Thursday 27 August 2009

Bye Bye, Mobile Broadband

Earlier this month I phoned Vodafone and told them I would be cancelling my mobile broadband contract with them. They then told me that I had to give them a month's notice, which annoyed me, but only because I pride myself in knowing the terms and conditions on things like this and checking them out in good time.

Anyway, I'm going ahead and cancelling my mobile broadband contract. Why? Because this country isn't ready for it yet, as was shown when we went on holiday last month and the speed of my connection struggled to download my e-mail. Partying like it was 1999? Nope, just connecting like it.

It is just the same at home, and indeed anywhere else that isn't the centre of Glasgow. So I don't regret my decision, especially with more and more places having their own wireless networks available. Why pay £14 a month when you may only spend £4 here and £5 there every so often and get a better class of service for it?

What I read in this month's .Net just backs that up. On page 16 in their news section they quote some figures in regard to mobile broadband connections, going further than me and warning of poor speed connections if you live outside the M25.

Just to clarify, I'm not blaming Vodafone. Their service in every respect was great (especially customer service), but performance of 3g networks if you're outside a major city centre just doesn't perform well enough yet in my view. One day it might, but for the time being a pay-as-you-go basis would be the only way I'd commit to mobile broadband, and that would be for emergencies only.