uk/itweek/news/2159045/mobile-telcos-accelerate-super

watty

Non LOS Wireless can easily have < 50ms Pings. I suspect they artifically inflate them to discourage VOIP and online gaming?

Or maybe 3G just is poor technology for mobile internet.

Urban Weigl

watty wrote:

Non LOS Wireless can easily have < 50ms Pings. I suspect they artifically inflate them to discourage VOIP and online gaming?

Or maybe 3G just is poor technology for mobile internet.

That's a conspiracy theory in my mind; they would not degrade general network performance for all services simply to discourage VoIP.

Anyway, I'm getting stable pings between 160ms and 200ms to Irish servers on Vodafone's 3G network (I was pinging BT Ireland's DNS servers, and got pings of 159ms last night!). It's a limitation of UMTS, not any deliberate degradation. Once HSDPA rolls out, latency will drop, though it will still be higher than ADSL.