Seeing that I’m currently very interested in internet ‘on the move’ (see various references to hotspots, BT Fon etc. on this blog), I was pleased to see a comparison of three mobile phone broadband providers (3, T-Mobile, Vodafone) in The Guardian.
The cruncher for me is my phone landline: I don’t really need or want a landline, and it’s annoying that you have to have a BT landline for all broadband providers. The exception of course is Virgin where you can get broadband via cable modem with no need for a landline (but, as previously talked about, they try to push their 1000000 TV channels at the same time, with the overall aim to turn us into half-witted morons. Plus, I’ve had some seriously bad experiences with Virgin and Blueyonder (which is what they used to be called).
Why is mobile phone Internet access interesting?
Firstly, I’ve used it before. When staying in Italy a couple of years ago, there was no Internet access in the rural area we stayed in. Back then I used a Vodafone Mobile Connect Card which takes a special data sim card to access the internet. It was slow, and kinda rubbish/expensive, and definitely not suited to my needs of almost 24/7 - access. Nevertheless, I quite liked the idea behind it - that your laptop can be online wherever you are, and you dial in using your mobile phone.
The problem with all these new, different ways of connecting for me is that I use the Internet 24/7. I.e. I tend to be online most of the day, and as such I need a connection that is 100% reliable, that never fails, and, that is cheap-ish with no download or any other limits imposed. The thing about mobile phone internet access is that you’re not ‘wired in’ physically, and connectivity may depend on the area you’re in, and how good your mobile reception is.
For me, that’s rather worrying and definitely a good enough reason *not* to swap over to broadband via mobile phone just yet. As back-up, pay-as-you-go option maybe. But not as my sole or primary means of accessing the Internet.
Filed under: Internet | Tagged: broadband, internet access, mobile phone
I hadn’t seen this, thanks. There seems to be a special offer from 3 to readers of “Metro” - free modem - or maybe that’s the £15 plan already mentioned.
But also I’ve been considering TalkTalk by Carphone Warehouse - if I read the small print right, which is doubtful, their offer is home phone plus free broadband, so you’re paying -their- line rental. Pressumably that works out for them on fair use, although faults may not be easily resolved. If you know what you’re doing with a computer - or you think that you do - then that maybe safer. However, my brother-in-law has been regularly power-cycling his broadband back to life for ages now, and he is an IT worker.
I’d wonder about sharing the mobile connection between computers. If it’s USB then you probably can just swap it, but there may be restrictive terms of use.
Morning,
Great blog and great post. Thank you for encapsulating so well the informations.