# 3G Broadband from 3



## tups7 (12 Jul 2007)

Has anyone experience with the 3G broadband service provided by 3.

I have moved into a new house, and cuerrently do not have a fixed land line. Looking into getting broadband, but the local providers (west cork) are looking for €50 euro a month.

I saw 3 are selling some sort of USB key that provides you with 3G Broadband for €20 euro a month. Is there any problems, other than coverage, with this service?

What other options do I have.


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## bigjoe_dub (12 Jul 2007)

o2 and vodafone have similar products.  check the coverage maps on thier web sites to see which would be best for you.


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## govinda (12 Jul 2007)

3 have by far the best pricing on this service (€19.99 for 10GB a month, versus €39.99 for 5GB a month on Vodafone and €40 a month on o2 (after 3 month promo ends)) although their charge for the modem is the most expensive @ €129

Three do give a 14-day free trial of the service, just in case coverage is an issue.  I'm using their service and I think its brilliant.  Although I don't even get one bar of coverage in my area, I get speeds of 200-300k - far in excess of the 64k I was getting on ISDN, which cost me 3 times as much per month ;-)  (Its a real pleasure to no longer rely on €ircom infrastructure for Internet access!)

One important caveat with these products is that the advertised speeds (3.6Mbps) are rarely obtainable and will vary dramatically depending on how many users in the same cell as you are actively using the service.


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## aircobra19 (12 Jul 2007)

Lots of complaints and people returning it over on boards...


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## roxymusic (14 Jul 2007)

Just acquired 3G Broadband from 3.  Early signs not good.  When I connect the Datamodem by a way of a USB cable to the USB slot in my computer -nothing happens- apart from the computer identifing the hardware connection.  The 3 shop & brochure says that the software should just load once the usb connection is made.  I've tried this on 2 computers but no joy.

I telephoned shop & they advised that that XP in some computers wont allow software to automatically upload.  They said to get on to 3 website to download drivers?  Doesn't make much sense if the product is supposed to be desined that u just have to plug in & therefore dont need a CD rom.

I would like to know has anyone got this problem OR can they offer areason why my computers wont automatically load up & is there a way around this problem before I ask for a refund.  The mad thing is I cannot even try out this broadband.  Finally I wonder could the Datamodem itself be at fault?

Seemingly it takes a number of hours before the sim card registers with 3 before u can access internet but I cant get that far.......Not too Good


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## bigjoe_dub (14 Jul 2007)

can you see the usb device as a drive in windows exploer, ie drive  E or F or as a text discription like you may see a camera.  if you can click on it and look for something like autorun or setup.exe.


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## podgerodge (17 Jul 2007)

On one xp laptop that I installed it on it took 25 minutes for the wizard to start the installation (this is all after the found new hardware etc appears).  Uninstall whatever is there at the moment, re-insert the modem and leave it there for ages - the wizard should start eventually.


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## tups7 (19 Jul 2007)

Well I went ahead a bought it. Unfortunately the are where I live is not covered. I have to drive about four mile before I get the "blue light", but then it works great. They say that coverage should improve in october, so i will probably give it back under the 2 week return policy, and try again in oct.


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## CGorman (19 Jul 2007)

Got it 1mt ago, works superbly well - mullingar, dublin and on train... grand. Speed typically 300-500kbps in Dublin/Mullingar - highest ever was 1.2MPs.


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## BMGJESS (23 Jul 2007)

Did you get your 3G working, I bought it saturday and couldn't get it to set up. I was on to 3G modem dept in UK and they had me perform lots of different things to my laptop but still wouldn't work.
They advised me that it may be faulty and to bring it back and get a replacement, this I did but can't get that one working either


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## CGorman (23 Jul 2007)

Struggled to get it installed when I got it... computer did'nt recognise it... played around for an hour and got it working... it's definately not easy to install... but once it is, it works great... can't remember how I got it working in the end... just kept trying.


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## Ron Burgundy (23 Jul 2007)

working ok for me, only one spot so far it hasn't worked but bad coverage overall in that area. But it is slow, ok faster than dial up but slow in all areas so far.

I download music at work (DJ) and it can take 15/25 mins to download one tune, but it is good to have internet at work


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## SLS (23 Jul 2007)

It was one of those added bonuses I got after buying a 3 phone.
I travel alot both in Ireland an in Europe and love the fact that I can surf for sports scores when Im place like Italy and its included.

I havent used mine for music but for general internet coverage I havent had a problem

My other half has O2 and his is generally a bit quicker to get internet info but thats my only complaint


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## rob30 (24 Jul 2007)

I bought one on friday and returned it the next day with a full refund. Shop in the pavillion centre, swords, were very comptent ( nice for a change).
I was getting speeds of 0 to 25 kb sec in glasnevin. Apparently, there is a system upgrade going on now for 2 weeks that will have it badly slowed down.
I may try again then to see if it improves.


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## tups7 (25 Jul 2007)

I will be returning mine as well. Had to drive 5 miles to get coverage. I will wait a few months and see if any of the providers decide to cover West Cork.


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## Mahons (25 Jul 2007)

Have mine about a month now and after the initial problems installing on Vista for the laptop ( Rang 3 technical support, after being passed around and around, eventually they told me it will never work with Vista and that I should return it within 14 days to get my money back - Note 3 technical support is a mobile number and isn't cheap to be ringing and being left on hold)

Never say never... took me a good 3 hours of playing around with drivers and firmware updates but I got there eventual. Now it works perfectly. No problems installing it on my XP desktop. worked straight out of the box. 

I only use it in Dublin 5 (Average 1Mb) and Dublin 7 (Average 2.5) , but lent it to a friend who lives in Wicklow and it worked a treat for him also, but another friend in Drogheda can't get any reception at his house.


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## BMGJESS (26 Jul 2007)

Can you tell me if you did anything specific with your XP to get it loaded. I couldn't get the first one loaded and even with 3G tech support help it wouldn't load and they told me it may be faulty and get the modem replaced. I did this and the second one won't work.
Have a 8 month old Dell Inspiron with XP Home


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## Mahons (26 Jul 2007)

it worked straight out of the box for my XP machine and my friends also, but for vista I found a number of websites through google.

Vodafone use the same modem as Three so there was a little bit of information on the vodafone south african website. Try searching for "Firmware huawei E220" within google. also make sure to remove all drivers and start a fresh, use System Restore to ensure all reference are removed. Note System Restore does not work for Vista (Known Issue) for any one out there trying.


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## wonko (2 Aug 2007)

I got 3 broadband yesterday. I have vista and it installed pefectly. However when I connected the light was neither blue nor green but a kind of inbetween colour. THe connection was uselessly slow ie 10 minutes for googlr to open.

The reception bars vary from 1-3 but it does not seem to have any effect on the speed of connection. I rang 3 but I found it very difficult to make myself understood. I was told that the reception for 3 in my area (carrigtwohill) was good but they were planning work to boost it in the next week (coincidence?).

My question is, is it something wrong I am doing, or does that not blue/not green light mean I don't have the reception and should return it. Should I wait a few days and see does it improve. Any advice for someone who is technologically sub-normal


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## Technologist (2 Aug 2007)

wonko said:


> My question is, is it something wrong I am doing, or does that not blue/not green light mean I don't have the reception


That light means it's detected a HSDPA signal, the fastest type of service.

My neighbourhood is listed as having total 3g coverage and that's the light that I get (and 4 bars). But, that said, the speed is more like dial-up and gets stuck a lot. Even though they claim speeds of up to 3.6mbs, the fastest I've had is just .12mbs.

I've tried connecting some Internet radio & it's ran smoothly for a while at between .01 and .06 mbs and then stalled for a while. These rates are grossly less than what's advertised

Treat these 'wireless broadband' claims with some scepticism. As a flat rate mobile data package it's reasonable value for light surfing and e-mail, but I've not seen anything yet that would make me drop my landline broadband.


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## Technologist (3 Aug 2007)

Just tried it again this morning and it's flying compared to last night. Peaked at .5mps. Stll nowhere remotely near what's been advertised, but good.

It'll be  interesting to see if it's the same this evening (suggesting contention with others in my neighbourhood) or if there was some work being done on the network overnight.


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## Jimmy Mook (3 Aug 2007)

For anyone whos interested in this I installed the web accelerator off the 3 website and am getting speeds up to 10 times faster what I used to get. Its worth a shot anyways.


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## redstar (3 Aug 2007)

For what its worth, I have the Vodafone 3G modem (same device as 3) and today my speed averaged 840kbps. Over a two week period I got between 650kbps and 1Meg. Not bad, especially as I don't have the option of DSL.


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## marian30 (7 Aug 2007)

Living in Cork City and really happy with 3 broadband.

My laptop's from Dell and it wouldn't install for me so I brought the laptop to the 3 shop for help. The staff there were great, they had to remove the roxio cd burning programme and maybe a few others (not sure exactly what they did) as some programmes aren't compatible with the 3 modem. They said it happens a lot with Dell computers. 

So my advice if you are buying one, take laptop to shop and get staff to install it for you.


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## GF80 (7 Aug 2007)

posted a thread looking for broadband in boroimhe in swords recently and it appears that outside of land-line based broadband, there is not a huge amount of choice round here so I am stuck with the 'aul 3 broadband for the next while by the looks of it! In fairness its flying along today at 444kps and with the web accelerator it goes a lot faster again. The main problem i have is with the inconsistency of the download speeds, whereby I have had 1.2mbs but then an hour later the most i could get was 20kps. But on a good day its impressive.


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## rob30 (7 Aug 2007)

help, i live in glasnevin, have full bar coverage and only have speeds in the 20s, occasionally above 100Kbs.

Where did you get the accellerator? My 3 speeds are so slow i cannot afford to waste the effort trawling the 3 website!


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## GF80 (7 Aug 2007)

[broken link removed]

have a go, ironically my 3 connection was too weak to download it initially, but it's worth installing.


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## aircobra19 (7 Aug 2007)

If you've nothing else and you get a reliable connection I guess you can consider it a better alternative to flat rate dialup.


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## Mumha (8 Aug 2007)

marian30 said:


> My laptop's from Dell and it wouldn't install for me so I brought the laptop to the 3 shop for help. The staff there were great, they had to remove the roxio cd burning programme and maybe a few others (not sure exactly what they did) as some programmes aren't compatible with the 3 modem. They said it happens a lot with Dell computers.


 
That bloody Roxio cd burning programme  , don't get me started ! It annoys the hell out of me why Dell can allow s/w like that to go out on their products. I had a similar problem with my b'band installation (Eircom).


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## aircobra19 (8 Aug 2007)

One of the first things I uninstall is Roxio. I use the free CDBurnerXP Pro. Which isn't fancy but just works. Haven't tried it on Vista yet. Roxio seems to install a lot of crud that nibbles at your resources. My rule on software is avoid crud. It all adds up.


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## Technologist (8 Aug 2007)

aircobra19 said:


> If you've nothing else and you get a reliable connection I guess you can consider it a better alternative to flat rate dialup.



Other reasons to buy would be that it's much cheaper than standard GPRS. O2 charge €5 for a megabyte.

Also, with 3, there's no roaming charge to use it on their networks in Europe. I dread to think what O2's data roaming rate would be in the UK. I might need a mortgage to download a CD.

So, even if it works adequately most of the time, and quickly some of the time, it'll be good value for a traveller.

I installed on three different machines with no problem.

Each time you plug it in, you need to wait for the device to be recognised by XP before starting the connection application.


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## rob30 (8 Aug 2007)

I just got the landline activated and have ordered broadband. I give up on this 3 thing. I bought it on the 2 week trial 3 weeks ago, and speeds were sclerotic. I was told in the shop it was because they were upgrading the network. They were very nice, let me cancel and told me all would be fixed in 2 weeks.
I duely got it last sunday, expecting it to be better, only to be very disappointed again.
At least there front desk staff are good!


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## Jimmy Mook (10 Aug 2007)

In the past few days using the 3 usb BB i have had speeds up to 1gb, but if I am streaming video on youtube it downloads at 200-300kbps but then drops to 0 after a couple of minutes and I have to disconnect and connect again, then the same thing happens again. Would anybody know why this happens?


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