Mobile internet access

[Brailleman]

I've been looking at the Datawind PocketSurfer for internet access to do my banking and e-mailing whilst I am away from home for most of the summer. It looks ideal as it uses GPRS and not the mobile phone networks so you should be able to get a good signal everywhere. Are there any members who have one of these and are they as good as they seem.

 

[Dave111]

Hi,

we have used the pocketsurfer now for 18 months. Don't expect too much from it - we use it for e-mails,internet banking and finding supermarkets and places to go if we were at a site we havn't been to before. For these tasks it is more than adequate loading most pages in less than 10 seconds. It does fall down if you are viewing a pdf document or a large map. The screen is small and navigating around a large map or document is difficult but it's better than nothing. I believe the version has now been upgraded providing a more user friendly keyboard layout and screen navigation tool than the one we have.(We have pocketsurfer 2)but you'll have to check with the manufacturer. All in all to read e-mails find places of interest and do nothing too smart it's fine.

Dave

 

[Reg]

Can you use them abroad (europe?)

 

[ally_374305385]

I've had a vodafone dongle for a year signed a contract, jings roll on June when I can get rid of it...what a piece of crap

 

[nrdonnelly]

Dear All,

I'm familiar with this bit of kit. I agree with a lot of Harzi's observations.

The Datawind PocketSurfer 2 is a much better prospect than the original thanks to the inclusive contract for data, rather than the expensive per Mb version which was originally bundled. Unlimited use in the UK is included for the first year, whereafter it costs around

 

[Guest]

"It looks ideal as it uses GPRS and not the mobile phone networks so you should be able to get a good signal everywhere"

Surely GPRS is provided by the mobile phome cell networks for data transfer. You'll only get GPRS where you get a signal from the network providers do you not.

 

[gary]

I've had the 3 mobile dongle for 18 months now, it's been a frustrating roller coaster regarding speeds obtained, but, it would seem speeds are getting very better as time progresses, (except in one particular postcode area I might add!!).

Three have recently been upgrading my 'home' location, checking, my recent speed tests are now showing regular 1.5mb downloading speeds with an average, in normal use, I'd say of 0.7mb and being quite acceptable for my needs.

(yesterday while testing, the system registered over 7mb!!...is this a promise of things to come??)

Abroad I use a local Simm and EGPRS which is the compressed version Nigel speaks of I think, I find this fine for simple tasks such as email, banking and dare I say forum surfing!

 

[Guest]

I was told that the networks are going to start to be shared in the coming months. So the 3 network will use othe

rs 3g networks and the others use theirs.

Not sure how true that is, but it would make sense and provide a better service.

Using Nokia phone as the connection dongle I average around 3mb, side by side with a 3 dongle in a number of locations the 3 dongle has been slower or around the same speed. We've never seen super fast higher speeds.

 

[paulus_374409736]

"It looks ideal as it uses GPRS and not the mobile phone networks so you should be able to get a good signal everywhere"

Surely GPRS is provided by the mobile phome cell networks for data transfer. You'll only get GPRS where you get a signal from the network providers do you not.

You are correct in saying that GPRS uses the mobile telephone network. It's amazing how many people confuse it with GPS (Global Positioning System) used by sat navs.

If you cannot get a mobile signal, you will get no GPRS coverage either.