UK 3G Datacards - Orange or Vodafone?

Anyone use them?

[pete_m]

Hi all.

I want to get my laptop 3G'd up, but I'm really not sure whether to go for Vodafone or Orange. The tariffs are similar enough - it's the performance and coverage I'm interested in.

Does anyone use either card? Any positive or negative experiences?

Thanks in advance,
Pete

[narrowboater]

Pete, I bought a Vodafone 3G card to use on my Mac Powerbook. I pay about forty pounds a month for a hefty slice of data - solely so I can work when I'm in London. (It means I can work in, say, a library and have fullish Internet access - and the forty quid seems resonable then). I haven't had a great deal of success getting a 3G signal outside London, but it's pretty acceptable in town.

The only interesting red flag is that access in London is kind of sluggish - there's always a bit of a delay before your web page appears - but when it does download it does so quickly.

I've used it on a train where it defaults to much slower GPRS - but acceptable for being able to get email etc.

One cool thing is being able to stream live BBC audio thru the card on 3G - to get virtually CD quality soound over what is effectively a mobile phone is a bit mind-boggling.

When i got the card it was somewhat annoyingly 'barred' so it couldn't access "18+" sites. Vodafone got it sorted for me pretty easily - but I thought it a bit odd that I couldn't access our own, perfectly legit, widget-fanciers matching service because Vodafone deemed it dodgy.

I don't regret my purchase even though my use of the card is sporadic.

Kind regards.

[pete_m]

Thanks for the reply narrowboater. I know the 3G cards aren't perfect, so it's very useful to get some feedback. A friend of mine has the Orange datacard - he's fairly happy with it, despite some quirks in the software.

I'm thinking of getting a Powerbook too, as it happens. Problem is, I want to get the 12" one - which doesn't have a PC Card slot. I'm going to ask Vodafone and Orange whether I can get a data tariff without the card (so I can use a 3G phone with Bluetooth or USB instead). I've asked in a Vodafone shop, but I got the impression the salesperson didn't really know what they were talking about :(

[Iguana]

I've got the Orange datacard and I am not impressed at all. True, I'm outside of a city but that's why I went with Orange because their coverage seemed better. Despite reasonable reception being indicated it's pretty rare to get a usable connection (GPRS or 3G)