Getting UMTS or DSL Flatrate?

Polly

Polly

wants a cracker
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
4,110
Uhm.. my shitty DSL contract is expiring in a few weeks.

Now I wonder if UMTS is a worthy alternative nowadays, because monthly fees would actually be cheaper for me. I only get 2mb/s right now, so I'd be perfectly fine with normal UMTS or HSDPA speeds and I think I could live with the 5GB speed cap. But what's about filesharing, torrents and all the other nice stuff?

Anybody got experiences to share?
 
chaos386 said:
You're not gonna do much filesharing with a 5GB transfer cap...
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Yeah, I'm not doing too much filesharing right now. I just want it to work for the occasional episode of top gear or a few songs/month.
 
Well assuming there are 4 episodes in one month, you will be using 2.8gb already and downloading music and regular use sometimes takes up a lot than you think.
 
^As an example, pages on the forums range from a couple hundred KB for most threads to a few megs for image-heavy ones. Take a 5 GB limit, subtract two Top Gear episodes (2x700 MB), a page a day from the funny picture thread (30x3 MB), 10 other pages per day (30x0.2 MB), and you've already used up 30% of your Internet allowance. I'd seriously consider monitoring your current usage (either with a custom router firmware like Tomato, or a standalone program) to see if you're below 5GB/mo.

EDIT: I know I couldn't personally live with that kind of cap. I've downloaded a gig in the past 24 hours, and I haven't so much as looked at bittorrent.
 
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Well, I do get your point, but it is not a strict 5 GB limit, it's a speed cap.



So let's move away from that, does anyone have any actual day to day experiences with UMTS via laptop?
 
Afair instant messengers like Skype etc. are blocked on UMTS connections.
 
Polly said:
So let's move away from that, does anyone have any actual day to day experiences with UMTS via laptop?
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I do. As long as you are stationary in a location with decent reception, you're okay. I have a T-mo Web'n'Walk Stick, and I get consistent 1Mb speeds on most locations that are in the civilised world. When moving it's quite a different story, with frequent disconnects and speeds that are hardly consistent. If you plan to mainly use it at home or another stationary location, you should be okay, but don't expect a truly workable solution in trains or cars.
 
Adunaphel said:
I do. As long as you are stationary in a location with decent reception, you're okay. I have a T-mo Web'n'Walk Stick, and I get consistent 1Mb speeds on most locations that are in the civilised world. When moving it's quite a different story, with frequent disconnects and speeds that are hardly consistent. If you plan to mainly use it at home or another stationary location, you should be okay, but don't expect a truly workable solution in trains or cars.
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Interesting. I've used my phone as a 3G modem with my laptop for a couple years now. I realize it's probably not the exact same as a dedicated card for the sort of thing, but surely it's similar?

Even going down the highway at 60-70 mph I've never had any noticeable difference in speeds than being stationary. Though, mine is through Verizon, and not T-Mobile, so that may account for it.
 
I guess you can always try it, there are many offers around with a 1-month cancellation policy or even a free first month. If you happen to live in a rural area, make sure though that the reception is good in your area. Also avoid Eplus, since they have yet to introduce HSDPA. o2 limits theirs to 3.6mbits, so really your only choices are Vodafone or T-Mobile. T-Mobile is going to be cheaper I guess.

[edit] Handy links:
http://www.t-mobile.de/funkversorgung/inland/
http://netmap.vodafone.de/cover4internet/initParams.do;jsessionid=B9185AA1E30E676CE965F8B9BEC078DC.umtsmapi1?windowsSystem=false&nav=true&nav4=false&nav5up=true&IE=false&IE4=false&IE5up=false&initialized=true&appprofile=UMTS-Maps
 
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What i have heard from friends, that with umts the speed is barely @ 30% of the speed you pay.
Eighter its the location issue, or there's too many other umts users in the same mobile cell.

If you can find the wimax route like viper, then that might be faster.
With dsl, try to see from whom you can get the line cheaper (an offer you can't refuse or faster netspeed with same money).

Location location location!!!!
 
fluke667 said:
Afair instant messengers like Skype etc. are blocked on UMTS connections.
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Mh, I don't use Skype, Messengers or any of that stuff. Basically I'm just wondering about torrents and slsk, but it would be a absolute dealbreaker if they don't work.


Adunaphel said:
I do. As long as you are stationary in a location with decent reception, you're okay. I have a T-mo Web'n'Walk Stick, and I get consistent 1Mb speeds on most locations that are in the civilised world. When moving it's quite a different story, with frequent disconnects and speeds that are hardly consistent. If you plan to mainly use it at home or another stationary location, you should be okay, but don't expect a truly workable solution in trains or cars.
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I never use the internet while on the move, so that wouldn't be much of a problem I guess.


hajj said:
I guess you can always try it, there are many offers around with a 1-month cancellation policy or even a free first month. If you happen to live in a rural area, make sure though that the reception is good in your area. Also avoid Eplus, since they have yet to introduce HSDPA. o2 limits theirs to 3.6mbits, so really your only choices are Vodafone or T-Mobile. T-Mobile is going to be cheaper I guess.
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Vodafone would be the carrier in question, I could get a flatrate for effectively 8,95/month, which is about half of the cheapest DSL flat.


viilaaja@pt cruiser said:
What i have heard from friends, that with umts the speed is barely @ 30% of the speed you pay.
Eighter its the location issue, or there's too many other umts users in the same mobile cell.

If you can find the wimax route like viper, then that might be faster.
With dsl, try to see from whom you can get the line cheaper (an offer you can't refuse or faster netspeed with same money).

Location location location!!!!
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Location is germany, in an area with well developed network coverage but none of the major cities. So the cell shouldn't be too clocked up I guess.




Seems that I should get me one of those one-month-tryout-things and just have a look if it suits my needs.


Thanks for the input so far guys!
 
Well, it has. I'm just looking for the cheapest way of getting in it. :)
 
Polly said:
Mh, I don't use Skype, Messengers or any of that stuff. Basically I'm just wondering about torrents and slsk, but it would be a absolute dealbreaker if they don't work.
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You don't get a real public IP so torrents will work but you will be firewalled with all its disadvantages. linky
 
I don't know if it works the same in germany but here in italy p2p is an automatic contract breaker and certain im types can do the same and you have very strict caps, if you slip past them they will bleed you dry. Beside the draconian contract problems you should keep in mind that no matter the coverage you will have to sacrifice virgins to get more than 3mbits, even the shittiest dsl will give you 4-5 without any major hassle.
 
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