I did try this package a few months back, with little success. It really was quite slow. Since then a few things have happened. 3 and T-Mobile are sharing 3G transmitters, so coverage should improve quicker than the opposition. Cost wise it has changed too. Previously they charged around £60 for the USB dongle as well as £15 per month for the 3gb usage.
Now currently they (3) have a 50% discount for existing customers, until lunch time I wasn’t an existing customer. Yesterday Virgin Mobile sent me an email telling me about new call charges. So I looked at my account and was surprised to see my bill for the last month was £24. Mostly mobile charges, so with this in mind I decided to look at others.
Without boring people shitless, I decided on two accounts with 3.
- A free Nokia 6500 slidey phone for £15 per month, 300 minutes
- With the above I could get the FREE USB dongle and half price (£7.50) usage plan
Initial setup for the Mac involves downloading the driver (as it’s not plug and play). Once the driver is downloaded, open the .dmg file and excute the pkg file. After the usual questions it’s ready. Nothing to configure once the app is installed.
Initial testing:
I’ve been using for a few hours now, with any serious issues. It did have a disconnection for a few minutes, but that might have been me pissing about about with the settings. However, connection speed seems to be o.k. both in Yardley and Solihull.
Browsing seems to be effortless, at first it seemed a little stubborn. I’m guessing this is down to me not allowing the card to start/sync properly.
The card is supplied with a some software that gives you current connection status, however it does tell you what the total download is. Just for the session connected. 3, however have a facility on the website to check. Unfortunately they (3) have texted me the password. I’ve not read how to check text messages on the HSDPA modem just yet.
One point to note, it is a battery killer on the MB. Normal MacBook use is around 3-4 hours. With the dongle it seems to be more like 2-3 hours. Not a serious issue though, I just need to be aware of the MacBook battery condition.