o2 in gprs area

gerky

Is there anyone who bought the o2 modem just for a gprs area, if so has it been alright.And anyone with vista who has it does it work out of the box or has it to be updated first.also I presume I have to use direct debt.thanks any info welcome

jor el

I've used mine in GPRS areas, got a good 45-50k on it, even miles from the mast. Best to stick it near a window though for better reception.

I don't think you have to pay by DD, but they do ask.

Don't think it works on Vista out of the box yet, still issues with it.

gerky

Thanks for the reply jor el,Damn I thought when its advertised as working with vista it would.
So does anyone know handiest place to get the vista driver and how to update it.

rebel.ranter

Just bear in mind that O2 are currently rolling out EDGE across their 2G network too. So that will effectively mean that if you are in an area of good 2G coverage you may be able to connect via EDGE which can deliver up to 236.8kbps.

gerky

Unfortunately I've been told my area isn't due an upgrade.
what do o2 do with a mast to enable edge is it a hardware or software upgrade.

Sponge Bob

rebel.ranter wrote:

Just bear in mind that O2 are currently rolling out EDGE across their 2G network too.

Its actually being rolled out as part of their 3G rollout and in urban areas only I have been told.

So that will effectively mean that if you are in an area of good 2G coverage you may be able to connect via EDGE which can deliver up to 236.8kbps.

No. if your area is 2g there will be no EDGE for you, none at all.

rebel.ranter

That is incorrect, all 2G areas will have EDGE capability. Quite a few do already. Maybe you are thinking of HSDPA? HSDPA sits on top of the 3G network, EDGE sits on top of the 2G network.

Sponge Bob

I know what EDGE is , its a technically very good fallback from 3g given its greater range, especially at 900mhz .

When will this independent of 3g edge rollout to all 2g cells be complete ??, what % of cells are done already , I was told only 5 were done in June ????

rebel.ranter

It is independent of 3G rollout. Every 2G site will have EDGE, EDGE is live in a sizeable area now. It's certainly more than 5!! I'd say about 40% or thereabouts.

watty

Good news. Ironically if Edge had been about people might have just wanted more GSM spectrum and not expensive milstone 3G licences. 3G was too small and upgrade.

I'm sure I had GPRS connection the other day near Castleknock. Mostly I get HSDPA on O2. There are in theory a range of modems. I've tested two PCMCIA ones on O2, but one was only 3G.

Sponge Bob

When will o2 have edge running on 100% of their 2g cells ?? , it was negligible 2 months ago, you say its 40% now r.r .

can we have the following info

1. completion date for 2g 100% of cells upgraded to handle edge
2. confirmation their 3g product will fall back to edge ( the huawei hsdpa modems can do this bit ONLY if O2 lets them)

gerky

Don't think I'd like to be on your bad side sponge:D
Anyone have anymore info on the vista front .

un.seen

Got the o2 HSDPA USB modem working fine on Vista Business Edition.

If the modem drivers are not installed when you install the connection software then you can manually install them as the drivers for vista are on the device.

updated firmware can be downloaded here: http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=736

Cal

http://www.mobileconnected.co.uk/2007/05/25/usb-modem-huawei-e220-on-vista-take-2/

The above link will get you up and running on Vista. No need to do step 3.

Cal.

gerky

Thanks guys.

mdfireng

I have the o2 modem and live in an area where there is no 3g (Cooley Co. Louth). I went to galway on Monday for a few days. When I got there I was still on GPRS. Last night however, the phone was showing EDGE. As I travelled home today across the country I only lost EDGE on one or two occasions and then only for a few minutes. Back home in Cooley I have EDGE and can now surf at a reasonable speed. Big improvement on dial up and GPRS. Seems O2 have switched on a sizable part of the country in the last day or so.

gerky

I got the o2 modem, and I'm covered by edge as well pings are bad but speeds are great compared to dial up.
Out of curiosity do o2 and vodafone charge extra for texting from the modem or is it taken from the 10gigs.

Sponge Bob

thats good news

whats the EDGE ping to www.boards.ie by the way ??

gerky

pinged boards a few times average from 650-750ms:(

Sponge Bob

oh dear . worse than 3g .

gerky

After some chopping and changing got it down to between 4-500ms

Sponge Bob

how far are you from your mast ????

gerky

I'm not sure could be one of two masts if its the one I think about 3-4 miles.

Sponge Bob

I'd love to hear what the pings are like near a 2g mast if you are on your travels again angel2

gerky

Sorry sponge don't have a laptop.

Cal

angel2 wrote:

Out of curiosity do o2 and vodafone charge extra for texting from the modem or is it taken from the 10gigs.

Texting is charged at regular rates and is not taken from any text allowance you may have on your main number.

Cal.

lucernarian

The free webtexting would work surely?

rebel.ranter

Latency with GPRS would be about 245ms, EDGE about 175ms. (These are Round Trip Times). This can be affected by the radio conditions in which the EDGE device is operating in. It can also be affected by the parameter tuning on the site in question. EDGE has another development stage called EDGE evolution & this will deliver speeds of up to 1Mbps DL the RTT for this is 80ms.

Troughput is also affected by the radio conditions, good radio coverage should give you and average realistic throughput of about 210kbps, with poor it can drop to 100kbps.

O2 officially launched EDGE this week. Rather quietly though.

Cal

To_be_confirmed wrote:

The free webtexting would work surely?

Yes you get the free web text when you register your modem sim.

Cal.

Psycopat

thought this would be a good place to post my issues, i bought the o2 modem there about 4 weeks ago, the 1st week i was working in a town with 3g coverage, fine download speeds, about a meg but not great uploads, but fine none the less.
Ive been back in leitrim the last 3 weeks and up untill 3 or 4 days ago have been on GPRS, its slow enough but its alot better than dial up my only issue was every 2 or 3 hours id get a windows error and have to restart my pc, the last 3 or 4 days ive been on EDGE with about 4 bars coverage but speeds have been terrible, about 3-4 KB/s any ideas why this is? i rang o2 and they said they reset my number but today its the same so i rang again today and their attitude was, wait and see how the weather goes as its poor at the moment but tbh there were alot of bad days when i was on GPRS and speeds were still fine. anyone else experiencing these issues?

JMURPHY3

Hi folks,
Has anyone had difficulty wtih the modem setup and crashing the PC in Windows XP.
I only get GPRS and I had a friend test the speed of the broadband in a high speed area and he typically only was getting 800kbps from a modem advertised to give 3.6 Mb.Is there any settings I can cahnge to speed up the modem.I am really getting a big pain in my arse with this....:mad:

TouchingVirus

I got it yesterday and I'm out in a rural area of Longford on the EDGE with 4-bars.

Pinging boards results in pings from 400ms to 104ms with slight packet loss (about 3%). Ok, so it's not ideal but it's a good deal better than dialup.

Average speed is 170kbps compared with 28/32kbps on my modem so I'm happy enough at the minute. When downloading the average speed of a 9mb download is 20kB/sec or ~180kbps

No problems yet, no hassle installing it with Windows XP either