Dongle - Vodafone v 3 Store interesting info Forums

TravelBug · Last edited by TravelBug on Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:47 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hi, wasn't sure wether to put this as a new topic or merge it in with another but decided that I'd start it out as a new one, so hope that is okay.

Today we went to town to buy a dongle, we visited both 3 Store and Vodafone and our findings might interest others. Apologies if this is a bit long winded but want to give you all the facts.

We started off at the 3 shop, we explained that we were told that we wanted a Dongle and mobile broadband and that we knew both they and vodaphone offered such a service.

The lady started out by saying that theirs was superior to vodaphone as they were part of the 3g group who operated the coverage, she showed us how to set it up (which looked easy) and showed us the pricing structure. We then asked her about coverage. She explained they had a map and that red areas could get it and the rest couldn't and that lots of the areas were covered. So..

We asked her to check our home location, and no we couldn't get it there, so we asked her to check Saundersfoot and Bala and no they didn't have coverage there. We asked about Pembrey (knowing we'd already been told we'd get coverage there) and she explained that whilst it was on the edge of the coverage it should be okay. Naturally we were dissapointed as all the above are areas we visit frequently, so decided to go away and think about it, we visit Pembrey at least once a month so it would have been worth the £10 a month to give us coverage whilst there.

We then decided that we might as well go to vodaphone, knowing they would only cover the same areas as the lady in the 3 shop had more or less told us so. We had to wait about 10 mins for service, but finally a young man came to our assistance. We told him what the lady in 3 had said and he told it was nonsense. They had far better coverage, that 3 shop had nothing to do with 3G and that Vodafone had their own coverage plus used 3G in some areas.

So we asked him to check Saundersfoot, he said there was no need as the last person in who had just left with one lived there himself, but he showed us the coverage on the map and it was blue, he explained this meant that it would connect but we wouldn't get the super speeds of 7 mg but more like 2 or 3 mg (now as a person whose home connection is about 253 kbps this sounded good enough to me). We then asked him to check our home address, Bala and Pembrey, yes no problem there was coverage in all these areas.

We had asked the 3 store how long we would have to return the product if it didn't work for us and were told we would have 3 days. We asked the Vodafone shop the same and they said 14 days.

Then it came down to the modem, there were two sorts, one which was free with the £15 a month contract or another which was capable of the higher speeds at £79.99 (or something similar to that). The sales man told us we would be fine with the one that came free, as the area we wanted to use in would never be suitable for the higher speeds and we would therefore be wasting our money by buying it. He also explained that the free modem had a booster with it, so if we were in a location struggling to get online we could plug the booster in and it should resolve the problem.

Now that is honesty for you.

So we decided to take a chance, we were still a bit dubious as where we live the only mobile signal we've ever had much luck at getting in Orange but we thought as we had 14 days to return it in we could bring it home and try it out.

Sure enough, we came home, plugged it in and after about 5 minutes of going through the set up process it had detected a Vodaphone link and we were away, surfing the net. To say we are thrilled is a major understatement. The speeds aren't superfast, and to be honest I haven't tested them yet, but the BBC home page took about 20 seconds to load, and using yahoo msr was instant. There is a monitor that shows us how much of our allowance we've used and the signal strength.

That is about it, Vodafone were excellent, they never lied once about what they could and couldn't do, he didn't sell us unnecessary items and even gave us a pay as you go sim card to use in an old mobile if we wished at a later date (this can be useful if we're in a location where Orange doesn't work), it was worth £9.

I am now considering cancelling my £17.99 a month package that delivers my very slow broadband speed, the reason being that I live so far from the exchange BT can't provide me with a decent connection and I therefore had to find an ISP who could offer me flexible speeds rather than fixed, as when I had fixed speeds my connection kept failing and BT threated to disconnect me totally. I am not going to rush into this though as I want to work out how many Gigs I use in a month first.

Also I noticed someone asking about coverage, well this might help

http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coverageviewer/web/default.aspx

Anywhere in blue gets a connection but it might not be at great speed, anywhere in red gets superfast connection depending on your modem. Type in a place name and you can zoom in to see just how good the coverage is and if there are any white zones (as there are around Bala) where you might not get coverage. Would you believe that on our farm we can get it on one side of the farm yard but not the other, the map showed this and was spot on.

If you are interested in 3 still then

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/coverage_/coverageChecker.do

We were advised anywhere in yellow wouldn't support an internet connection, only use of a mobile. Anywhere in Pink was a hot spot and it would work.

Also one last thing, the dongle can be switched from our laptop to our main computer as much as we wish, the monitor is built into the dongle so it just moves from computer to computer keeping a running total on what useage we've had.

I hope this helps anyone who might be considering purchasing one of these. Apologies if I've made any spelling errors

ozwhit

thanks

travelbug youve just sold it for me ,ive been looking into getting a dongle so my daughter can use msn (with restricted use of course otherwise we wouldnt get a look in ) going to order one tonight , regards gary

Briarose

Hi a very informative post for anyone who is new to all this..........I have had a Vodaphone 3G card for over two years now and have been very impressed and had no probs (apart from Bainland at Woodhall Spa but even mobiles barely work on there).

With the above in mind I decided that now I needed a dongle for the new lap top rather than the slot in card, I decided after much reading of posts etc that I would stick with Vodaphone............just a bit of info for anyone wanting the quicker dongle (which again the lady in Phones 4 U said I didn't need) it was £40 in there.

One of the girls that works for me also has the 3 dongle and also said it is intermittent etc depending where you are. So really that made my mind up for me.

I am quite pleased as my previous data card was £20 plus vat per month, the new one is £15 inc vat and I have much more usage on the new one.

Rapide561

Hello

Thanks for the info. I am in the market for a dongle of some sorts to "replace" the T Mobile pay as you go. I will keep the latter as a back up.

Russell

Is Dongle a real word nowadays, or what? I might need it on Countdown if I ever get on there!

Briarose

Rapide561

Well, I go to the foot of our stairs and you can knock me over with a feather!

I thought it was a made up word.

Wikipedia is an excellent site.

Thanks

R

artona · Moderator

Hi

I go to the foot of our stairs

deres stares in dem Swifts - now zats imprisive Laughing

stew

Briarose

TravelBug

I would have thought Wikidpedia was a name and therefore not acceptable on countdown.