2008/11/2 Andrew Dyke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > I have a Three dongle PAYG and I am very pleased with it. It's not true PAYG > because the £10 payment 1GB limit download only lasts for 30 days and if you > have not used up all the capacity you loose it. Speed depends on location. > If 3G is not available the dongle will find a suitable signal from what is > avalable and this can sometimes also be slow BUT when 3G or even better > HSDPA is avaiable the downloads fly. I have the Huawei E220 dongle, which > seems the best for the price but I think there is now a faster one now. For > coverage and other details look here > > http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/mobile_broadband_/rollout_map.omp
The Three broadband helpline people told me a few days ago that their broadband dongles (E220) do not use GPRS. If their 3G signal is not available then you get nothing. Three mobile phones are different, and in the absence of a Three signal then they share the Orange GPRS network. I'm not sure whether this a recent change or has always been like this. I used to see GPRS showing as the connection on the E220 but it would not transfer any data. I started complaining to them in August when I found that the E220 failed to find a signal despite an Orange phone working fine on GPRS. The E220 is very convenient to use, but if you want to reliably get a connection regardless of speed, then it might be worth using a phone on the Three network instead. Personally I haven't got near to using up 1GB in a month, but I've very rarely got a fast enough connection to try anything like video streaming. In Kidlington, near the South Oxford, I get just short burst of high speed, and a 13MB download can take anything from 20 mins to 3 hours. (Slower than dial-up!) Dave
