I love the Internet. Whether it's to catch up on email, pick up some geeky blog feeds, check out the latest on BBC News, upload some photos or simply update my facebook status, I like to be connected. When I am not in the office or at home, my mobile phone is pretty good for very simple browsing, but my netbook (Acer Aspire One, excellent bit of kit) is what I really like to use when I am out and about.
So... I have my trendy netbook... but hey... how do I get access to my beloved 'cloud'? Oh yes, use a Wi-Fi hot spot everyone crys. Wi-Fi is indeed getting better and most hotels/cafes now offer some sort of sign up style of access. I've no problem with that except most charge silly figures for a measly 30 mins or so of access. Grrrr. Also, I find there is never a hot spot nearby when I need one.
I think I've found a better solution for when Wi-Fi is not suitable - a 3G USB stick. Mobile broadband is not new of course, but up until recently most services have been contract based and/or too expensive for my adhoc, occasional style of usage. What I really needed was a reasonable PAYG one. After a bit of searching around, this t-mobile package (£2/day) fitted my situation nicely. You basically pay £2 when you first connect and then you have 24hours of usage (you can connect/disconnect as many times as you wish within that period). There is a 3GB/month fair use policy.
It uses the well known HSDPA 3G protocol (see t-mobile's coverage checker for 3G in your area), but it also gracefully drops down to the (albeit slow) 2G GPRS where there is no 3G signal. Even in GPRS mode, it gives acceptable results. Of course, in 3G mode is where the device excels... with a theoretical down-link speed of 3.6 MBit/s (this is what it 'connects as'), in practice with a low/medium signal I've been getting around 1 Mbit/s down-link speeds and 300kbit/s uplink. Not bad at all.
At £39 notes for the USB stick, if you use the Net in an adhoc way like I do, it's a no brainer and definitely worth a look.
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