I am considering going down the same route myself. I currently have a landline based BB which at best is around 1.8 / 0.4..
Any feedback greatly appreciated

For my location 3g is definitely the best option using 3 Mobile. My sister has visited this weekend with her new Blackberry which is on Vodafone but it's not getting a 3g signal here, but that doesn't matter to me because only 3 Mobile have the tariffs which make 3g attractive at the moment.

My dongle is a ZTE MF112 which is getting a full 5 bar signal but 3 are shortly releasing a Huawei E367 dongle which is HSPA+ and that means it can download at up to 21 meg when 3 update their network. The forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S2 is also HSPA+. Future upgrades of HSPA+ could double, triple and quadruple 21meg speeds.
I'm going to buy the new dongle on the 7th April when it goes on sale even though my ZTE is only a couple of weeks old, then get a Galaxy S2 in May when they become available with the unlimited plan. The Galaxy will tether to my PC to provide Internet access, I'm also planning to get a cheapish 3g router for the dongle to provide a wireless network at home. (the Galaxy might tether to the the router too but that remains to be seen, I can still share the connection through Windows if not).

I think the next actual network update is a software thing, 3 have only recently updated from 3.5 meg to 7.5 meg downloads. If I get something like 21meg downloads this year on mobile broadband it would be pretty amazing because it's certainly not going to happen on my land line for many years to come.

On Youtube you can see a few speedtests from countries which already have hspa+ networks, such as some Gulf States and parts of the US which make interesting viewing. Wireless broadband could really take off in the suburbs and rural parts of the UK very soon. I won't regret losing my obsolete BT line at all and while 3g may be a little more expensive by a couple of pounds, it's faster and I won't be getting any more £127.99 engineer call out charges when there's a fault on the line but they can't find it.

My TalKTalk contract expires in July & I can't wait to cancel it and give them the news that I'm going all 3g.

Edited by deleted (Sun 03-Apr-11 18:18:46)

There is a Zoom HSPA+ dongle currently available for around £75 & its unlocked, was thinking of ordering one of them myself. Have been looking for 3G VOIP Wireless Routers & Drakytek seems to come out with good reviews, just waiting on feedback from one of the online shops as to which routers are compatible with the Zoom Dongle. I also have been looking at external 3G antenna to see if that is an option that would enhance things further. I live in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, so its not that rural but it is a BB not-spot.

I tried my HTC Desire tethered but it wasn't that great But the MF627 dongle was certainly better than my landline - that was just plugging into a front usb port on the pc with the little extension cable.

In reply to a post by AlistairS:

There is a Zoom HSPA+ dongle currently available for around £75 & its unlocked, was thinking of ordering one of them myself. Have been looking for 3G VOIP Wireless Routers & Drakytek seems to come out with good reviews, just waiting on feedback from one of the online shops as to which routers are compatible with the Zoom Dongle. I also have been looking at external 3G antenna to see if that is an option that would enhance things further. I live in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, so its not that rural but it is a BB not-spot.

I had to re-flash my Drayteks to 3.3.5.1 (i think - it was the latest & greatest off the draytek.com site a month or 2 ago) to make it work with the ZTE MF112 dongle - after that it seemed to work just fine. I'd check the Draytek website (the draytek.com one for compatability myself)

One of the cheapest dongle I've found recently is the Three PAYG deal - £21 for the ZTE dongle, SIM and 1GB of data - I'm told it's eas to unlock the dongle to work on other networks though, but I've not tried it myself.

VoIP works OK with Three (for now) I've had a few clients use 3G as a fill-in until they got fixed-line ADSL enagled.

G

I have a ZTE MF627 atm but its limited to 3.6 irc.Hence why i was looking at the zoom device. I have had a look on ebay & there are plenty HSPA+ Speed Dongle there Brands Like Sierra Wireless for example - don't know if they're any good or not. They are certainly cheaper than the than the new 3 one coming out on Thursday.

I did a bit of research to find out where my nearest 3 cell was & its just under half a mile away as the crow flies, so i guess thats pretty good. Its actually beside Broadwood Stadium which I can see from my bedroom window. So am wondering if I were to get an external directional antenna & mount at the side of the house by the TV Aerial if this would make a dramatic increase in speed & reliability? I currently get the full 5 bars with dongle plugged into the front of the PC in the lounge

Similar to here - what this might depend on is the capability of the cell you're latching to. If it's 3.6Mbps, the investment might not be worthwhile [the modem might be more capable, but it matters not if you're already getting near 100% of the available speed], unless fitting a decent antenna means you can reliably connect to a more distant cell which has 7.2Mbps on offer.

I'm waiting on the upgrade, allegedly all cells are due to be upgraded to the faster speeds this year and separately pursuing a local campaign to get the area broadband enabled with a fixed line fibre or wireless setup.

Post deleted by billford