Topic: USB Modem (Page 1 of 1)

Hello my lovely fellow Asylumites, I've been away for a couple of months and I've missed the warm orangey glow of your company.
It seems, for the foreseeable future, I am going to be wandering about a bit in my life, living a week or two here, then a week or two there, no not there, way over there.

It seems a bit wasteful for me to be paying for an internet connection that I only use a week or two (tops) out of every month. So, I have been looking for alternatives and found an offer from T-Mobile that has tempted me, but I do not know anyone that has used them.
The offer is a USB modem, offering "up to" 1.8 MBPS mobile wireless, see here from carphonewarehouse.
Has anyone any experience with this, or any thoughts on the offer?
After slicing away the sales jargon I realise that this will be nowhere as fast as my cable broadband I wont be able to play on-line games for instance. I will also be restricted by the area coverage of the T-mobile network. On the plus side I can carry the usb modem with me anywhere I go and as long as I can get a signal then I'm connected. My Sony Ericsson mobile phone is on T-mobile and I have rarely been lost for a connection.
The price is £15:00 pcm on a 24 month contract. I'm tempted but I'd like to hear from someone who has actually had experience of using this kind of connection.
Could be just what I need. Could be crapelicious.
Waddyyathink?


Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

I often use my cell phone to connect my lap top when I am on the go.

the speed is painful when you are used to a cable connection...but it beats the hell out of no connection at all

Thanks DL'
The offer looks better still now that I've found out there's no download limit. I don't know what the upload speed is yet but I've been advised that it is slower than the download.
Oooo, what to dooo.
More info, that usually helps. ~Pops out to town to interrogate more salespeople~

That is the old unit they had on offer. I have the T-Mobile Web'n'Walk service myself, and I can confirm that not only does it work well, but I managed to get a good (fast 2G, not 3G) connection out on the Norfolk Broads last weekend on my laptop. The Web'n'Walk dongle is a smaller, memory-key-sized device in black and purple, and it offers future-proofing in that it supports up to 3.5G (so, about three or four times the current speed), so you can expect upgrades to your service as and when the network protocols are available.

The new (future-proof) device is a funky black-and-metallic-pink affair, just so you recognise it.

Oddly, in some tests with the new dongle, I managed a downstream rate of 1.2-1.4 Mbps in the Docklands, London. The upstream also registered an alarming 1.6Mbps in one test - though I'm not sure how accurate this is, I think you can expect upstream performance to be pretty darn good.

I gave the dongle to my girlfriend for a week when her office internet was down, and she had no problems at all with email up/download, web surfing, etc. It earned me a few geeky brownie points with her, too!

I will say this though - I also have the 24month contract at £15 per month, and there is technically a cap. You have a 3GB allowance, but unlike other networks, they do not charge you for excess bandwidth. I have it on good authority (from a T-Mobile salesperson, however trustworthy) that going persistently or substantially over your limit (say, 5GB a month) will prompt a letter from T-Mobile. Repeat offences will result in a reduction of your bandwidth!

I'll say that again - they do not charge for going over your allowance!

They do charge a fortune for overseas usage, however, which is to be expected of any provider.

Anyway, I'm more than happy with my T-Mobile Web'n'Walk service, and though the contract is for speeds up to 1.8Mbps, I generally get better performance than the more expensive Vodafone 7.2Mbps service we've been testing with a 3G wireless router that we've been testing at the office (though the Vodafone service is arguably faster in dead-centre London, where their higher speed service is available).

(Edited by White Hawk on 05-12-2008 13:00)

been using the web n walk modem as well. as long as you are near a congested area the connection speed is pretty good. can't be used for online gaming though, since this type of data transmission requires small but fast impulses. however, once the connection to the satellite (or whatever) is established, it reaches a very comfortable speed as white hawk just mentioned. its just that the establishment takes about 1 second, which results in lags when it comes to gaming.
if you just need it for office tasks, go for it!

Oh yeah - I wouldn't even bother trying to use any mobile broadband device for internet gaming other than (for instance) chess. Agreed.

Cheers WH and mas I'm going out in a mo to look for the Web and Walk "funky black-and-metallic-pink affair"
I don't think they showed me that one.
I'll report back on my return.

I'm off to work on a huge park for a few days at least planting, digging, hands in the soil, back to the sun. I jsut Lurve this weather. Oh, and the lark singing, simply gorgeous. Honestly I could and do sometimes cry listening it is so...Ah....
I was going to give a link to a recording of a lark singing but I can't find it. If you get the chance anytime in you life to listen to it give your spirit a treat and spend a while jsut listening.

Here is a BBC programme on the little Blithe Spirit which I think has the song included in one of the links there. The Skylark

The lark ascending
HE rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
All intervolv?d and spreading wide,
Like water-dimples down a tide
Where ripple ripple overcurls
And eddy into eddy whirls;

Hehe - that's certainly shifted the topic a bit!

I was under the impression that T-Mobile were phasing out the 'puck'-style device; all the same, they have both devices on this page of the official T-Mobile site. If you have any say in the matter, go for the stick type. It may not make much of a difference right now (aside from the fact that the stick is more compact, and comes with a handy clip for hanging on the back of the monitor) but I hear say that the stick supports higher potential data rates (though they now both bear the 'HSPDA' specification, so perhaps they've updated the puck).

It appears to be much the same stick (bar one or two design variations) that is currently being adopted by the other providers, so there's no point in being left behind, eh?

I shall have to trawl through those links when I am somewhere other than the office.

(Edited by White Hawk on 05-12-2008 16:16)

Great shout WH
The black and grey metallic usb modem is far better and I hope to get that one.
Just as soon as I find out why Equifax has blacklisted the whole apartment building I live in as "A BAD CREDIT RISK" I was mortified I've never had that happen to me before.
It seems that I have to pay Equifax to do something at their end to confirm that I am not a bad credit. In fact I do not DO credit. I have always paid cash. Man in shops says to have no credit history is as bad if not worse than having a bad credit history. What a world


Yes I did go a tad off topic there on my last post it seems I just get so turned on by nature at times it can be embarrasing to witness at times I'm sure.

Well my library hour is up judging by the gaggle of students loitering at my shoulder pensively.


Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.