Mobile internet access, Scottish W. Coast

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earlybird

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From their maps, Vodafone 3G coverage of the Scottish west coast seems non-existent away from the Clyde, and quite limited even there. The ordinary 'phone ( GSM ? ) coverage seems quite good however.
Am I correct in thinking that a 3G dongle reverts to GSM in the absence of a broadband signal? If so, what is the speed likely to be?
I'm looking for occasional, limited, use without a contract.
 
Did this last year.

3G coverage is non existent as you say - GPRS is OK most places (except Castelbay Barra where you need Orange)

In terms of speed - its highly variable - a good GPRS speed is about the same or even a little better - than old dial up modem - so fine for email and occasional browsing.

Trouble is it is dependent in part on signal - and on how many channels you get allocated on any particular call.

Also - you can lose reception in a lot of anchorages etc - though a decent booster with external aerial helps this considerably.

Also reasonable WiFi in various places if you need better connection.

And before people say just do without it - I would sort of agree - except for me - keeping up with emails etc was part of the deal for some extended leave to explore the W coast - so a small price to pay IMO
 
elton said:
Most but not all providers fall back to GPRS (2G) when there's no 3G coverage. I think this applies to 3.
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3 only have a 3G network. When you are out of range (I have a 3 phone) they roam to 2G on Orange - although it still appears on the phone's list of networks as 3.

However ... that's just for voice. In theory, 3 Mobile Broadband doesn't roam, so if you are out of reach of the 3 network you're stuffed. In practice experience varies: although some people can't connect, some report no problems, and others more commonly report that they can connect via 2G (ie Orange) quite happily but get kicked off after a few minutes. There have also been suggestions that it works if you use a phone to connect but not if you use a dongle - perhaps because the phone's MMEI number is on Orange's list to allow.

Although I use 3 for voice, I have a T-mobile contract dongle for broadband. It roams between 2G and 3G fine. Since T-mobile and 3 agreed to share 3G networks it should also have had very good 3G coverage, but goodness only knows what will happen to that plan now that Orange have bought T-mobile.
 
earlybird said:
From their maps, Vodafone 3G coverage of the Scottish west coast seems non-existent away from the Clyde, and quite limited even there. The ordinary 'phone ( GSM ? ) coverage seems quite good however.
Am I correct in thinking that a 3G dongle reverts to GSM in the absence of a broadband signal? If so, what is the speed likely to be?
I'm looking for occasional, limited, use without a contract.
Click to expand...

3G dongles work with GPRS (2.5G) as well as 3G.
3G coverage is almost non-existent outside urban areas, but GPRS is widespread and generally reasonable along the west coast (if all you want is access to emails and weather).

Worth considering is having home BT broadband with a 3G dongle (which uses the Vodafone network), then you have the advantage of using BT Openzone e.g. in marinas (fast), occasional BTFON (512kb/s) elsewhere, and fallback to GPRS (say around 40kb/s) the rest of the time.
 
Thanks for comments. I'm thinking of a Vodafone PAYG dongle for my laptop, since they seems the only provider that doesn't have a 30 day expiry of credit. If it works at all, I think it should cover my very limited needs.
 
earlybird said:
Thanks, that's convinced me!!
Click to expand...

Most 3G dongles are made by Huawei, and if you use their connection software then you should be able to swap in any SIM, you won't be restricted to Vodafone (I use BT, Vodafone contract, Vodafone PAYG and T-Mobile in my BT branded one with no problems.

Alisdair
 
earlybird said:
From their maps, Vodafone 3G coverage of the Scottish west coast seems non-existent away from the Clyde, and quite limited even there. The ordinary 'phone ( GSM ? ) coverage seems quite good however.
Am I correct in thinking that a 3G dongle reverts to GSM in the absence of a broadband signal? If so, what is the speed likely to be?
I'm looking for occasional, limited, use without a contract.
Click to expand...

I can't comment on 3G/mobile internet but from several years of sailing on the West Coast, I found that O2/Vodafone mobile phone coverage was the best as I understand that they share aerials in many places. Having said that, there are many places where I could get no coverage at all. In some cases, it got worse when switching from an analogue to a digital phone.

Other networks - Orange, T-mobile etc. were very patchy or non-existent.
 
agurney said:
Most 3G dongles are made by Huawei, and if you use their connection software then you should be able to swap in any SIM, you won't be restricted to Vodafone (I use BT, Vodafone contract, Vodafone PAYG and T-Mobile in my BT branded one with no problems.

Alisdair
Click to expand...

That's interesting- I'll certainly be trying that out!

3g is pretty fast - but useless outside "urban" areas as yet. We tried an O2 dongle also - more coverage but a flaky record for connections long enough to pick up e-mail and check weather.
Having said that - pretty useful thing to be able to do in the rain waiting for the tide somewhere...

Graeme
 
I have a Bluetooth mobile phone which I hoist to the top of the mast in a waterproof container. This picks up the GPRS signal and transfers it to a Bluetooth modem (about the size of a USB memory stick) on a 3 m USB lead so I can hang it under the sprayhood with the laptop at the chart table. It took a bit of trouble to set up the communications but now it works well.
I had planned to use it in Scottish anchorages where reception is poor at deck level but fine at 15 m, but we did not get to the West Coast this summer to try it out in more demanding locations. We also have a Bluetooth handsfree so we can make phone calls via the mobile at the mast head – that works well too.

Agree that Vodafone has the best coverage of the West Coast and their online coverage maps are excellent for seeing which anchorages are likely to have reception and from which direction the signal is coming (from the no-reception areas behind high ground).
 
Three specifics

Whilst most dongles have the technical ability to switch between 3G and 2.5G / GPRS, as others have noted it seems that Three have disabled this feature - since I got my dongle. They do not seem to allow use on 2G (which was provided via Orange I believe). I discovered this via Dr Google rather than any advice from Three.

Hence my Three dongle is completely useless on the West Coast. However, my Nokia 95, also on Three, managed to pick up a signal in many locations sufficient to use the web - including getting weather forecasts. Not everywhere, and often needed some height, but enough to get forecasts - eg walking on top of Shiant Isles had great signal, presumably from Outer Hebrides.
 
dunedin said:
Whilst most dongles have the technical ability to switch between 3G and 2.5G / GPRS, as others have noted it seems that Three have disabled this feature - since I got my dongle. They do not seem to allow use on 2G (which was provided via Orange I believe). I discovered this via Dr Google rather than any advice from Three.
Click to expand...

See my previous post. 3 have never officially offered anything other than a 3G mobile broadband service: those who get 2G data service through dongles probably shouldn't be. That's just one reason why I donlt use 3 for data.
 
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