# General > Technical Support >  Mobile Broadband

## boreray

Just wondering if anybody has looked into or had any experience with mobile broadband on their computer via a USB dongle/modem?

We are moving onto our house site soon and BT haven't yet sorted the phone line and I was looking at this as an option.

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## blueivy

> Just wondering if anybody has looked into or had any experience with mobile broadband on their computer via a USB dongle/modem?
> 
> We are moving onto our house site soon and BT haven't yet sorted the phone line and I was looking at this as an option.


Mobile broadband for a PC isn't an option up here as we don't have 3G yet. If / when this happens then mobile broadband will become an option.

GPRS (which is the basic broadband in use by most mobiles and the forerunner to 3G and HDSPA) is equivalent to (approximately) a 9.6k modem which is a quarter of the speed of a normal dial-up. Fast enough to surf the web on your phone (as your provider will filter / compress a lot of it before it gets to you) but not fast enough to adequately surf normally.

Having said all of that you didn't say where you are moving to so it could all be irrelevant!

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## boreray

Sorry that would help. Moving to Clyth. Perhaps satellite broadband could be an option although I understand this is expensive to setup

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## blueivy

> Sorry that would help. Moving to Clyth. Perhaps satellite broadband could be an option although I understand this is expensive to setup


Ahh. So you're still up in this next of the woods. What I said would be relevant.

Just last week I finished a report for a client based in Sutherland for CASE and I recommended Satellite Broadband. Installation costs are approximately £1500.00 for the equipment (around half that for second hand kit) and around £100.00ish per month (depending on package). That's for a 512k connection so it is very expensive for an individual but maybe not so for a business. All those costs are excluding VAT. If you can find a few other neightbours who'd be willing to split for it you could make it feasible if you all linked you through wireless.

If it's absolutely necessary though, it is an option.

The other, slight expensive option, is to find somewhere as close as you can that has broadband and connect your properties together wirelessly using high power wireless. You are still talking in the several hundred pounds area for the kit depending on how far away it is.

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## Metalattakk

Do CASE (or whatever they're called now) no longer pay the first £1k of the installation fee for satellite broadband?

They certainly used to, and that was less than a year ago. Be worth asking them about it, maybe?

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## blueivy

> Do CASE (or whatever they're called now) no longer pay the first £1k of the installation fee for satellite broadband?
> 
> They certainly used to, and that was less than a year ago. Be worth asking them about it, maybe?


They might (I've yet to speak to them about as I keep missing the person I need to speak to) but I doubt they will for a home user - maybe for a business.

Scottish Enterprise (who also used to provide grants) no longer do.

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## boreray

Thanks for all the info. I will approach CASE and see what they say. Will let you know the outcome

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## bigno48

Just tested my GPRS backup. I use this when my ADSL is having a bad day or my neighbour has been playing with his digger....

Using T-mobile (not recommended because of poor coverage), connecting to their Rumster mast  and a standard old mobile as a modem I get:

Connection speed: 115.2 kbps (this is of no interest)
Ping round trip delay: 993 ms, forget VoIP and Skype
Download: 32 kbps
Upload: 20 kbps

It is not exactly fast, but I use it as a backup. It works "fine" for Outlook mail, which downloads in the background  and some web applications that are not to bandwith hungry.

You will need a lot of coffee...

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## blueivy

> Thanks for all the info. I will approach CASE and see what they say. Will let you know the outcome


I spoke to CASE yesterday. While they look at everything on a case by case basis, they haven't provided any financial support for broadband, as a general rule, for the last three or four years.

I doubt very much you will get anything from CASE unless you are a business and even now, due to the new focus of the Scottish Exec and HIE, you are unlikely to get it even then unless it is part of an overall large growth plan.

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## blueivy

> Just tested my GPRS backup. I use this when my ADSL is having a bad day or my neighbour has been playing with his digger....
> 
> Using T-mobile (not recommended because of poor coverage), connecting to their Rumster mast  and a standard old mobile as a modem I get:
> 
> Connection speed: 115.2 kbps (this is of no interest)
> Ping round trip delay: 993 ms, forget VoIP and Skype
> Download: 32 kbps
> Upload: 20 kbps
> 
> ...


They are not too bad. I used to use software called Onspeed to speed up dial-up when I used my laptop out and about (and before most people had broadband so I couldn't just plug into theirs when onsite at a customers). It was actually very good.

What is does is compress the download through their servers, just as  a mobile phone browsing does. It might be worth a look.

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## badger

Oh dear, can we really not use mobile broadband up here yet? A friend of mine has just spent ages trying to instal it on her laptop, even taking it down to Vodafone in Inverness as she was having problems. You would think someone could have told her she was wasting her money. Does anyone know when we will have 3G ?

Have just checked Vodafone website and it seems you can get mobile dial-up speed which I think she was told.  Looks as if hardly anywhere have 3G coverage.

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## kev bev

hello im wondering has anyone out ere got one of these usb modem sticks and are they any good, is the speed on them good? any info would be great

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## EDDIE

> hello im wondering has anyone out ere got one of these usb modem sticks and are they any good, is the speed on them good? any info would be great


I also fancy the vodaphone stick to but i have my doubts about the speed though maybey in area like aberdeen ans so on were there is 3 g but i think up in caithness its the gprs connection which i think would be like gouin back to the old modem speeds but i dont no i think 3 gb isnt alot for monthly allowance and its £15 for each gb after that.
i still think its better to stick to broadband but its going to be the way forward 2 to 3 years down the road 
U should have a look at the pocket surfer 2 see what u think about that thats cheap for surfing.

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## blueivy

> hello im wondering has anyone out ere got one of these usb modem sticks and are they any good, is the speed on them good? any info would be great


You will get dial-up modem speeds up here with any mobile providers broadband. The problem is we don't have 3G or better (HSDPA). 

If you are going to use something like this have a look at the software I mentioned in an earlier post as it will greatly help your surfing speed.

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## Venture

Has anyone bought this software recently and tried it with the 3G modem stick.  Would appreciate any feedback.

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## daviddd

yes, I would appreciate info on Onspeed - which claims 8x increase in speed (!) That or even somewhat less seems to be good enough for e-mailing and simple but slow browsing.

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## blueivy

> yes, I would appreciate info on Onspeed - which claims 8x increase in speed (!) That or even somewhat less seems to be good enough for e-mailing and simple but slow browsing.


When I used OnSpeed a few years ago now there was a 14 day trial available so you can see if it works for you. 

The way it works is by sending all surfing traffic through it's servers, compressing it and then sending it to you. So for example if you browse Caithness.org, instead of going straight to where Caithness.org is stored on the internet, you go to Caithness.org THROUGH OnSpeed's servers. The OnSpeed server then goes and get's the content from the Caithness.org server, compresses it and then sends that onto you. The speed increase comes from the compression and other tricks that they use to send you the same data you would get through broadband through your slower speed connection.

It won't (or didn't) work with email as email is send and received directly from your ISP.

Take the trial and see what it's like. When i used dial-up it did make browsing faster. Not by 8x (but their software will have improved a lot sicne then) but maybe by 2x or 3x.

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## daviddd

Thanks Paul. But at the mo I'm only using a gmail e-mail address, which I presume would still be accessible with Onspeed.

I'm in the process of choosing a new laptop and was drawn to one packaged with this Vodaphone (or Orange) USB modem - http://www.simplyasus.com/FREE_ORANG...ck_198731.html  - and am wondering if this might be a good option for me, in that I might not need a BT line but could use my existing mobile with the Vodaphone account, plus I could browse. Cost of £24/m doesn't sound too bad c/f a land line.
The slowness of the browsing might prove to be tiresome, so you're right in saying I should test Onspeed first. (Onspeed = ~£30/year cost)
Any thoughts?

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## blueivy

> Thanks Paul. But at the mo I'm only using a gmail e-mail address, which I presume would still be accessible with Onspeed.


It will be fine through OnSpeed. Not sure how much speed increase you would get though as GMail uses a LOT of Javascript to make it work. Although you can use their HTML only version which OnSpeed would speed up fine.




> I'm in the process of choosing a new laptop and was drawn to one packaged with this Vodaphone (or Orange) USB modem - http://www.simplyasus.com/FREE_ORANGE_or_VODAFONE_USB_MODEM_(Click_198731.ht  ml  - and am wondering if this might be a good option for me, in that I might not need a BT line but could use my existing mobile with the Vodaphone account, plus I could browse. Cost of £24/m doesn't sound too bad c/f a land line.
> The slowness of the browsing might prove to be tiresome, so you're right in saying I should test Onspeed first. (Onspeed = ~£30/year cost)
> Any thoughts?


When you're looking at mobile broadband up here you need to ignore HSDPA, 3G or anything else that they claim is super fast. Up here you get GPRS which is the slowest internet link you can get a maximum of 48kbps which is slower than a modern dial-up modem.

If it were me I'd just plump for a landline (£10 p/m) and broadband (all depends but you know you can get one for £10 p/m) and it's still cheaper and faster than mobile internet.

For a backup mobile internet through GPRS is fine. For long term use it will cause you to throw things and drink far too much coffee  :Smile:

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## daviddd

....makes sense, ta Paul.

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## Sapphire2803

> For a backup mobile internet through GPRS is fine. For long term use it will cause you to throw things and drink far too much coffee


Never a truer word was typed... funny too  :: 

If there was a technical support hall of fame, that would be the star attraction!

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## daviddd

> Never a truer word was typed... funny too 
> 
> If there was a technical support hall of fame, that would be the star attraction!


..sounds like the voice of experience Sapphire....

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## blueivy

> Thanks Paul. But at the mo I'm only using a gmail e-mail address, which I presume would still be accessible with Onspeed.
> 
> I'm in the process of choosing a new laptop and was drawn to one packaged with this Vodaphone (or Orange) USB modem - http://www.simplyasus.com/FREE_ORANGE_or_VODAFONE_USB_MODEM_(Click_198731.ht  ml  - and am wondering if this might be a good option for me, in that I might not need a BT line but could use my existing mobile with the Vodaphone account, plus I could browse. Cost of £24/m doesn't sound too bad c/f a land line.
> The slowness of the browsing might prove to be tiresome, so you're right in saying I should test Onspeed first. (Onspeed = ~£30/year cost)
> Any thoughts?


While looking for something else (complete unrelated to sailing I might add), I found this page that mentions Onspeed. It may be of interest.

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## daviddd

interesting, ta Paul...

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## Dynamic Sounds

I got a USB 3 moden yesterday just to have a play with. Was gonna get a PAYG one for £50, but seen a deal that was £5 a month for 1GB a month of access, with it being 10p a meg over that. Worked out that over 18months, I will be about even.

The signal in Thurso is, well less than inpressive, but the real reason I got it was so when travelling away with the disco/work/family I can still get a internet conection without paying hotels etc for access to thier network. And I never knew until I got it but I can send/recieve texts on the laptop now! How sad eh!!!

If anyone is intersted here is the link to the deal http://threestore.three.co.uk/dealsu...ECD009&id=1183
deal expires end of October

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## daviddd

Forgive me for my simplicity here, but is the latter deal just £5 per month - and would one just stick this in the laptop USB and start surfing, with no other costs?

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## Dynamic Sounds

As for as I can make out it £5 a months and that gives u 1GB of browsing, only other costs are if u go over the 1Gb.

But you do get charged for browsing on non 3 networks...

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## Mother Bear

that's understandable; not a bad deal though....

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## Dynamic Sounds

> that's understandable; not a bad deal though....


Yeah it is.

As I said I got it to connect to internet when I am away. I looked at how much some hotels/bars charge for internet access, and thought that £90 over 18 months was a better deal that paying for internet access.

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## daviddd

sounds fair enough to me DS........

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