Mobile Broadband in Athlone

Saint_Mel

Was going to post this in the Tech/Nets forum but wanted to get info
from Midlands based people quickly

Considering going for 3 mobile broadband as I dont have a phone line and
there is not a clear line of sight from my house in Athlone to the station for
DigiWeb Metro. Clearwire might be available but is double the price of 3 Mobile.

Has anyone here used 3 mobile broadband and if so have there been any
problems etc? All good and bad stories appreciated.

Occidental

Used it for a while with the following results

Town centre as good as O2 or Vodafone.
North of Athlone towards Glasson, coverage is patchy and low quality.
Didn't try it around any of the estates, but think it was good around the IT and Monksland.

Saint_Mel

Cheers for the reply.
Almost went with it but shop assistant talked me out of it
Waiting on a signal test from LastMile at the moment.
Bit more expensive but all the problems listed in the Net & Comms
section about 3 were confirmed by sales rep.

jamesd

Agreeded. I find vodafone mobile broadband way ahead of 3 for coverage.
The lastmile\digiweb wireless broadabnd is a better option for you alright if your just going to use the broadband in your house and not on the move.
Did you try digiweb to see if they can get to you?

Saint_Mel

jamesd wrote:

Agreeded. I find vodafone mobile broadband way ahead of 3 for coverage. The lastmile\digiweb wireless broadabnd is a better option for you alright if your just going to use the broadband in your house and not on the move. Did you try digiweb to see if they can get to you?

Yep, DigiWeb done a signal test but it wasnt strong enough.
I know people in the estate beside mine that have LastMile so I've applied
to them for a signal test so fingers crossed. (I'm around the Cornamaddy area)

Heres the link to the Net&Comms I posted about almost getting "3"

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055115306&page=98
(post 1955)

Occidental

Lastmile have a fair few users around Cornamaddy, so unless you live in a ditch you shouldn't have any problems.

I did a speedtest run on a Lastmile 1mb line in Mount Temple a few weeks ago and it came back as 902 down, 462 up and a ping of 271. In general I'd use Lastmile as a last resort, mainly due to the cost. Support can be a bit hit and miss as well (do they have support at weekends now?).

charlieIRL

am using 3 boradband on the ballinasloe side of athlone and am well pleased with it.

Brainpower

I have used Last mile in Mount Temple for over 3 years now with great success, its a bit expensive, Broadband now available from eircom in area

Occidental

Brainpower wrote:

I have used Last mile in Mount Temple for over 3 years now with great success, its a bit expensive, Broadband now available from eircom in area

This is the problem for Lastmile. They're better than satellite, but their market is gradually being eaten by increased availability of wired broadband in rural areas and now the arrival of 3G mobile products. It will be interesting to see how they react over the next year.

FRM

Personally I wouldn't touch Last Mile with a barge pole !

Service is terrible and the cost isn't anywhere near what it should be for what they offer.

Also be very careful on the line test because if the engineer can't be bothered with doing the job he will fail you. I have had this happen to a number of my clients for no reason !

E@gle.

FRM wrote:

Personally I wouldn't touch Last Mile with a barge pole !

Service is terrible and the cost isn't anywhere near what it should be for what they offer.

Also be very careful on the line test because if the engineer can't be bothered with doing the job he will fail you. I have had this happen to a number of my clients for no reason !

i agree, a mate of mine that lives in glasson has last mile and its crap connection
not much better than dial up, and it doesnt work half the time, also the people who work for last mile are morans

willmck

it seems impossible to get wireless in the cornamaddy area , i m in drumaconn and digiweb have had 2 failed tests there , wouldnt trust mobile broadband , chorus have no idea when they can supply the area , only other options are to get a phone line just for the sake of b band last mile s price is off-putting to put it mildly .

Onikage

You wouldn't be the first one, reactivating a phone line that's been out of use since 2005 myself.

Onikage

E@gle. wrote: »

also the people who work for last mile are morans

I know this is almost a year old but...

charlieIRL

charlieIRL wrote: »

am using 3 boradband on the ballinasloe side of athlone and am well pleased with it.

i take this back, its terrible.

Worked great for a while and now its like everyone else says - shocking bad. Can't wait to get rid of it.

Im_No_Superman

E@gle. wrote: »

i agree, a mate of mine that lives in glasson has last mile and its crap connection
not much better than dial up, and it doesnt work half the time, also the people who work for last mile are morans

By the sounds of it they are more like Last Resort rather than Last Mile!
Tbh Ive heard similar reports about them before.

von Smallhausen

So ye want opinions on this 3 b/band. well heres my 2p worth.. its a load of crap!! im using it now and already ive had it disconnected on me 5 times and signal drops every now and then and im in the center of Athlone. recently i had to send it away to be repaired and even they couldnt find what was making it do it. so they replaced it and now 1 month later its doing it again...cant wait till i get my proper modem for vodafone @ home.

p.s sorry if i ranted a little.

Danny B

BoB_BoT

in general most of the 3g offerings are pathetic due to the way they operate, but from personal experience vodafone seems the be the best of the lot for being useable, not fantastic in any area, but useable. Only used 02 a bit and great in some areas terrible in others. 3 are the cheapest, they're also the worst for reliablilty.

charlieIRL

not sure if this is any good to you now but i got word this morning (14/11/08) that eircom are upgrading exchanges around Athlone and they will be operational in December.

At long last!!:D

bayliner

willmck wrote: »

it seems impossible to get wireless in the cornamaddy area , i m in drumaconn and digiweb have had 2 failed tests there , wouldnt trust mobile broadband , chorus have no idea when they can supply the area , only other options are to get a phone line just for the sake of b band last mile s price is off-putting to put it mildly .

i am just up the road from you across from malincroft i have good 3g signal on the mobile broadband also in this house is a vodafone one which also is good here...

baldbear

3 are sh**e. 3.6 speed my bum. Shower of cowboys ted. feckin cowboys

charlieIRL

baldbear wrote: »

3 are sh**e. 3.6 speed my bum. Shower of cowboys ted. feckin cowboys

I cancelled my three there 2 weeks ago, such a fun conversation with the rep. Had to try contain my words when explaining why i wanted to cancel. They even offered me 2 months free rental and promised that the speeds would be increasing shortly - yeah right!! Thanks but no thanks.:mad::mad:

Done a speedtest check on it soon after (before i was getting 300 - 500mbs) and guess what? I was 1400mbs - never had it that quick in the 15 months i had it:mad:

Good news though - eircom enabled the local exchange there yesterday so have ordered the 7mb one.:D Any idea how long it takes?

BoB_BoT

charlieIRL wrote: »

I cancelled my three there 2 weeks ago, such a fun conversation with the rep. Had to try contain my words when explaining why i wanted to cancel. They even offered me 2 months free rental and promised that the speeds would be increasing shortly - yeah right!! Thanks but no thanks.:mad::mad:

Done a speedtest check on it soon after (before i was getting 300 - 500mbs) and guess what? I was 1400mbs - never had it that quick in the 15 months i had it:mad:

Good news though - eircom enabled the local exchange there yesterday so have ordered the 7mb one.:D Any idea how long it takes?

You're better off with real broadband than 3g ****e. Do you already have a line in the house? If so it won't be too long (did they not give a date for activation?), you'll get your modem in the post, normally it's 2 weeks from date ordered, can be longer if they're short staffed or busy.

Sea08

charlieIRL wrote: »

not sure if this is any good to you now but i got word this morning (14/11/08) that eircom are upgrading exchanges around Athlone and they will be operational in December.

At long last!!:D

So has this happened! Whats the best option for wired broadband around the town? Rang digiweb but they said the signal is too weak in the glen and to try wired.

charlieIRL

Sea08 wrote: »

So has this happened! Whats the best option for wired broadband around the town? Rang digiweb but they said the signal is too weak in the glen and to try wired.

Yupp, exchange was enabled in Cornafulla on wednesday morning, ordered my broadband wednesday night - got wireless router saturday and it was online yesterday. Haven't tried out computer yet as i need a wireless PCI card for it but PS3 downloaded updates fairly fast last night.

lakes1985

iv recently moved from monksland to bealnamulla, across the road from the mill bar and was using wimax broadband dongle and it was brilliant! iv moved at most 2 miles and now my wimax doesnt work here, i rang upc and they dont work where i am either! has anybody any idea of what the best and cheapest broadband is for my current area??

Jesus Shaves

lakes1985 wrote: »

iv recently moved from monksland to bealnamulla, across the road from the mill bar and was using wimax broadband dongle and it was brilliant! iv moved at most 2 miles and now my wimax doesnt work here, i rang upc and they dont work where i am either! has anybody any idea of what the best and cheapest broadband is for my current area??

ha wimax is a joke, i moved 6 houses up the road and the signal went really poor, i rang them and they told me i was now out of range