Steering clear of 3’s mobile broadband
I have Eircom’s 1mb broadband package at home, and it’s been driving me absolutely mad recently. The connection is so unreliable, that trying to spend a chunk of hours working from home is pretty much impossible. I haven’t even bothered calling Eircom about the problem, because I know what the problem is. Our house is too far from the local exchange, resulting in what they call a long line issue. This means the signal is very week by the time it reaches us, and we therefore get cut off whenever there’s a heavy load on the line.
I worked at AOL broadband technical support for a while, and this was a common problem for rural customers. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution. The only thing the ISP can really do is try get the line upgraded, but I’m sure there’s a lot of expense in that and it probably isn’t worth their while doing it just to satisfy a handful of nagging customers.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to work on a project this week, and the Eircom connection here has been about as reliable as the weather forecast. It got so infuriating that this morning I decided to look into this mobile broadband that companies like 3, Vodaphone and 02 have been shoving down our throats with recent advertising campaigns. At first glance, 3 appears to be the fastest and cheapest mobile broadband provider, offering speeds of up to 3.6Mbps for just €19.99 per month. I went in to the 3 store here in Waterford and spoke with a very helpful sales rep, who gave me a bunch of info about the package. The interesting stuff…
- The modem costs €129.
- It is possible to hook the modem into a router or hub and do the whole home networking thing so you can connect to their network on multiple computers at the same time. However, 3 does not provide support for this, so you have to figure it out yourself.
- There is coverage for the service in my neck of the woods. (You can actually check your local coverage on 3’s website.)
- You must sign a 12-month contract.
- There is a 14-day money-back guarantee.
That all seemed reasonable enough, and I would have taken the plunge then and there except they didn’t have any modems currently in stock. No worries, I’d call back later.
In the meantime, I’ve been online with my shitty Eircom connection (which has dropped a half dozen times as I’m writing this) and done a little research on 3’s mobile broadband. The reviews from here and here caused me to reconsider availing of the service. The key complaints…
- SMTP is not supported. Fucking genius.
- Problems accessing secure sites. For example, Gmail, which I usually have open whenever I’m online, is supposed to be completely inaccessible on 3’s broadband network. Not good.
- No FTP, which might cause a slight problem when you have clients waiting for websites to be launched.
- Very inconsistent speeds, and average speeds seem to be closer to 1Mbps than the advertised 3.6Mbps.
- Numerous compatibility issues with the modem. It seems that McAfee, Napster, Cyberlink and a bunch of other software can cause the modem to
explodedrop frequently. 3’s technical support apparently recommend that you uninstall everything on your PC apart from the operating system to ensure the least amount of conflict. - Friendly, but not very helpful technical support.
So I’ve decided that trading one infuriating broadband connection for another may not be the best course of action. If anybody actually reads this and can recommend a good broadband provider for rural customers at a reasonable price, let me know.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
What area are you living in?
August 25th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Slieverue, but not near the village. Paul was recommending Azotel-Ocean so I think I might try them out. We’re kind of in a valley here though and I’m pretty sure their service works from a mast in West Waterford.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Three Mobile Fraudband… what a crock.. had problems from the start when I got it in May.. 7 days after I got it.. they put my download limit on hold. Because I’d gone over my fair use policy.. (there wasn’t a fair use policy) took them 7 days to get it fixed… by that time I was stuck with it.. so I thought its ok now..
then they upgraded the service.. from 39.99 for 3gig. to 19.99 for 10 gig.. so thought all good .. wrong… all bad.. and just went down hill from there,,, It is a wonder I was able to open this site with it.. anyway..
THINKIN ABOUT SIGINING UP WITH 3 MOBILE BROADBAND..
DON’T DO IT… JUST DON’T DO IT… GO WITH O2 INSTEAD I heard they are better.. I’m off to the o2 shop tomorrow…
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=53871399&posted=1#post53871399
August 31st, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Thanks for the advice, Duncan. A couple of guys in work recommended it to me this week, so I was on the verge of reconsidering. However, judging by the comments on that thread you linked to, I think the experience of my colleagues was the exception rather than the rule.
Eircom seems much better this week anyway, so I’m not as anxious to switch anymore.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:35 am
I am writing you this reply connected to the internet with my 3 mobile phone (Nokia N95) acting as my modem. I have found that the speed of the service tends to be between 600kbps and 900kbps. This however is for general web browsing fast enough (i havnt had to wait for a page to load yet). I can confirm that GMAIL works fine, and other secure services such as online banking etc all seem to work with no problems. No SMTP support does appear to be to only bad point however i would imagine three would introduce this pritty quickly as if they dont people will start to leave.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:41 am
Hi James, thanks for the comment. I had heard from some colleagues that Gmail is working fine on 3 now. That’s an absolute must for me.
I’m still steering clear of 3 — might be moving abroad soon anyway — but I have more faith in their service now than I did when I wrote the above post.
December 8th, 2007 at 1:57 am
read all the reports above and can safely confirm that 3 broad band is a heap of crap. i got it back in june it nearly done my head in ,you should try playin poker with it then you will see how slow it is and how often it drops the connection. got rid off it after 2 months when azotel ocean started up in the area (west waterford) cant complain with them there service is excellent and has great download and upload speeds.
December 20th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I got 3 mobile broadband last weekend and I must say that I found it really impressive. Granted my expectations were low, but I still find it really good.
I had some trouble setting it up but after ringing their CS, which was very helpful and insisted that they would stay on the line until I got it up and running, I got it working. I am living in a rented house in south Dublin and it works perfectly, and it also works pretty good in my home place in Cavan…
All in all I think that it’s a great serviice, especially for the money it costs.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Overall i have not had many probs with three mobile broadband except trying to use Full Tilt Poker which i cannot for love nor money connect to. If anyone has a solution to this i would like to know what can be done.
July 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I’ve been using 3 broadband for few months and am facing several issues with speed. I hardly get a connection that is better than dial-up. I was with Virgin before and now regret my decision on coming out of thier service while I shifted home. One of the annoying problem with 3 braodband is the chances of you getting through gmail is less than 50%. Most occassions it will say”
Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address. ”
While I can get through gmail using my neighbour’s wireless connection at the same time.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:26 am
After a year of being signed up to these cowboys in Ireland, I’m finally free. Calling this an alternative to dial-up, let alone broadband is an absolute joke. It worked fine for the initial 14 day trial, then once I was roped in for the year, it went horribly wrong. I can confirm that all the stuff that the other unhappy customers above me are writing about is true.
In other words….
- speeds that are worse than dial-up at peak times
- everyone is assigned the same IP address which makes websites think they’re being attacked by a virus. Also, you’ll never be able to use Rapidshare
- Use FTP at your own risk. I tried and it corrupted files that I was trying to upload
- Gmail problems unless you use webmail. And that’s if the webmail loads due to the crock that is 3 Fraudband
- Forget about using YouTube or listening to radio online
- I don’t play online Poker myself but the slowness of the speed and the shared IP address causes huge problems
- Won’t work for VOIP
- Too slow for online gaming either. Bye bye Quake et al
August 12th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
its complete bollox
sometimes it starts “roaming” on its own network wtf!
could be on it at 6pm then come off and try go connect 20 mins later and it wont work
i have a very good technical knowledge and tbh the guys at 3 tech support have no idea what to do when i told them about these problems
also bebo seems to think im a spammer and makes me complete the anti-spam boxes every 3 or 4 pages
so if you like bebo stay away from 3