Mobile Broadband (Maynooth)

mark27595

Im starting college in Maynooth at the end of the month and the house I'm renting in kingsbry doesn't have Broadband or even a phone line so thats UPC Eircom etc out of the question. So I have to resort to Mobile Dongles *shudder*. I would go out and try all the different networks but i don't live near maynooth Im from donegal so i kind of want to get this sorted before i move down as more than likely it'll be contract.
I have a Galaxy S3 on Three and i did a speedtest in my room and got around 0.45mbps which is shocking considering the average i would get out and about in donegal is 5.20mbps now correct me if I'm wrong but i kind of ruled out Threes mobile dongles because of this am I right doing so ? (kind of fond of three theyd be the fastest in Donegal). So that leaves me with Vodafone,O2,eMobile and Meteor.
Im probably thinking way into this but with o2s buy out by Three does that mean id be getting the same speed on o2 or have their merger been completed yet? Also don't Vodafone and Three have some partnership with sharing infrastructure so does that mean that vodafones speeds will too be the same as Threes or am i thinking about this way too much ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm the only techie in my group of friends so Ive nobody else to ask.

bealtine

mark27595 wrote: »

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I have a Galaxy S3 on Three and i did a speedtest in my room and got around 0.45mbps which is shocking considering the average i would get out and about in donegal is 5.20mbps now correct me if I'm wrong but i kind of ruled out Threes mobile dongles because of this am I right doing so ? (kind of fond of three theyd be the fastest in Donegal). So that leaves me with Vodafone,O2,eMobile and Meteor.

To be honest nobody can really answer that question, the speed you get on mobile depends on so many variables like distance from mast, number of subscribers and so on...Some times you may not even be able to connect. So it's impossible to give an estimate based on someone else's experience.

Generally mobile internet is not considered to meet the basic requirements to be called broadband around here.

smelly sock

mark27595 wrote: »

Im starting college in Maynooth at the end of the month and the house I'm renting in kingsbry doesn't have Broadband or even a phone line so thats UPC Eircom etc out of the question. So I have to resort to Mobile Dongles *shudder*. I would go out and try all the different networks but i don't live near maynooth Im from donegal so i kind of want to get this sorted before i move down as more than likely it'll be contract.
I have a Galaxy S3 on Three and i did a speedtest in my room and got around 0.45mbps which is shocking considering the average i would get out and about in donegal is 5.20mbps now correct me if I'm wrong but i kind of ruled out Threes mobile dongles because of this am I right doing so ? (kind of fond of three theyd be the fastest in Donegal). So that leaves me with Vodafone,O2,eMobile and Meteor.
Im probably thinking way into this but with o2s buy out by Three does that mean id be getting the same speed on o2 or have their merger been completed yet? Also don't Vodafone and Three have some partnership with sharing infrastructure so does that mean that vodafones speeds will too be the same as Threes or am i thinking about this way too much ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm the only techie in my group of friends so Ive nobody else to ask.

Hi,

I live in kingsbry. You could try what's called a mobile wifi hotspot. Basically you can leave this anywhere in the house and connect to it the same as you would a wireless router.

I can't get 3G in my living room but get 4mgps in my kitchen.

mark27595

Yeah I seen them advertised I think its what id be using so i can use other things other than just my laptop. What network are you ? I rang The Carphone Warehouse and she recommended Three and said its the best in that area even though it didnt preform well on my phone :S

smelly sock

I'd agree with Mark. The mobile dongles and hotspots have better antennas and hardware for picking up a stronger 3G signal.

mark27595

smelly sock wrote: »

I'd agree with Mark. The mobile dongles and hotspots have better antennas and hardware for picking up a stronger 3G signal.

Huh?

smelly sock

mark27595 wrote: »

Huh?

You mention that 3 didn't perform that well on your phone. I have seen a huge difference in speeds on a phone compared to a dongle.

smelly sock

Vodafone.

mark27595

smelly sock wrote: »

You mention that 3 didn't perform that well on your phone. I have seen a huge difference in speeds on a phone compared to a dongle.

Okay sorry just the context it was wrote in kind of confused me. I think I'll try Vodafone then maybe o2. Would you rate Vodafone over 3 for speed down in maynooth. Its obviously different up in Donegal as Three invested a lot in their infrastructure up here due to the rural broadband scheme or something :L

obnicc

mark27595 wrote: »

Okay sorry just the context it was wrote in kind of confused me. I think I'll try Vodafone then maybe o2. Would you rate Vodafone over 3 for speed down in maynooth. Its obviously different up in Donegal as Three invested a lot in their infrastructure up here due to the rural broadband scheme or something :L

I have my mobile with three, I moved house and got a call from the three sales team selling broadband, I had nothing set up so I got it as the sales person said there was good service at my address, that it could be used for Netflix and connect multiple devices at once.

Has never done its job, signal is crap, reps on here have said that they confirmed the signal in the area is good, that's all I keep being told. I wouldn't recommend three's broadband, it's useless.

smelly sock

It's a 3G device? It'll never work for Netflix. Browsing and the like. The download limits pretty much make it null and void for streaming media etc.

bealtine

mark27595 wrote: »

Okay sorry just the context it was wrote in kind of confused me. I think I'll try Vodafone then maybe o2. Would you rate Vodafone over 3 for speed down in maynooth. Its obviously different up in Donegal as Three invested a lot in their infrastructure up here due to the rural broadband scheme or something :L

Mobile internet just doesn't work like that, it could be good one moment and the next utterly crap all at the same location. The only way is to try each provider in your exact place and see, if you find one that "works" pray your neighbours don't all get a dongle on that network