Boaters - especially continuous cruisers - are fast-adopting 3G Broadband.
The problem is so often that you have to commit to a contract - but how do you know which of the four or five main services will give you the best coverage and speed.
I've been agonising over this myself a lot recently. Consumer website Bitter Wallet has an amusing comment:
Three, who were 3G pioneers, fare well, as do Orange, whereas the 3G power wielded by T Mobile, O2 and Vodafone is, to be frank, piss poor. This explains why surfing the net using your mobile phone or your dongle can be as laborious and aggravating as trying to removed a thorn from your paw with a tea spoon.
If you live in the countryside, you probably shouldn’t even be reading this, because it looks like no one even wants you to have the internet. You should probably stick to thatching roofs and drink driving at night.
I recommend you download the latest 3G coverage maps, published by Ofcom. (PDF)
As Bitter Wallet points, out, Three clearly has the best coverage (pic 1 above), whereas that of O2 (pic 2, below) and Vodafone is very disappointing.
I only wish I could get my Three broadband dongle working with my laptop. Unfortunately the technical support is terrible and they refuse to answer my questions.
How I wish WiMax would become more common.
My 3 dongle (PAYG) worked well when we used it at Easter. £10 for a month, and we got nowhere near the data limit. I paid £30 for the dongle, but I've seen it for even less recently.
Posted by: Halfie | Sunday, 12 July 2009 at 11:54 PM
Which 3 dongle do you have? PAYG or Contract?
Posted by: John Slee | Sunday, 12 July 2009 at 12:00 AM