OT(ish) - could you DIY this solution more cheaply?

[David.WE.Roberts]

I saw this thing advertised in the Caravan Club magazine and thought it was a tad expensive:

basically a 3G/WiFi router for £390 up front plus the cost of a data contract.

The USP seems to be that it has a special antenna that is 10 times more effective than a dongle and offers up to 21Mb/sec download speed.

There are plenty of dongles/data plans at 7.3Mb/sec for an all in cost of £16 a month with free dongle.

Solwise do a 10Mb/sec dongle with an external aerial for £39.99

Broadband Buyer to a 3G router (and much more) for £180.

On the other hand you can get a 3G smartphone with unlimited data and tethering enabled from 3 for £30-£40 a month (or possibly much less depending on the phone).

So what makes this particular device worth all the extra money?

Or is it all special marketing?

I note that the technical details are very sparse - doesn't for instance say which WiFi standards are supported.

Also doesn't say how it achieves twice the normal 3G download speeds.

Also it doesn't say which dongle it is comparing with for the 10 times range (see Solwise offering above).

Bottom line - could you put together something of equivalent performance for half the cost or much less?

Just wondering if I should have a pop at the CC for featuring this in their Shop Front pages which is effectively an endorsment.

Cheers

Dave R

P.S. the main added literature that comes with the CC magazine seems to major on stair lifts and incontinence pads. Slightly worrying if that is where the CC sees its main market.

[Martin Brown]

Not sure what the rules are but I have had 21Mbps 3G downloads with a pretty basic MiFi (about £40 on Amazon) at my parents near Manchester. The 3G connection was via Three and no special parts or go faster stripes used. I was a bit surprised as the original basic USB dongle I started out with only managed half that. I got the MiFi to allow toy Android devices to access the net. They are fussy about which USB dongles they will work with and the MiFi router was not much more.

I'd certainly try an E5331 under an upturned bucket on a stick first!

I have definitely had the full 21Mbps out of it in Manchester and I get an impressive 5Mbps where I live in rural North Yorkshire (which is twice what my wired with old wet string ADSL connection can manage).

The only caveat is that the battery life on mine isn't great but I may have abused it one time too many.

Paying for 3G data at £3.50/GB stings a little bit though...

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 06 June 2013 13:12 David.WE.Roberts wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Well - I 'd like to see *current* 3G coverage that goes upto 21Mbit/s - especially on a caravan site (ie in the middle of nowhere). "4G" (including the halfway stuff between 3G and true 4G) might - but will that device cope?

My take is for personal use, it's a rip off. Perhaps it is industrial grade and intended as a central station by a site owner whereby it might be designed to cope with dozens of concurrent connections which a personal MIFO won't. Hence the mention of a decent antenna.

For single pitch use:

My Samsung Galaxy S2 with an All you can eat Three data plan costs £35/month and the MIFI aspect works better and is more stable than the last Huawei MIFI dongle I tried (which was an unstable piece of crap IME).

Tethering is power hungry but you could easily keep the phone plugged in to a charger in a caravan.

Plus you get a decent smartphone "for free".

Bets chech the coverage maps and

to see if Three is suitable for the likely destinations. There are of course other operators but I cannot speak for them.

[Martin Brown]

I have seen it peg the benchmark 21Mbps ratemeter in central Manchester. And I do get 5Mbps in not quite the middle of nowhere. (this was a surprise I expected it to be worse than useless at my home)

Which model was it? Some are definitely more equal than others.

By comparison here my wife's Samsung Galaxy S3 is forever dropping the signal and rebooting itself when at home so I think it is luck of the draw sometimes which kit misbehaves.

Three is the only 3G with any coverage where I live. Their coverage maps are a bit misleading though my zone is outside only but works OK indoors and a known radio dead spot nearby is marked as perfect signal!