3G Mobile Internet

Hello, Anybody use the 3G mobile network for internet connection ?

As I get to move around a fair bit thought would try it. I connected with Vodafone about 3 months ago, always got connected, download speed good.

But in the last week it has been hard to get connected and stay connected, I seem to get to connected to HSPDA and not 3G. The BPS rate is showing 0 for long periods.

All this happening in places where I have not had a problem in the past.

Vodafone customer service has not been much help. So was would like to know if there are any boffins out there who may know why this happening or how I could cure it ? Anybody else having problems?
Regards

Our sales guys use the telstra network and say it is good.
but can be a bit patchy when out of a major city though. they can still get connected via GSM in most places.

As to why your connection is palying up I don't know but I thought that HSPDA was better then 3G, it's so called 3.5G, that's what I get here in HK and it works really well. maybe there is interference with the HSPDA signal in your area.
Also it can get slow if there is a lot of traffic on at once, this use to happen all the time before the latest upgrade up here.

anyway happy surfing, Technology its great when it works!

Hello,
Thanks for your reply Widcatus. Still not sure why I have suddenly started to have problems this Vodafone product, their customer service reps appear to know as much about the workings of this product as I do, which is not much.

Out and about today in Melb CBD so lots of wireless hotspots so can use the Centrino thingo which is great as its free, outside a large Bank with a cafe in the forecourt assume the Bank is paying for this, something free from a Bank ! Marvellous

Still would not mind if there is somebody on ASF, who can give me an answer to my first post on this subject.

Regards

have you loaded driver or firmware updates? this is usually first line in the tech support script, make sure you are up to date with software etc. etc.

Hello,
Thanks disarray, I have a friend who has a much more Gatesian mind than I do. Will show your post to her, hope she will be able show me how to do what you have recommended.

I made contact again with Vodafone this timer via email, they recommended taking the sim card out of the modem giving it a wipe with a clean cloth and blowing any dust out of the sim card receptacle apparently dust can get inside the modem. I can cope with doing that.

Like the Davros avatar. A Tardis would be a great help with my stock picking

Regards

just something from one of my tech guys.

if it is a USB modem check the USB Port, again for dust / loose connection etc.

or just change to another USB port.

Vodafone/virgin etc(they use the same network but market it differently) are upgrading their network in most parts of the melbourne. Be patient and it should start working.


The other part of the problem is the planning. Providing online data service is new to these networks and most companies have not provisioned enough resources for the upsurge of data services.


Wireless is still catchin up with wired part of the internet.

HSPDA, 3G are all a marketing sham. They advertise it at 5Mbps or whatever but they forget to tell you that you can only ever achieve this if you are the only person in the cell and within 200 meter of the network antenna.

The bandwidth is shared among users in a cellular network, so e.g. if 10Mbps is there and 10 users are given access. If all of them are using the internet at the same time each one will get 1Mbps. Now consider 100 and each user will get 100Kbps (which is not bad) But when you multiply it by a bigger number of users it is down hill from there. Then they base their provisioning on the erlang distribution (which says that connections are really short and at any given time only a small portion of users will be connected to the network..derived from call based queuing theory which is 60-70 years old and almost obsolete..).

Moving on as the number of users adopting the wireless service increase the more users are going to suffer. Which is good news for carriers and bad news for users. Remember they advertise you can get "up to" 5Mbps and in the small letters it also says that your location, age,sex, racial background and sexiness of your partner will determine the final bandwidth you will get.