How do you choose a vendor in the emerging area of mobile broadband? PC Authority explores how to get the best deal and unchain yourself from the office.
So, you’ve made the decision to switch to mobile broadband, as affordable new plans and ever increasing coverage are rolling out around the country.
Plans and data caps
The first question is essentially “How much can you afford to spend?”
Mobile Broadband is now really quite comparable as a broadband option, but the price still puts in a boutique category, as one of most expensive forms of access. This will change in time, but for now, you need to know that the data is billed quite aggressively. Mobile broadband is suitable for light usage that’s needed on the run, but drastically unsuitable for a data-hogging, TV show downloader who has a bit torrent client running 24 hours a day. That kind of user would get hit with a data bill of hospitalising proportions, on mobile broadband.
The second key question is, which network do you want to connect to? As with mobile phones, the network is a key consideration for mobile broadband, to see whether the network in question can provision the locations you have in mind (it might not!).
To test out a network, carry out the following steps.
• Network coverage at your house
With mobile broadband, there is, of course, the question of 3G coverage at your house. As your signal extends from the mobile phone network, you’ll naturally need to check that you have significant coverage at your house, on the network in question. A good way to check this is with a 3G phone that uses that network, especially one that supports HSDPA. Loosely speaking, the mobile phone data coverage that’s available indicates the shape of mobile broadband coverage as well.
• How to trial the coverage at your house
You may be able to borrow a friend’s, that uses the same network if your phone network is not the same as your prospective mobile broadband provider. Take the phone to your house (or any desired area of operation) and move around the area, watching the signal display carefully. If if drops back to GPRS or zero data service, then that network might not be ideal for that location. Choose another one.
• The importance of testing indoors
Of course, make sure you check the signal reception indoors, because you’ll most often be using mobile broadband indoors, when at home (if you are like most people). Unlike with cable or ADSL type broadband, the signal from mobile broadband won’t be as strong indoors. This is because it originates from a grid of tall mobile phone towers, and could be ten kilometres away. The signal then has to penetrate through your roofing materials, tiles, layers of concrete, insulation and shielding to reach your computer, nestled deep inside your house.
• GPRS VS 3G coverage
If the phone display does drop back to GPRS, this doesn’t mean you don’t have data access at that location, it’s just significantly slower. GPRS resembles dial-up in performance. GPRS is currently one of the slowest forms of data access, 3G or UMTS is much faster, and HSDPA is faster again.
• HSDPA coverage
High Speed Downlink Packet Access, or HSDPA is one of the most recent upgrades to mobile data networks, and can be accessed both on handsets and computer adapters or wireless modems.