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136 Posts
Hi All
I have had a '3' dongle for about two years and have now 'binned' it for use in the UK. We travel a lot and it can only be used in very good signal areas - it will only connect to a 3G network and will not connect to GPRS. Another problem is that in high traffic areas, '3' provides a secondary 3G network (search for networks and you may find two '3' '3g' services) which the dongle will default to - this service only supplies the bandwidth left over from the primary network and sometimes you would be quicker to post a letter.
I now use a Vodafone dongle in the UK which seems to have all of the country covered - where you can use a phone, you can use the dongle. The GPRS service in low signal areas is slow but is adequate at about 56KB/secs - at least it is stable and is OK for email etc. Trouble is it is not supported for roaming abroad.
The only advantage with a '3' dongle is for use in Europe where it will connect to a GPRS if necessary and performance in Spain and Portugal, using local networks, is far superior to the 3 network in the UK. The charge of £3.00 for 1Mbyte can be stretched to about 5Mbytes by using 'Onspeed' (www.onspeed.com) which makes it a useable alternative for roaming on the beach.
Cheers, Roger
I have had a '3' dongle for about two years and have now 'binned' it for use in the UK. We travel a lot and it can only be used in very good signal areas - it will only connect to a 3G network and will not connect to GPRS. Another problem is that in high traffic areas, '3' provides a secondary 3G network (search for networks and you may find two '3' '3g' services) which the dongle will default to - this service only supplies the bandwidth left over from the primary network and sometimes you would be quicker to post a letter.
I now use a Vodafone dongle in the UK which seems to have all of the country covered - where you can use a phone, you can use the dongle. The GPRS service in low signal areas is slow but is adequate at about 56KB/secs - at least it is stable and is OK for email etc. Trouble is it is not supported for roaming abroad.
The only advantage with a '3' dongle is for use in Europe where it will connect to a GPRS if necessary and performance in Spain and Portugal, using local networks, is far superior to the 3 network in the UK. The charge of £3.00 for 1Mbyte can be stretched to about 5Mbytes by using 'Onspeed' (www.onspeed.com) which makes it a useable alternative for roaming on the beach.
Cheers, Roger