As I’m soon to be on the move from my current address, I’ve decided that I want to get mobile WiFi.

I’ve used Giffgaff and a friend has Tesco mobile – both part of the O2 and are very very slow, even on 3G. I wonder if this is an O2 thing, or whether the company choke off data bandwidth to third party suppliers offering services via their network.

I have T-Mobile for my handset (up to 3G) and this works really well, but coverage on the move isn’t so good.

Vodafone were always the best network for coverage when all I did was make calls, but I’ve no idea about their data bandwidth.

Three were a bit marginal on performance too. When 3G was lost, one ended up on the O2 network.

Does anyone have mobile broadband with a MiFi unit? Who are you with? How would you rate the quality of service? How swiftly do you get through your data allowance?

The speed you get will depend on where you are. Each network has it’s hot spots, where they cannot meet demand and also areas where there is unused capacity and you get high bandwidths.

Yes, agreed, large public events rub out coverage and places like Canary Wharf are pretty bad.

Three has come out top or joint top in all of the rootmetrics uk studies so far – they also have the best truly umlimited data plans and download speeds up to 22Mb on their “superfast” cell sites (they are building this out to 90% of their network over the first half of this year).

http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/news/

(see the “reports” linked to on the the left)

Vodafone and o2 consistently get slated (deservedly so) for their abysmal 3g coverage.

I’ve just bought a couple of 3 SIMS with 3GB of pre-loaded data for £11 each and last 3 months
Just started using it but seems to be quite stable so far
Worth trying at that price

Three is definitely the best up here in Northumberland. Mifi is great and get top ups off eBay last ones we had were £6 for 3 gb

I’ve just bought a couple of 3 SIMS with 3GB of pre-loaded data for £11 each and last 3 months
Just started using it but seems to be quite stable so far
Worth trying at that price

The Three website is asking £20.50 for the same, so where did you get yours please?

O2’s 3G coverage is pretty abysmal in the SE, you can’t even hold a connection on the main line from Cambridge to London, which is pretty pathetic.

The Three website is asking £20.50 for the same, so where did you get yours please?

Amazon! Just bought one myself.

yeah, as above – Amazon

We use O2 mifi devices a lot. Obviously depends on the area but when they have good signal they are pretty good.

The press/media use ours when we are based in different location or a different country. We used them in our South African tour last summer and happily uploaded and download our stuff.

I bought an EE mobile hotspot and then unlocked it; eBay for £1.95. Have been very impressed with it and thought I’d sell it once it had bridged the few weeks at the new house before phone and BB installed but I’ve kept it and the 3 SIM cards on Amazon are a bargain.