Metropol

As I've decided to move to shoddier, non-internetty accommodation for a while, I was looking at various deals for mobile broadband. I'm quite taken by the O2 30-day deal, as the house appears to be in the footprint of a BT Openzone and I understand you get that for free with their packages. Any suggestions?

Well, just popped to the o2 shop only to be told the WiFi is no longer openzone but the vastly inferior The Cloud. arse.

From my experience, BT Openzone and BT FON hotspots are equally useless because, whilst unlimited, you only really get dialup speed internet and so watching iPlayer is a definite no and waiting for a music video to load on Youtube takes half an hour.

A BT FON hotspot should be around 512kbps, so whilst it's not a modern speed, it's nowhere near dial-up.

Well all, I've gone with 3 in the end. They offer 5gb for £15 a month, but I intend to buy some cheap-ass PAYG sims with 3gb bundled. I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the speed!

Sput wrote:Well all, I've gone with 3 in the end. They offer 5gb for £15 a month, but I intend to buy some cheap-ass PAYG sims with 3gb bundled. I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the speed!

5GB for £15? Madness - I pay the same price and get 15GB a month. That said, you do at least have the freedom of a rolling monthly contract, rather than the 18 month contract I signed up to.

The 30-day thing is essential

I also have a 3 dongle for occasional use and I have to say that the speed and coverage tends to be very good in built up areas. Equally I've got a 3 SIM in my iPad and it holds a good signal wherever I go. Their call centre was an adventure though when registering. Spelling of surname went something like: "That's I...S...", "Is that S for Charlie?"

Not that I'm complaining, but any idea why my3 claims I have 6GB remaining when it's a 5GB deal?

In February I foolishly signed up to Vodafone mobile broadband as I'm moving away from home soon and would prefer to have my own internet connection as opposed to sharing one with several people.

What a mistake that was...

1. The dongle came without a diagram, so I had to phone them to find out where the SIM card goes.

2. The broadband package was advertised on Vodafone's website as being free for the first 3 months of the contract. So when I received a bill at the end of month one, I was quite taken aback. Phoned up again, and the customer service adviser said he wasn't aware of the offer and told me I would have to print off a copy of the webpage and send it to them by post! "Well I presume you've got a computer in front of you - why can't you just look at the webpage??" I asked, "Yeah, but I don't know what page you're talking about. You'll have to print it off." Incredulous at such a ridiculous response, I raised my voice and told him to start at vodafone.co.uk and I would patiently guide him toward the page where it said the first three months were free. When we eventually found the page, the guy apologised and helpfully credited my account with £40 to cover the first three months' charges and the cost of my phone call. All was well again.

3. Whilst searching for some new porn to download, I was greeted with a message telling me to contact Vodafone to have the 18+ content filter removed, even though you have to be over 18 to take out a mobile broadband contract in the first place. Duh. As a 24-year-old I found having to ask permission to look at porn extremely humiliating.

4. By the end of month two, my data meter had spiralled to something outrageous like 45GB despite having been very careful to only use ~100mb per day. So I had to contact them YET AGAIN in order to seek assurances that I wasn't going to be sent a bill for the phantom 42GB. Vodafone told me it was an error with the software, which they intend to fix as soon as possible.

5. Initially I was quite happy with the reliability of the broadband connection itself, until a few weeks ago when it started dropping about 10 times a day for no apparent reason.

Don't think I'll be renewing my contract in 15 months.

Early days yet Chie! I think the 18+ filter is a fairly common thing, I certainly had it on my T-Mobile account when I got my smartphone.

Sput wrote:Early days yet Chie! I think the 18+ filter is a fairly common thing, I certainly had it on my T-Mobile account when I got my smartphone.

I had to disable it on Orange four and a half years ago so I could view TVF, as a thread about babestation had caused it to be classified as "adult".