Mobile Broadband Starter Kits

Three have released some Mobile Broadband Starter Kits, these come with a USB Modem, SIM card, and data allowance preloaded on the SIM card.

The cost of these Mobile Broadband Starter Kits ranges from £69.99 for a kit with 3GB to £279.99 for 24GB. Now, these data allowances do have a time limit, but they are not the 30 days of the standard add ons. You have 3 months to use the 3GB allowance to 24 month to use the 24GB allowance.

For more details on these Mobile Broadband Starter Kits, click here.

For more information on the latest offers from Three, click here.

Mobile Broadband Router

Three are soon to release their Mobile Broadband Router. The D100 Router is a device which will allow you to connect up to 4 Wi-Fi enabled devices to the internet using one Mobile Broadband Dongle.

For more information on using Mobile Broadband with a Router visit:

http://mobiledatauk.blogspot.com/2008/10/increase-potential-of-your-mobile.html

I will update with a release date when I find out when it is, or keep an eye on the Three website here.

For more information on offers from Three, click here.

Mobile Broadband on Linux!: Part 3

And another article, a definite series. This one is written from a Singapore perspective and details how to to connect to Nokia N95 8GB using Bluetooth to use it as a modem from Linux. Again, should be more generally applicable. Enjoy.

http://ubuntu.sg/?p=71

Mobile Broadband on Linux!: Part 2

Wow, this could become a series. I've just found a post with nice easy instructions for getting a 3 USB Modem working with Linux. Enjoy.

http://swampweed.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/a-month-with-no-net-connection/

Increase the potential of your Mobile Broadband by partnering it with Wi-fi

Some Mobile Broadband services are coming complete with Wi-fi hotspot access. The two main networks for this offer are T-Mobile and O2. So, when you have Mobile Broadband, why would you want to use Hotspots as well? As great as Mobile Broadband is, it is not yet the most reliable of ways to connect to the internet, when the mobile telephone network in your area has gone down, or you just have a poor signal you may be able to connect to a Hotspot to get high speed access again. Another benefit to partnering your connection with Wi-fi Hotspots is that depending on how much you use the internet and what your allowance or fair usage policy is like, you could benefit from the extra allowance that the Hotspot can provide. So, with T-Mobile and O2 offering Wi-fi as part of their packages and an increasing number of places offering free Wi-fi you can't really go wrong. Whether you use it as a back-up when you network doesn't work, as a speed boost when your network connection is slow, or as a way of getting more data usage. Also as mentioned in a previous post O2 is currently offering free home broadband with their mobile broadband, so you can have Mobile broadband, Home broadband, and Wi-fi access all for a single price of £20.00 per month.

Mobile Broadband on Linux!

I've just found this blogpost and this which gives some brief details on setting up Linux for Mobile Broadband. The software used is a device driver for a Vodafone Mobile Connect Card but the author of the post has got it to work with a 3 Ireland SIM in the UK. So, the software should definitely work with Vodafone's service and apparently with a little tweaking other networks as well.

For more information on the software:
http://www.betavine.net/bvportal/web/linux_drivers

Increase the potential of your Mobile Broadband by partnering it with Home Broadband

If you have a home phone line you can also get Home Broadband, this can be more reliable than Mobile Broadband as it is does not rely on signal strength and is generally not affected by atmospheric conditions. The downside is basically that it is not mobile. But, with many services offering a Wireless Router as part of the package you can get a degree of mobility. I think the average range of a Wireless Router is about 10 metres. Which means it would comfortably cover most homes, and possibly even your garden if you have one.

But, what you can also do is if you keep your computer switched on and connected to the broadband you can use your Mobile Broadband to connect with your home computer wherever you can get a signal. I will go into some of the things you can do with this in future posts.

Now the biggest potential at the moment for combining Home and Mobile Broadband is O2's service. Which if you take their Mobile Broadband offering you get free Home Broadband for 12 months. (Actually you get a £7.50 discount for 12 months, but the lowest package is £7.50 so you get it for free.) This offer is available until the end of October. And you also get unlimited Wi-fi access, which I plan to cover in my next post.

Other Home Broadband providers include AOL and Orange.

Things you can do with Mobile Broadband Part 1 : VoIP

Now this is the first in a series I plan to do on what you can use your Mobile Broadband for. This one is all about VoIP, which is Voice over Internet Protocol. Which basically means making telephone calls over the internet. Some of the advantages of VoIP is cheaper rates on calls particularly when calling internationally. Most (all?) of the time calls to other users of the service are free and this includes to any destination in the world, and calls to other numbers are generally a lot cheaper than other telephone services. You just need to keep an eye on your data usage if you've got a limited allowance.

Now, when using VoIP on mobile networks you need to make sure you have good coverage and that your network has good Uplink (how fast it sends data) speeds as well as Downlink (how fast it receives). When I've tried to use VoIP with my network, I've always had problems with my voice sounding very choppy to them, but I can hear them fine. This is due to the data being sent a lot slower than it receives. This is standard on most (all?) consumer internet connection as consumers tend to download a lot more than they upload. (It's been a few months since I last tried this so the service on my network may have improved.)

Ok, now that you have your connection all checked out you need to decide on a VoIP provider. I would say the most popular provider at the moment is probably Skype.


Now one thing you need to bear in mind with Skype is that it is a closed network. This means you can only call other Skype customer, and only other Skype customers can call you. Unless you opt for the SkypeIn service which gives you a telephone number for your VoIP service. But this isn't generally a problem as possibly most people are Skype customers that have VoIP service. Another great advantage to Skype is that if you have your Mobile Broadband through 3 you get Skype access free of charge, so no charges for Skype-to-Skype calls on the 3 network. You can get this offer on both contract and Pay as you Go. On Pay as you Go you just need to top-up and you free Skype for 30 days, just top-up again within that 30 days and the free Skype continues. Three also offer a specialised SkypePhone. Also, in order to make calls to non-Skype customers you will need to add their SkypeOut service, which just works like a Pay as you Go phone, top it up and use the credit until it runs out, and top up again.

Now the other main service available is SIP compliant VoIP. This is a open system. Meaning that anyone with SIP service can call anyone else with SIP service regardless of who their supplier is. And as most VoIP-to-VoIP calls are free of charge you can do this from and to any SIP compliant service. As with Skype a lot of these services offer 'real world' telephone numbers you can be called on, and a service to allow you to call 'real world' numbers. By real world I mean not VoIP.

Article comparing Mobile Broadband services in UK

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/pcpro/features/212520/mobile-broadband-the-verdict.html

3 win top UK mobile broadband prize

http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/08/3_win_top_uk_mobile_broadband_prize.html

Mobile Broadband with Laptop

A great new offer from Orange. Purchase their Mobile Broadband dongle at £25.00 per month on a 2 year contract and get a Eee PC Laptop. I've heard this offer is just available until the end of the month. (August 2008) Or for £15.00 per month on a 24 month contract get the same Mobile Broadband without the Eee PC Laptop.

SIM Only Mobile Broadband

A new option I have just become aware of is a SIM Only version of Mobile Broadband. This has some of the benefits of Pay as you Go as well as some of the benefits of contract. As it is SIM Only there is just a 30 day rolling contract so you can cancel the contract at any time, giving 30 days notice. But, as with a contract you get your bill each month to pay, so it automatically renews each month with no intervention.

I only know of one company at the moment that offers SIM Only for Mobile Broadband, which is O2. You get it with a USB Modem which costs £99.99 and the monthly line rental is £20.00.

Pay as you Go Mobile Broadband

Pay as you Go Mobile Broadband is the main way I connect to the internet at the moment. I use my handset (Nokia E61) as a modem, connected via a USB cable. Pay as you Go Mobile Broadband can give an economical way of accessing the internet wirelessly wherever you can get a mobile signal without a contract, so you just top up as you want to and maybe purchase an add on. This also allows you a very effective way of budgeting your expenditure, as if you have no credit there will be no chargeable access. At the moment I only know of two networks in the UK who offer Mobile Broadband on Pay as you Go.

The first is T-Mobile, which is a service I would not recommend except to trial the network and service before taking a contract as it can run very expensive. You get charged for the first £4.00 of usage each day and then the rest is free. There is a fair usage policy of up to 3GB per month, but unlike some providers they do not charge if you go over this fair usage limit. If you go over two consecutive months you get a speed restriction placed on your line for 2 weeks, and if it happens for a 3rd consecutive month you get the speed restriction for 2 months.

Now, the service I would definitely recommend, and the one I am currently using to post this, is the service with 3. The available add ons were until very recently the same as on contract, the same price for the same allowance. £10.00 for 1GB, £15.00 for 3GB, £25.00 for 7GB. I'm sure you can see straight away how this is more economical than the T-Mobile service. If you use your 3GB in 3 days, then you would save money with T-Mobile, otherwise you can be paying up to £124.00 for it. Now, once this allowance has been used up you do get charged for any extra usage, this is at a rate of £1.00 per MB. But you can add a new add one at any time. Each add on lasts for 30 days and anything not used is lost. With the Pay as you Go option on 3 you also can easily pick and choose how much you expect to use or want to pay for at that time. ou also get a SMS notification when your allowance is running low, to let you know you need to add a new bundle soon or you will start getting charged the £1.00 per MB. You can also keep track of your remaining allowance with the My3 service which keeps you up to date with your remaining allowances and credit. With contract you would need to change your price plan each time you wanted it changed. With Pay as you Go, you just add the relevant add on as and when you need it. Now, the only real problem I have had with the service from 3 is problems with topping up using my Debit card. I have now given up on this, it worked for the first two months but now I need to get a voucher to get it topped up. I consider this a minor problem, and may not be a problem to anyone else.