O2 Broadband Sticks

Max001

Hiya

Heard O2 offer these to UCC students at a discount of €9.99 pm.

Anyone using/used them? Whats the connection speed / reliability like?
Any feedback welcome.

Cheers

Max

alancork

Hi Max,

I got it a few weeks ago. Its cheap alright, but it's a bit hit and miss, I'm on Magazine Road. When you get 3G speeds, a blue light on the modem, it's grand, usually over 1MBPS.. but move a small bit and you get a green light, 2G, which is horrific, might as well not use it at all.

Housemate got Meteor Broadband, and he always has 3G speeds, but its double the price, and the modem in €50, as opposed to €20 with O2.

On campus I haven't had any problems.:)

Max001

Cheers Alan

Plan to use it in Dennehy's Cross until the summer, so fingers crossed!

alancork

Oh also, you can bring it back within 10 days with a full refund if it's not working where you live. So sorted really:D

x43r0

It just depends on your area really. Best thing you could do is if you have a friend with the o2 stick, borrow it and try it at your place. The same would go for the other network sticks


I have the O2 stick in Brookfield and i get 3G speeds all the time

shell022

hey,
I'm in denneys cross and 90% of the time i have a blue light. Haven't really found any problems with it accept for my computer not recognising the modem sometimes. but yeah i'd recommend it.

Skapoot

1. 02 has been taking money out of peoples accounts for no damn reason, and unless you're a regular account checker, then you won't notice the daylight robbery.

2. They don't tell you this but you have to pay 20 euro in the first month, you pay a month in advance. And if you dont pay the 20 on time .. there are late payment fees. Like I said, they just dont bother to tell you this.

3. Also, with 02, everything you download, you upload the exact same amount. Of course, they don't tell you that either. You pay when you go over the limit.

My housemate has been using her 02 stick for a month. 80 euro got taken out of her account last week. Ringing 02 she found out that she got charged fees for not having 20euro in her account for the first month ( they never told her to) she got charged for going over the download limit. (she didnt go over the download limit, but since you automatically upload what you download-dont ask me why) they charged her double she was supposed to be paying.

She explained that she should have been forwarned that 80euro was to be taken out of her account and decided to close her account with 02, cancel her contract.

Of course. Cancelling the contract costs 70 euro.

I'd say go for meteor.

hippety-pippety

o2 broadband is a piece of sh1t.

if you get it for e10 a month you have to sign a 12-month contract, but you get a 10gb download limit per month (which isn't too bad).
if you only want it for 9months - because this is just SO inconvenient for o2 - they charge e13 a month and there's a 5gb download limit.

after my first month we got a bill for e60 (not the e13 we'd been expecting). as Skapot said, they take out two months' payment from your account without telling you (they apparently will refund you after the 9 months - but still they f*cking oughta tell you about it) and if you go over the limit they charge A LOT - 2c per megabyte or something. i went 2gb over the download limit (hardly having downloaded anything, but as Skapot says, just spending any time on the internet uses up download space because you're uploading at the same time - I've no idea how it works either) and it cost me an extra 40 or something.

if you get it just be super careful not to spend too long online because you'll pay dearly for it! literally.
oh and also, to monitor how much of your download limit you're using up, you have to register your sim card online - to do that you need a code that they send to the sim card - and I have tried to do this but haven't received a text on the o2 broadband thing (you can check it for sms messages but apparently i haven't received any)

if you get it just only use it to check email & stuff - don't go on youtube, look at pictures, etc (do that in college )

ow2h7nft1me9i4

I have o2 boradband over a year and use it in Victoria Mills with a blue light all the time. I find the speed is heavily dependant on the time of day you use it. From around 4-10 i find it slow to extremly slow,presumably because there is more people using theirs at the same time and the network is busy. Only at about 4 in the morning will you have any chance of reaching anywhere near the speeds they advertise.

It's better than absolutely nothing but dont expect the 3.6mb speed they advertise. I also find it doesnt drop connection often either.

I think you should get it on their trial period thing and test how fast it is at different times of the day and then decide if you are happy with it.

Sam Kade

My daughter was thinking of getting o2 broadband for 9.99/month as she is in college. Is it really this bad surely if the download limit is 10gb it would take a lot of use to reach that limit. I use 3 myself and other people use it aswell so it gets used often the most that was used in a month was 6gb.
Is there any other providers doing discounts for students?

hippety-pippety

Sam Kade wrote: »

My daughter was thinking of getting o2 broadband for 9.99/month as she is in college. Is it really this bad surely if the download limit is 10gb it would take a lot of use to reach that limit. I use 3 myself and other people use it aswell so it gets used often the most that was used in a month was 6gb.
Is there any other providers doing discounts for students?

yeah 10gb is plenty. i guess it just depends how much time you spend on it.
9.99/month is great of course but you have to get it for 12months.
if you only want it for 9 months (as presumably your daughter does?) it's 13/month and the download limit is half the size.

Ainekav

Hi Im on the o2 student deal, have had no problems really, a few times at home in the country it didnt work but its grand in Dublin. Im checking the usage the whole time and It seems I have only used like 2 GB of my ten, despite being on it a few hours a day. And using skype the odd time...

I started it on 16/10 and got my bill there on the 17th and it says i owe them 20e.... It breaks down as 8.75e from 16/10-17/11 and then 8.22e from 17/11 til 17/12/2009... and then 3euro VAT.

I have only used 240 MB since my last bill period ended a few days ago, wtf??
Why are they charging me 20 quid?

Did someone say they charge twice or something? But the two amounts arent the same...

Anyone have any ideas what this is about? Cant find anything on the terms and conditions.
Werent they supposed to charge me 9.99 anyway, not 8 something?/?

hippety-pippety

how do you check your usage? I can't seem to register online - I put in the number of the SIM card and then it said a text had been sent to the card - but I haven't received the text. How did you do it? did you put the SIM card from the broadband in a mobile phone & then check it for texts from o2.ie?

Space Mountain

I signed up for the deal after an o2 guy at a stall in trinity gave me a leaflet and told me it was only 9.99 per month.

the guy in the o2 shop i then went to with the flyer also gave me the impression it was a 9.99 set charge i was signing up for having paid 19.99 for my modem.

yet my first monthly bill last month was for 353Euro!!!!!

i've cancelled and am now in limbo as i can't afford to pay the bill nor feel like i should!!!!!

unfortunately it looks like playing youtube vids and skype chats every day have led to this bill but I was never told anything about these extra charges and having rechecked the leaflet it says nothing on it about such a thing!!!!!

Esse85

Have you contacted O2?

Space Mountain

yep, i sent them an email asking them to explain and telling them what i had been led to believe by their various salespersons.

i got an email back saying i was charged for "additional charges" and told how to pay.

they didn't explain how nowhere on my bill was a 9.99 charge nor information about the deal i was supposed to have signed up for.

the deal is explained at this link

http://www.heanet.ie/conferences/2009/exhibitors.php

odin_ie

Did you go over your 10GB cap? Its about the only way that you would clock up that kind of a bill. If you were downloading music or video, you may well have gone over the cap.

Papa_Lazarou

Space Mountain did you read the terms and conditions?

The 9.99 if for the first 10gb and thereafter you are charged per mb downloaded.

odin_ie

*All O2 Broadband Plans have a data usage limit and a charge of 2c per MB applies for all usage in excess of the data usage limit on your plan.

so if you racked up so minus the 9.95, you would have to go over by about 17 gbs

CantGetNoSleep

I'd avoid it too, possibly the worst customer care I have ever experienced, they also block sites such as Megavideo but deny this blatantly, see thread in Midband forum