I received a very exciting new gadget through the post on Saturday - a brand new 3 HSDPA Mobile Broadband dongle.
I have been toying with the idea of getting a Mobile Broadband Dongle from 3 for some months now (as I am already a mobile subscriber). One of my main concerns was tying myself into something that I really didn’t know much about. It’s easy with mobiles, you know what you get and how it works.. Mobile Broadband, is it really as simple as it sounds? Would I be more connected if I got one? Are the speeds good enough? What download limit should I get?
Thanks to the lovely guys at 3 - who really must have been reading my mind, they kindly offered me one of their spangly new USB Stick Modems to trial for 3 months (thanks guys!).
Over the course of the next few months I will be putting the 3 USB Dongle & laptop to the test to check out first hand the wonderful-world of Mobile Broadband.
So lets start and see what you get in the kit:
The USB Modem comes in a slightly thicker than usual DVD-style case titled Mobile Broadband with the 3 logo and Huawei E169G USB Modem in the bottom left. As you can see from the picture on the case, the USB modem has been slimmed down a little from previous versions of the dongle.
On opening the pack you are greeted with the shiny white USB Modem at the top, USB extending cable below and on the left hand-side you’ll find all the usual leaflets and instructions. One thing to note that there isn’t an install CD anywhere to be found!
Here you have it - the brand new and very shiny 3 USB Stick Modem in my hand…
You can see how small the 3 Dongle is compared to an SD Card Reader (on the left) and a 1GB Memory Stick (on the right).
Also in the pack, and most importantly is the 3 SIM Card that enables you to access the 3 Mobile Broadband Network. Installation was a breeze, just remove the lid of the dongle and at the top there is a ridge to put your finger nail, to pull out the SIM card holder. Insert said SIM card and slip it back into the USB Stick. Easy!
Next onto the part of getting the thing up and running.. Again this was a breeze as well.. As I mentioned earlier there is no CD in the pack, Well how do I get the necessary drivers installed on my computer for this to work I hear you ask? Well they are already on the USB Stick - just plug in the device and your computer will find the necessary drivers and install the 3 Mobile Broadband Manager to your task tray (PC). This is just as well really, as my laptop is an EEE PC and it doesn’t come with a CD drive!
Once all the drivers were installed I was connected to the 3 Mobile Broadband Network in moments.. all-in-all I have to say that the whole process took me less than 5 minutes.
So far so good… The device looks great, the install was painless and I was connected in no time.. Will my experiences actually using the thing still be as good? Come back to iGadgetLife over the next few months to see what I really have to say about 3’s Mobile Broadband.
hi, how do i get a 3 month trial of the 3 mobile broadband service please?
One question that I have been looking for and I have yet to find an answer. Can the SIM Card be used with other devices. For example, I want a data only plan for using on my Pocket PC. Can I simply pop in the SIM Card in place of the normal pay as you go voice/data sim card, and will it work?
I need driver for huawei E169G(white) for windows vista.how do I can get it?
I’ve just received my new Huawei black modem stick to use with my Apple Mac. Initially had a few connection problems but was able to resolve these easily, however I now find that ever time I plug in to a USB port, my Applebook crashes. Does anyone know why?
@Johnny
You can download from Huawei site. I have some Huawei drivers for vista as rar files.
I will try to look for the links where I got them from.
[...] connection interface has been vastly improved from the interface I found with the dedicated 3 Mobile Broadband Dongle, which to be honest, I found [...]
I live a few doors down from the carphonewarehouse and they sold my friend one of these, I thought it was great … but … there is no reception in my area, their CRM people have totally given me the run around and now I cannot get out of their contract, I strongly recommended that you DO NOT get one of these, because if you get any problems they will not move an inch.
do i need drivers for this device?
Using 3 broadband SIM in a phone (tried in MDA Vario II and Nokia E71), drains the battery in hours even though the data connection is not active. Found it to be really strange. Don’t know why!
It doesn’t happen with T-Mobile 3G SIM in any of these phones.. Battery life lasts a couple of days..
Any idea if its the SIM thats faulty or the network?
set up a new OS to try out this broadband. The OS lasted two days. It never started up again. Tried the 3 Broadband on my main pc which hasn’t crashed since I set it up a year ago. Lasted a day ad a half. Now it won’t start. Set up a new OS on a third computer. It lasted three days using this broadband. Now it will not start. 3 are a buch of M***** f******.
I have one question I have been trying to get answered for some time now…would i be able to get something like this to work on windows mobile 5? i would like to use a set up like this on my dell axim pocket pc…this is not a smart phone or pda its a pocket computer and i want to install data plan to have internet service anywhere i go…is this possible?
Hi,
I downloaded the latest drivers for three USB modem Huawei E169G from this website.
http://wahmed.blogspot.com/2008/10/three-ireland-broadband-drivers.html
Bye
I have a 3 Broadband modem, It is luck of the draw depending on where you live. At my PArents house could get managable speeds. In my house (the main place of use) its only use is as a door wedge. There is very little to no reception. Like an idiot got into a 18 month contract. Lucky its at half price - the only consellation.
As it depends on where you live, I would recommend you try and use within the 14 day period or else like me you will not be able to leave the contract.
Good Luck.
Reading these responses above you could easily be put off - don’t be!
I have recently moved from a remote area in Worcestershire where my best landline broadband speed was 350kbps to a new site with no landline and BT want £10k (yes, I do mean ten thousand pounds) to install one! I would be lost without my broadband so I looked at the various options available and tried a few tests.
It turns out the easiest way to test this is to use a 3g enabled mobile phone. If yours is, great, if not find a friend who has one - there are plenty around now. Then, sitting at you favourite computer position, get the phone to search for available networks. On my sony ericsson I have to go into connectivity/mobile networks/select network (not ‘new search’ because this just checks the current network) - also make sure that ‘use 3g networks when available’ is turned on or it won’t look for them. The bad news is that to get a 3g signal I have to have the phone near the top of the window facing Worcester! So you may need to hunt around a bit to find a place where you can get a signal. That said, I now have the computer at a desk by the window and the dongle on a 1m extension hanging from a drawing pin at the top of the window. Most of the time I average around 350-400kbps which is a slight improvement on the old landline. A few times it has gone up to almost 1Mbps which is fantastic, but it also drops occasionally to just 55kbps which is abysmal and yesterday I couldn’t get a connection at all in the morning, but it came back to life in the evening.
The thing is that you need to try it - when I bought mine, 3 offered a no quibble try it for 3 days, if you can’t get a signal take it back deal. So you can try it at home in peace, just don’t forget the deadline if you are having no luck with it! (Be warned though, that if you want to try it on saturday, it can take 24hrs for them to turn it on, so go into your local store thursday evening to do the deal and take it back Monday if it fails).
With regard to the comments on the drivers not working or killing a machine, I have tried this one on 4 different XP machines and it has worked perfectly first time on each one.
So I say you have nothing to lose - go and give it a go, With a 5Gb limit for £15 a month, I wouldn’t be without it now.
I got a 3 usb broad band dongle on payg 15 gbp per month for 3gb 30 day limit.Its a Huawei e220 Ive changed the driver on it and now instead of 3.6gb I get 7.2gb pos. dowmload, all info look on Huawei
on web it might help you.
GOOD LUCK .
MAX
very angry with 3 this usb is very very slow you cant download or watch nothing really want to return it but i sighned a 18month contract can i get out??????????
Its unlikely that you will be able to return the Dongle, unless you are within the 7 days (I think) of buying it.. Mobile broadband isn’t the same as fixed broadband in terms of speed. If you are in an area that gets 3.5G then you may see some decent-ish speeds otherwise it wont be very fast.
Andy, you wrote on 12th June about the 3 Huawei modem crashing your MacBook every time you use it. Same here, problem-free computing for over a year and once that vile little device was in there, EVERY TIME I CONNECT I CRASH. I get some time on there but do I seriously have to change the way I work (logging out, quitting all that 3 software, removing the device) to ensure that I don’t lose any data through crashing?
Coverage SUCKS (yeah, they kinda neglected to tell me that when I was buying it…) and is slower than dial-up used to be.
As for customer services, they are OBVIOUSLY aware of the compatibility issues with a Mac, but I am guessing they don’t want cancellation to be made anywhere near easy by admitting that.
I’m in an 18 month contract with these people now, probably too late to change it, cannot get anywhere with customer services… why on Earth do we allow ourselves to be treated like this? Because the only alternative is no mobile broadband - they are all as bad as each other as far as my experience extends.
hi i desperately need help, i have a asus eee pc and a 3 e160g mobile broadband. i cannot get the 2 to work together, i have found instructions for the other modems but not mine. can anyone tell me how to get it to work please.!!!!!! I really cant afford to give up but i am at my wits end…..
please help me
I am using an eepc 701 with xp=sp3 and an e160g without problems. when i first installed a cut down version of xp(with nlite) all that kept happening was that it kept finding new hardware , the driver wouldn’t install properly for the modem. after a full version of xp , no more probs. you say you are running an eepc but give very little details , what os , what eepc and what dongle and version etc..
The Man - My eee PC 701 was running the full XP OS, so it could be that you are missing some necessary windows components? The Dongle that I used was a newly launched Huawei E169G USB Modem, that was sent to me for trial by 3UK, as pictured above, and it was as simple as plugging it in and it worked