3 Premium Dongle & TP-Link 3G Router

Hi, another clip of my 3G set up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUFynmwwEAw

It's the 3 Premium Dongle with a TP-Link 3G Router TL-MR3420. The dongle is also known as the Huawei E367.
I started with a 3 dongle in March 2011 which was a ZTE 112 which worked well, but upgraded it to the E367 when it was introduced and then cancelled my ADSL land line in August 2011 because 3G is much better than a land line at my location.
The Premium Dongle only has an allowance of 15GB/month but I also have a Samsung Galaxy S2 with "all you can eat" which tethers via USB or works as a wireless hot spot. Both devices support HSPA+ although it's not available at my location yet.

I have a very similar setup with the Premium Dongle and TP-link router.

I am now using an omnidirectional aerial mounted on the roof and get about 40% signal strength from a mast about 4 miles away.

Never get anything more than 1Mb/s so I'm wondering if it will improve when HSPA+ is enabled - and importantly when will it be so I wonder????

....and on the subject of the Galaxy S2 I presume the 'all you can eat' effectively makes the 15Gb from the Premium dongle irrelevant?

Phil

I had to start off with a dongle really and now I'm tied into a two year contract, but it's almost worth the fee for backup because I do so much business online now. I wasn't into smartphones at that stage but once I realized that 3G was my best option for a decent Internet connection I jumped into the smartphone arena too and dropped the dedicated PC land line to compensate towards the cost of 3G.
I had an email today that BT are increasing the line rentals by another 70p again, must be the third increase in about 18 months.... BT are just making 3G more attractive.

I use up most of the 15GB of allowance then switch over to the Galaxy S2 as a wireless hotspot until the dongle refresh day. I tend to use about 12 GB on the Galaxy S2 which is covered by the "all you can eat", but I'm sure that I could use much more if needed. When I joined 3 I filled in a survey to say that I was replacing a land line with 3G and 3 stated that their network is designed for such use.

As for the HSPA+ update, they're not specific but 3 were saying they were working on it through the summer and now saying by the end of the year. I suppose it will probably drag into next year too.
My 3Connect software actually says HSPA+ now, but I'll believe it when the Galaxy S2 says H+ too.

In reply to a post by jsp21c:

My 3Connect software actually says HSPA+ now, but I'll believe it when the Galaxy S2 says H+ too.

Mine too - an im in a rural part of wales. Makes me suspect now that you've said this as its been maxing out around 7 meg - suspiciously normal hspa's max.

In reply to a post by huwwatkins:

In reply to a post by jsp21c:

My 3Connect software actually says HSPA+ now, but I'll believe it when the Galaxy S2 says H+ too.

Mine too - an im in a rural part of wales. Makes me suspect now that you've said this as its been maxing out around 7 meg - suspiciously normal hspa's max.

Hi Huw,

Strangely enough H+ started appearing on my Galaxy S2 the day after I posted the original article. I haven't seen any noticeable speed increase yet but at least they're upgrading the infrastructure in my area. I presume they haven't turned up the speed yet.