Comments on: Irish mobile broadband becomes more compelling

By: James

James — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:57:38 +0000

@Philistine, Sherkin seems to have coverage with 3 broadband but only outdoors so it may not be too good indoors.

@McCloud, did you call 3 customer service? They were upgrading a lot of the network over the last couple of weeks to 7.6Mbps apparently and this may be what caused your problems.

I’ve been using 3 for a while and find it incredibly handy, especially working on Cork-Dublin trains or generally out and about.

By: McCloud

McCloud — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:21:49 +0000

Philistine,

Forget 3. I’m with them for the last year or so. It has up to 700Kbs between 0000 and 0700. 0-3Kbs between 1600-0000. In the last two weeks it has been appalling, with “Network Error” appearing 30-40% of the time.

I’m moving to O2, it couldn’t possibly be worse!

By: Philistine

Philistine — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:51:33 +0000

Thinking of moving from Vodafone bill pay to 3 - as tariffs seem better? Been told customer services in India is a nightmare and also coverage is bad.

Was hoping it would work as then I would try the 3 mobile broadband when I go to Sherkin island off West Cork!!??

Any advice out there?

By: Johnny

Johnny — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Dell Laptops To Offer Qualcomm Gobi Mobile Broadband

Dell (NSDQ:Dell) and Qualcomm paired up Tuesday to offer next-generation laptops that enable users to access multiple 3G cellular networks globally, the two companies announced Tuesday.

According to Dell, the company’s next-generation laptops will be imbedded with Qualcomm’s new Gobi mobile broadband technology, which lets notebook manufacturers ship Gobi-equipped notebooks in all global distribution channels to deliver roaming and connectivity capabilities across worldwide networks.

link to article - http://broadbandmobile.blogspot.com/2008/04/dell-laptops-to-offer-qualcomm-gobi.html

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:55:29 +0000

One Wireless Broadband Reception/ Coverage Solution.

Anybody who has trouble getting maximum, or acceptable connectivity, in an area where the provider claims coverage is adequate/excellent may consider the idea of adding on an external aerial. This works really well, & I came across John Andrews(www.jandrew-elec.com), who provided a low loss cable , connectors, & a RF Industries Quad Band Antenna, in this case for an O2, Sierra card, for less than EU200.Possible solution for dongle connectivity as well.This is guy really helpful, if you have a rough idea what you need.Have 3g coverage now.

By: Graham Gosing

Graham Gosing — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:53:07 +0000

Well I finally got rhe Linksys sorted (after getting the new 660A card from Vodafone, tweaking the APN to use hs.vodafone.ie and buying a HUGE external antenna for it). I’m averaging around 800Kb up and 120kb down.

The antenna is actually sitting in the loft space and pointed in the approximate direction that I think it should.

The speed is more than workable for normal usage. Wouldn’t like to be a YouTube addict though!

By: fed up

fed up — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:23:03 +0000

i have tried 3 but it has been nothing but heartache. there call centre is in india, and it is just a complete pain if you have problems and have to ring them….

also the connection speed i get in the celbridge area is terrible, usually averages about 26Kps

By: patrick

patrick — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:23:40 +0000

Hi i was just wondering if is there a way of connecting a 3g broadband modem directly to a wireless router?

By: James

James — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:46:54 +0000

That should work I would have thought like Paul says above… You can also get a router from Linksys that you slot the PC Card into and you can share it over wifi.

By: Paul M. Watson

Paul M. Watson — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:41:08 +0000

Ronan, I haven’t tried this but you should be able to plug it into one computer and then use Window’s shared internet feature to share it out.

By: Ronan

Ronan — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:21:12 +0000

is it possible to share your mobile broadband internet connection to other computers throughout the house

By: minionster

minionster — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:53:11 +0000

Is the 3 data card drivers the same as the ones needed for the 3 data modem?

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:13:55 +0000

Hi Guys, I am not a Com Tech guy, but I really appreciate info above.
Having come through the Vista/Express card nightmare ,(Hello Toshiba XP, see BMS.ie) I have an O2 datacard that will only work on GPRS in my area & with D/load speeds of 60/800 secs per item. Yet road tests come up with the idea that the area is covered by 3G.End result is that 1/3 of the town cannot get efficient reception.Mad.Do you need “line of sight” for 3G to work on masts?
Can I extend an aerial up to the chimney, or can I adjust any of O2 network setings?
O2 support 7 days later is pretty bad. No return calls,no solutions.
Ironically the vodafone modems work perfectly with 3G/XP. Appreciate any comment cheers, & well done.

By: Graham Gosling

Graham Gosling — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:23:21 +0000

Three Rock - thanks that’s a help - shows that I’m in the middle of no-mans land where I am, just off the R700 between Inistioge and New Ross!

By: Three Rock

Three Rock — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:41:46 +0000

Someone above was asking about identifying coverage. The site below will tell you as it has info on all the base stations and boosters (by map!)

Very handy…. I have a three site right beside me… so for 10gig limit a month â‚¬20 seems pretty good

http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/site_viewer.asp

By: Graham Gosling

Graham Gosling — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:42:51 +0000

Out of interest, is it possible to fix an aerial to the outside of the house to get a better signal (I’d assume it would be some sort of grey box)?

By: Eoin Prout » The high cost of Mobile Internet in Ireland Part Deux

Eoin Prout » The high cost of Mobile Internet in Ireland Part Deux — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:04:05 +0000

[...] Tom Raftery in his blog gives the low down on 3G costs. Irish mobile broadband becomes more compelling [...]

By: Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:40:17 +0000

I’ve got one of the 3G USB jobbies from vodafone, and I’ve done some testing in the car around Carlow town. Coverage is sketchy, but when that little modems light goes blue, you’re singing along.

Reason why this will never compete with fixed line or traditional wireless products: Latency. It’s piss poor, between 220ms and 1000ms can be expected, especially when you move between 3G and GPRS networks, the failover time is around 45 seconds during which time the connection is useless.

The wee USB dongle, which advertised only for Ms Windows, works fine in linux: See my post here last month.

Also a point to note about Carlow town, that flipping wifi network caused havoc during my testing. I eventually had to disable the card in my laptop so I could continue using the 3G modem successfully.

By: Graham Gosling

Graham Gosling — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:53:56 +0000

I’d agree about Kilkenny. Trying to get a Vodafone 3G signal for my Linksys Router equipped 3G card is fraught with disappointment.

They have a potential winner on their hands as we’re at least two years away from getting an Eircom line and the other wireless offerings seem pricey and prone to company closures.

By: Antoin O Lachtnain

Antoin O Lachtnain — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:58:55 +0000

Three are now competing head-to-head with Irish Broadband. For now, they are offering a better service, because they have more spare capacity on their network. When that capacity fills up, what will happen then?