Do you need to be able to connect to the net always? Do you feel funny when you aren’t near a wi-fi hotspot? Are you outside the range of conventional ADSL and cable television but have 3G cellular cover?
Does your home or office need a backup broadband service for those aggravating outages? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions then the new Vodafone USB Stick 3G Modem may be for you. read on for our video, photos and full review of this small marvel.
What Is It – Vodafone have had a USB 3G modem for a while now, but this new “stick” form element is smaller and simpler to pack than the conventional pebble on a lead design. A re-branded Huawei e172, the unit isn’t much bigger than the size of an older USB thumb drive, so you’re not going to get anything much smaller or lighter than this.
Because of its width, some much more inaccessibly USB ports may not allow the unit to be plugged in (like the MacBook Air). also using the unit with USB sockets that are close together can imply access to the second one is blocked. fortunately the Vodafone package includes an little USB extender lead that overcomes both these potential issues.
Here’s a list of the standards supported by the modem…
3G (UMTS/HSDPA) frequency supported 2100 MHz
EDGE frequency supported 900, 1800 and 1900MHz
GPRS frequency supported 900, 1800 and 1900MHz
Support for USA / Canada yes for GPRS/EDGE access at 1900MHz
How Fast?According to Vodafone their regular HSDPA service offers data rates of up to 1.8Mbps – providing common speeds of 0.8 – 1.3Mbps. Their new 7.2 service provides common speeds of 1.7 – 5.5Mbps and upstream speeds are improving too with HSUPA technology now offering up to 1.44Mbps, a submit speed many ADSL users can only dream of!
However for now the 7.2 service is only available in the following central London postcodes and UK airports – E1, E1W, E14, EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, NW1, SW1, W1, W2, W8, W9, W10, W11, W14, WC1, WC2. Airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, London City, Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, east Midlands, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast City, Belfast International, Cardiff, Norwich. The general 3G (red) and GPRS (blue) coverage is shown for the UK in the map below.
Installing & using – Installing the SIM is simple. A little SIM Card tray sits best beside the USB plug at the front of the unit. It’s easy to remove with your thumb nail and slides back in securely. The top for the stick is attached securely with a length of braid so this is one top you won’t lose easily.
Windows XP and Vista are supported along with Mac OS X Panther 10.3.9 or higher. Under windows the installation is a doddle as the chauffeurs are built best into the USB stick itself.
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Using on a Mac requires a software installation from the CD (included in the package) before inserting the modem. We had an issue when installing on our MacBook (Leopard/Intel) which caused an error message on launch (“An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application should shut down”). A quick call to Vodafone’s company support got us in touch with a man that knew what the problem was. Although we were asked to authenticate during install with our admin users/password it seems you cannot run the software from a non-administrator account without first running it from the admin account and activating it.
You really don’t need the Vodafone software after this if you click the checkbox ‘Show modem status in menu bar’ in network preferences. This adds a little telephone icon to your menu bar, which gives you fast right-click access to starting and stopping the connection as well as displaying your time on-line.
We found a newer version of the Mac software on the Vodafone site (VodafoneMCInstaller.2.08.05.04) and installed that. You can download the most recent chauffeurs for both windows and Mac from the Vodafone site here .
To use the modem insert it and wait a few seconds until one or both of the LEDs start flashing. launch the Vodafone Mobile connect application and a few seconds later you are online! here are the various states of the two LEDs on the unit and their corresponding meanings…
Green light –Blinking on and off – Modem is starting up.
Green light – continuously on – connected to the GPRS Network, data is being sent and received.
Blue light –Blinking on and off – A 3G network has been found, the modem is ready to connect.
Blue light – continuously on – connection to a 3G network.
Light Blue – continuously on – connection to a 3G Broadband network
According to Vodafone if you relocation out of 3G coverage or the signal drops out, the USB modem will automatically hand over to the GPRS network. This implies you will perfectly (with up to 6 seconds of delay) be disconnected from the 3G network and connected to the GPRS network without having to manually reconnect.
OK, So howMuch? – There are various packages available for the modem. The device itself is totally free on several contracts and around £13 a month you get a 3Gb service. “Unlimited” data is available for £25 is available, but as we have come to expect, limitless doesn’t really imply limitless and the fair use policy limits the service to 5Gb for the month. You can even purchase the modem and use it PAYG (pay as you go) for £150+vat and £8 per 24 hours. update because we evaluated the 3G modem prices have fallen – check out the up-to-date deals here.
Conclusion – So, there you have it. If you need to be able to be on-lline practically everywhere, and you want the smallest lightest device, with the highest speed capability and probably the best coverage available, then look no further. We certainly won’t be leaving home without ours ever again!
Vodafone 3G USB Stick Broadband Modem : Linux chauffeurs available HERE
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