Mobile broadband coverage in Donegal

Glenman

I recently bought 3 mobile broadband. I live in Galway mostly and get good coverage there. I was at home at the weekend. I live in the middle of the hills near the bluestack mountains on the back road between Glenties and Ballybofey. I was very pleasently surprised to learn that I am getting a good 3G signal at my sitting room window. I was not expecting to get any 3G coverage at home. I thought that it was only available in big town like Letterkenny and Donegal town. Is 3G transmitted on most of the main masts in the county does anyone know?

sesswhat

There's a map on the 3 website. If you tick the mobile broadband box and zoom in, they seem to suggest good coverage in Glenties/Ardara and out as far as Glenmore from the Ballybofey side, with a few patches around your area.

Glenman

Yea according to the map on the 3-mobile site they seem to cover a lot of Donegal
http://www.three.ie/coverage/index.htm

However from the coverage map on the vodafone website they only seem to cover very small areas
http://www.vodafone.ie/coverage/index.jsp
I always though that vodafone offered better coverage than 3 for 3G

jimmycrackcorm

Glenman wrote: »

I always though that vodafone offered better coverage than 3 for 3G

3 have the best 3G coverage in the country as they built up their network from scratch with 3G.

donegalgirl28

Have IBB here in Dublin, that doesn't work up in Dungloe when I tried the last time, so am a bit wary of buying the 3G modem cos it might not work...

I'm actually on the 3Network myself, and have full coverage on my phone up there, I'm not sure if the modem would work quite as well though...

edanto

Great to hear that the 3 coverage is good - has anyone experience of using 3 modems in between Glenties and Portnoo, in Ballyeriston?

Likely not, but any advice would be great, thanks!

Durnish

Having heard that £ broadband is available in Rosbeg/Portnoo, I went into Carphone in Belfast and was told that a 3 Mobile USB thing would use the UK rates in Donegal. Something called "Like Home " tarrif. As the USB cost only £24.99 compared to E79 in L'kenny, I reckon I can experiment a bit.
Anyone else know about this seemingly "free lunch"?

Also kept the receipt in case I canny get any Broadband on my laptop in Dawros.

Senna

Think most of those mobile broadband deals have a 14/28 day return policy so you can return it if it doesn't work. Is it picking up the signal from Fermanagh or does it use the local O2, vod, 3 etc networks?

Let us know how you get on, could work out a lot cheaper.

danjo

Durnish wrote: »

Having heard that £ broadband is available in Rosbeg/Portnoo, I went into Carphone in Belfast and was told that a 3 Mobile USB thing would use the UK rates in Donegal. Something called "Like Home " tarrif. As the USB cost only £24.99 compared to E79 in L'kenny, I reckon I can experiment a bit.

Did you sign a contract for "bill pay" or is it a "pay as you go" type service?

Durnish

Pay as you go.
The shopfella phoned 3 at my request to check the tarrif, and that's what he came back with.

Use it in Donegal, or anywhere in Europe, and it's
"like Home".

I won't be trying it out till 22nd May then I shall post a report.

Harps

What package did you try in Letterkenny if it cost €79 for a usb??

You get a free usb with 3 and its only €20 a month

Durnish

I looked on the web, after the shock news of broadband availability, thru' a USB modem on a laptop, swept round the deli counter at Portnoo P.O.

I won't be buying a monthly sub, just need access for a month in August and a coupla weeks in July.
Anything is better than sitting in the "internet cafe" in Ardara.

Senna

Durnish wrote: »

Anything is better than sitting in the "internet cafe" in Ardara.

A fate worse than death :eek:

Durnish

the wee supermarket is great, but it was difficult trying to get attachments, files and photos, onto the system in the cybercafe section.

edanto

edanto wrote: »

Great to hear that the 3 coverage is good - has anyone experience of using 3 modems in between Glenties and Portnoo, in Ballyeriston?

An update on this for anyone interested - the 3 modem signal goes very weak in the area mentioned above, and at the house in question is completely dead.

What if it was on a long USB lead and sticking out a window? Is that a ridiculous idea?

jimmycrackcorm

edanto wrote: »

What if it was on a long USB lead and sticking out a window? Is that a ridiculous idea?

Try it on the laptop outside and if you get a signal then that's what you get. Bear in mind that usb only works up to 5m unless repeated.

Durnish

bad news, the 3 shop say that the bargain deal ends in June. No idea what will replace it, so I shall prob return the USB "Dongle" unopened.
Sad, the free lunch ends before I even got to eat it.

thebullkf

sorry guys have a friend who's a bit of a luddite and wants to getmobile broadband...in Askeaton limerick..

anyone have dongles that give good signals there???

thanks.

theboss80

i have 3 pre pay mobile broadband and in buncrana and signal is always perfect. bought it a month ago in carphone warehouse in letterkenny and the saleswoman told us 3 have been awarded the lisense by the government to give full national coverage by the end of the year so hopefully those who are in bother now will soon be sorted.

PS only problem is facebook wont load 4 me 2day for some reason but every oter site perfect and fast

eman66

Didn't think it could get any worse when I heard that 3 had been awarded the contract for the National Broadand Scheme.

Then I heard that Donegal was different and that it was to be NWE for us.

dysonfrost

Durnish wrote: »

Pay as you go.
The shopfella phoned 3 at my request to check the tarrif, and that's what he came back with.

Use it in Donegal, or anywhere in Europe, and it's
"like Home".

I won't be trying it out till 22nd May then I shall post a report.

hi ,,bought a modem from o2 in foyleside derry for £20 it happened to be unlocked,,,yes.. so i put my 3 sim card into and works well im west donegal,also bought vodafone sim crap speed,,

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

I'm using the €20 per month 3 Broadband in Buncrana and it has been bang on 99% of the time, bar last night when I kept getting cut off which was remedied by moving out to the kitchen. In fact when I do a speedtest on it, it gives me better results than my eircom Broadband used to when I was living in Galway.

Its not perfect, but its not too feckin bad either!

Graces7

We have a vodaphone "stick" up here; wildly erratic and very weak. Would greatly value better coverage.

We signed a year contract last November but they messed the direct debit, which they said was compulsory up, so I now pay monthly a An Post..... Am atop the Blue Stacks.

BikingChick

theboss80 wrote: »

i have 3 pre pay mobile broadband and in buncrana and signal is always perfect. bought it a month ago in carphone warehouse in letterkenny and the saleswoman told us 3 have been awarded the lisense by the government to give full national coverage by the end of the year so hopefully those who are in bother now will soon be sorted.

I'm in Buncrana and with 3 mobile broadband and the reception is REALLY bad!!! Despite paying €50 to upgrade to a new modem for "faster" broadband and better reception, it's made absolutely no difference! In addition to that, I've had no internet access for 4 days this week alone and had to go to the library to pay to use the internet! So, it really depends exactly where you are..

Harps

Phone them up, tell them your signal is poor and ask for a signal booster, we did that and they gave us one for free. They can cost up to €200 on the market aparently so no idea why theyre giving them away but hopefully it'll help, only started using it today

BikingChick

Harps, thanks for that! I'll ring them tomorrow and hope for the best! Cheers!

BlackEdelweiss

How is the 3 signal for mobile phones in Letterkenny, I cant understand the map thing, it says 2g and is all red??? A friend of mine was with 3 and changed due to bad cover but they have a good deal on 3gs iphones at the minute so I am tempted.

irish1967

There are a couple of threads you should read before you take the plunge. Thus is the shorter of the two

http://m.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056164433

NIMAN

Looking for something that works round the Carn/Culdaff area.

Got a loan of an O2 dongle earlier. I was getting 1mbps earlier, tonight mostly around 500k/600k. Not great.

Tested it a few weeks ago during the day (obviously when less people are using it) and I was getting 2meg.

Will test it during the day tomorrow and update here. Got it for the weekend too, so curious as to how it will fare on the busy weekend days.

demixed

NIMAN wrote: »

Looking for something that works round the Carn/Culdaff area.

Got a loan of an O2 dongle earlier. I was getting 1mbps earlier, tonight mostly around 500k/600k. Not great.

Tested it a few weeks ago during the day (obviously when less people are using it) and I was getting 2meg.

Will test it during the day tomorrow and update here. Got it for the weekend too, so curious as to how it will fare on the busy weekend days.

Three works pretty well around carn, I can usually get 2mb on it.

They've recently turned on a new mast around the culdaff area which seems to have sorted out a good few of the blackspots.

NIMAN

For the last couple of hours this O2 dongle has been awful.

Getting dial-up speeds, mostly between 20k and 60k.

This O2 service isn't selling itself well.

If I was to go with 3, what is their trial period like? Do you only get a couple of days as well?

Also, is it there standard service you get in this area, or the NBS special offer? Where can I get a dongle for that?

NIMAN

Update this morning at 9.30am

NIMAN

Big improvement at 11:45am

NIMAN

And a significant drop off around 1pm - people using during lunchtime perhaps?

muffler

Some serious fluctuations there

NIMAN

Indeed and now its awful again.

It won't even load up the SPEEDTEST webpage!

Only thing it will load up is a couple of forums, which I assume are low on bandwidth due to lack of graphics etc?

My signal has changed to EDGE if that means anything?



Edit:
Just tried again, and now the server has moved over to Dundalk (all the other tests were using Limerick).



This is not broadband, its slightly faster dial-up. I don't have much hope for this over the weekend if its this slow on a Friday midday.

demixed

NIMAN wrote: »

If I was to go with 3, what is their trial period like? Do you only get a couple of days as well?

Also, is it there standard service you get in this area, or the NBS special offer? Where can I get a dongle for that?

I think its 2 weeks to test it or you get your money back, its just the standard dongle.

NIMAN

Just testing it this afternoon, thinking that a Sunday would probably be busy enough in terms of users, and getting

tombrown

Sorry for bumping an old thread.

Anyone know which network provides best 3G cover in Maghery area? I have a Vodafone fixed wireless router & it fluctuates between 3G (~2M) to HSUPA (~300K) to no network and is mad frustrating. Thinking of either switching to Three or investing in a better quality router with antennae on long cables ...