mobile internet tests Forums

artona · Moderator

Hi

Just bringing you upto date with my messing with mobile internet. Although I have full BT broadband internet in my studio as a fulltimer my main connection to the net is via GPRS. I would say I use this connection for, on average 35 hours a week, so quite a high useage.

My main GPRS connection is via T mobile. I was using a motorola V3i which is now quite a cheap phone. We have recently upgraded to a Sony Erickson M600i. You would need to check how much its going to cost per month for minutes but the internet side costs from £7.50 per month.

We are currently using a package which gives us 3000 minutes off peak to tmobile and landlines for just £5. This is so cheap because we have had the line for some time, so plus the internet it costs us just £17.50 per month (we went for the £12.50 package which gives us unlimited browsing, 3 gigs of downloads and officially allowed to use the phone as a modem.

However we could get away with the £7.50 a month package which gives 1 gig of download and the phone will work as a modem even though you are not meant to.

There is a third package which is £22.50 a month and gives 10 gigs and their permission to use VOIP, ie skype.

I have just checked with T Mobile and last month I used 0.8 gigs of download.

The system is really fast and unless asking it to do big tasks like downloading photos it operates as well as the broadband in the office. I also use onspeed and firefox.

On the other system I have which is from Three with the Nokia N73 I have subscribed to silver x series. X series is on top of your talk plan and costs £5. It gives you unlimited browsing and 1 gig download but you must view the internet on the phone. 3G seems to always be available and it is very fast. Viewing the mobile version of motorhomefacts is very quick.

However I have failed to connect to the internet using the phone as a modem. It says in their literature that you mustn't use it as a modem but T Mobile were saying that and I was already using mine. However Three have it blocked and I have spoken to their customer services this evening. You need to pay another £15 per month to get web to wireless. This includes the first 0.5 gig of download. The other 300megs I used last month would cost an additional £1 per meg - or about £300!!!

Other than that the N73 is superb. Takes about 10 seconds to get online and then runs seemlessly. You also get access to skype (5000 minutes per month) and you get MSn messanger (10 000 messages per month).

I have started this thread in response to a number of PMs I have had requesting information

stew

Rapide561

Morning Stew

Very good post. When I was in the UK and looked at Vodafone for net access, Vodafone would supply a modem thing like I have here in Italy. Do you plug the phones into the PC? How do they talk to each other?

Oscar and I will be in the UK for July and August and so we are looking at possibile net solutions.

Russell

artona · Moderator

Hi Russell

They both have USB cables but I use them on bluetooth

stew

Rapide561

Stew

So, your mobile is effectively doing what my little modem thing does? Blimey, I think I have grasped something to do with computing!

Russell

artona · Moderator

Hi Russell

Spot on mate. Each of these two phones are mini computers with windows loaded and a modem.

Instead of using a telephone CABLE to link to the internet they are using the mobile phone GPRS signal to link to it.

The speed that this area of technology is developing is amazing. If we say that it was travelling at 20mph last March (when I first started playing with it) by October it was travelling at 60mph and I would say today we are travelling at 120mph. Smile

stew

TonyHunt

Stewart. All very interesting stuff. Cant quite grasp why you need the N73 three phone when you seem to have plenty of Net access already with your other phone/ PC combination and your office connection as well. You sound a bit of a gadget freak like my family are always calling me Smile

Have you looked into combining your T mobile connection with Satellite broadband which is supposed to be very cheap whilst downloading but to upload stuff costs a packet or is it the other way round. I met an English guy (teacher) in germany at the oyster factory who was on his way to spain to work freelance fulltime, he used this system all the time in his van, Sat broadband one way, mobile & modem the other ( I think) and was raving about it, but totally lost me in the end how it all worked.

cabby

Hi Stew how fast is the blue tooth and do you get inteference with other blue tooth items in close proximity.
At the moment I am still using BT for line and phone calls on a £63 per quarter, giving us free calls 24/7 providing we re-dial every hour.on any call over 1 hour ( the wife does use the phone during the day an awful lot).my internet is provided by Eurofasthost for £14 per month, and we have 2 mobiles which cost us on ave, £26 per month for the two.
I did look at having sat. internet but it is very expensive.
I take my laptop (pc) with us but usually go for hotspots and cafe.maybe a deal like you have would suit us but have to wait for my Vodaphone contract to end.but am looking into having a deal through them.

cabby

artona · Moderator

Hi Tony

I spent ages looking at mobile satellite internet connection. There was a company in Hertfordshire who would supply a duel LNB to go onto your sky dish.

The idea was that if you had located Astra2 then the satellite they were using was accessed by having a LNB slightly offset from the Sky one. The installation kit was about £300 and then it was about £50 a month. You also had to have GPRS connection via a mobile phone.

What would happen was that once you had connected via the GPRS connection on your phone your PC/laptop would send out a signal to the satellite requesting access. Once in all your browsing would be via the satellite. All your uploading would be via the GPRS connection of your phone.

God must have been looking after me because when I called them to arrange to have it all set up, just prior to going fulltime they had stopped supplying it the day before Smile

. I am smiling because I think the system I have now is better for a fraction of the cost.

Why do I think it is better? So far anywhere I have tried to log on I have been able to. I do not have to put up the sat dish (I have not got one) and tune into astra2. I do not have to wait for them to communicate for full access. My current set up is certainly as fast now if not faster, although if it still exists somewhere their technology might have improved as well. It takes me about 15 seconds to get connected - superb.

I think I have to admit to being a bit of a technology freak. I have always been a big time mobile phone user. From my first job as a photographer as a press photographer on the Brentwood Gazette I have worked mobile. I have both a T mobile phone and a three phone since they are very competitive for cost. Three used to be dreadful for connection but they are now the best, T mobile are probably the second but both still suffer the stigma from their early days. Three are currently moving a head of all the others for technology, eg they have dropped roaming charges in a number of countries, they claim that using your Three mobile in Italy for example is no more expensive than using it in the UK.

Hi Cabby

I also think like you and wonder why I have a landline. Using an analogy my Renault 1.5 Clio will cruise at 70/80 all day and by having a Clio sport hot hatch sport if this is all you want to do there would be no gain. The sport version though will do 140mph and that is where the 1.5 will fall over. I notice no difference when doing general internet use but if I want to do heavy work like searching other photographers websites that are full of biggggggg picture files then the fixed line broadband is still better. However both T mobile and Three are talking about 3 meg access by the end of the year (is it measured in megs or gigs?) so within a year who knows.

At the moment I am enjoying gprs. Recently there have been a few moans that via fixed line broadband MHF has been slow. Via my set up I have not noticed this at all. The real expert on internet access on MHF is Gromett. He explained to me that what actually happens with fixed line access is that whilst you might have purchased say 8meg access there are a number of people sharing that portal (I think thats the right name). So if you are the only one connected it will be whizzing. But there might be 20, maybe 100 sharing your local portal. If they all log on they are then all sharing so it will all slow down. This all went a bit over my head but I think thats the general idea. Using GPRS I do not know if this will ever be a problem but it certainly isn't at the moment

stew