Which Mobile Broadband Provider?

Laxie

Hi. I've got Permanet set up in our house and a router for wireless use with the laptops, but I'm looking to get some sort of mobile connection for when travelling with my laptop.

It can be bill pay or payg, but I'd like something with decent coverage and good customer service. Ability to use it in the UK would be a bonus as I'm over there pretty often, but not essential. After a search of boards and speaking to one of their reps (3's), it looks like 3 is out of the question.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Fresh Pots

This belongs in the midband forum.

Laxie

My apologies. Didn't realise I was posting in the wrong section. Will a mod move it, please and thank you.

Laxie

While we're waiting for a mod to toss it in the right section, any chance ye might have some suggestions re: OP? Was hoping to get this sorted in the next couple of days and don't want to post a duplicate in the midband section for fear of upsetting the apple cart. Cheers!

Tim M-U

do not get 3 . very bad coverage service in rural areas.

i did some research! :
meteor: I would go for meteor payg, but its only available in certin areas, find out here. pricing info .

eircom: available where meteor is . pricing info .

irish broadband: find if available here. pricing info .

02: find if available here . pricing info .


i would just go with DSL.

Laxie

Thanks for replying. DSL isn't the mobile option I was looking for with the laptop. Internet in our house is sorted. It's internet on the move I need to look after.

The links don't work, but I found them in the end.

Not near our area Cork/Kerry border):
Eircom
Meteor
Irish Broadband

From what I can tell after hours of searching, my options are either O2 or Vodafone.

So, based on everyone's experience...which one has best customer service and have you experienced coverage issues with either of them?

Tim M-U

Sorry Laxie for that problem with the links, there fixed now (just wanted to help anyone else who might find them handy). I highly recommend that you do loads of research (which you did).

i would go with whichever is cheapest, however, dont go with one that could close any min now..

jor el

Laxie wrote: »

From what I can tell after hours of searching, my options are either O2 or Vodafone.

So, based on everyone's experience...which one has best customer service and have you experienced coverage issues with either of them?

In general, they're both fairly similar in coverage and service. O2 have a support forum, which is quite good. O2 also have EDGE, which gives about 230kbps when you're outside 3G/HSDPA coverage, Vodafone will drop to 56k.

There's no real way to know which will be best for you, as it'll depend on where you are, and who else is using that service in the area. You'll only find out when you use it.

votejohn

im in the same boat, i bought meteor to go, but its only for 5GB per month. Now im scared I'll go over 5GB, so thinking of switching to another network, but not sure which one!

Laxie

Well, it's definitely narrowed to Vodafone or O2 as the rest have one reason or another for being out of the question.

We live on the Cork/Kerry border and none of them really have great coverage here as it's middle of nowhere. Not too worried about that as I'm set up well enough at home.

Travelling around is another story. From what I can tell, it seems Vodafone generally beats O2's coverage throughout the country or am I missing something?

woodsp

Vodafone offer a full portfolio of broadband services including Vodafone at Home packages which offer you DSL, landline, local and national calls and inclusive calling to nominated Vodafone mobile numbers. Our package rental is 20% cheaper than the equivalent eircom package rental or 30% cheaper if you're an existing Vodafone mobile customer.

We also offer a portfolio of Mobile Broadband services including pay as you use and monthly tariffs. In addition our DSL wifi modem incorporates a slot for your mobile broadband modem which will ensure that you can still use wifi in your house if there was ever a line fault on your fixed broadband connection. We always strive to ensure we offer a best in class service experience.

I'd be delighted to have you as a customer on our Vodafone at Home and Mobile Broadband packages. I've also no doubt that the best option for you would be to take all of your services with Vodafone as we have specifically designed our portfolio to give additional discount for customer loyalty.

If you'd like to contact me for any specific information please feel free to email me at paul.woods@vodafone.com. If you have any specific technical requirements I'm more than happy to get my team to support you.

All the best,

Paul Woods
General Manager, Total Communications Vodafone Ireland

watty

Vodafone may have a bit better 3G coverage, but when 3G sector is full (< 20 users can drop you below EDGE speeds) then O2's EDGE is better. The GPRS (Vodafone GSM) can be 12kbs to 70kbps. EDGE (O2) is 50kbps to 245kbps. O2 also has GPRS.

GPRS and EDGE on GSM have better building pentration and range as they are mostly 900MHz (some masts are 1800Mhz as well, or instead). 3G/HSPA is 50Kbps up to 6Mbps typically and on 2100Mhz, so poor range and in building penetration.

GSM's GPRS & EDGE does not Breathe (Drop connections further from mast as closer people connect on 3G). GPRS is similar speed no matter what distance. There are forms of EDGE that can go faster closer to Mast, but I have no idea if O2 implements them.

All data Mobile may not connect even with a good signal as capacity per mast Sector is very low compared to Fixed Wireless Broadband and also Phone calls use the same shared resource and have priority.

Vodafone have been least guilty of pushing Mobile 3G as a fixed Internet solution, so may give better performance as a large percentage of people attempting to use the Mobile Service as Fixed Broadband (which it can't ever be) dramatically impairs Mobile usage performance to maybe 1/5th.

Mobile Networks were designed for short periods of mobile Intermittent use. They were never designed as fixed Internet solution which tends to have x10 to x 100 higher traffic per user, thus making the contention x5 to x20 worse or even x100 worse per real Mobile user compared with countries that have decent Fixed Internet access and thus almost no people buying Mobile Subs for fixed use.