Today i signed up for 02 mobile broadband whilst i was up registering at college. First of all, i don’t see why it can’t be done online… physically having to go in to a shop to buy something is not very tech friendly…
Anyway, thankfully, i was the only person in the o2 shop so i didn’t have to hang about waiting (well i did, but that’s while i was waiting for the rep to sort out details / sign me up). Took about 15 minutes in total so it wasn’t too bad.
I opted to get the more expensive Sierra Compass 888 modem (€80) -v- the cheaper E1752 (€20). The reason i did that was because the E1752 is only out a few months with o2 ireland, so it’s relatively untested. The Sierra is regarded as the most stable / most tried, plus it can be used as a storage device (micro sd card) and allows for an extension to be fitted to it to boost signal, so i was happy to pay a bit more for it.
Anyhow, on to the important stuff – the speed…. i ran speedtests on using the o2 modem and my home 3mb broadband at the same time. The o2 modem actually won in terms of upload / download speed 
I ran it a few more times throughout the day and it did drop back, but lowest speed was about 1.5mb which is more than adequate for all i’ll be using it for (emails, web browsing, web based admin panels and maybe the odd file transfer)…
That’s just in my house, i’ve yet to test it out in college or other areas but i’m sure it will be fine… i don’t need lightening speed and it’s more of a back up system than anything for me – if i have proper wi-fi available, i’ll use it – after all, this isn’t ‘real’ broadband… it’s midband.
In other news, my alarm clock arrived yesterday. It’s not just an alarm clock though. You can see from the pictures, it’s actually quite complicated. There’s 2 ‘banks’ of 7 day alarms, plus you can also set up to 7 separate daily alarms
It has a radio, aux in which acts as an ipod speaker, various snooze settings. ‘Nap’ button which allows you to take a 20 minute (or any time you want) nap by pressing the ‘nap’ button.
It then has a USB jack which acts as a USB charger, a headphone jack… A sleep button will shut off the radio after a set amount of time if you want to go to sleep listening to the radio… it’s basically the ultimate alarm clock and i haven’t even covered half of the features…
Hi Sean,
Went in to buy one of these today myself but they didnt have any that I could test so I said Ill wait.
Is the dongle you bought faster than the 20 one?
i think the specs are pretty similar but from what i gather online the compass 888 is has a slightly better signal & is more stable – check out the o2 forums for more details; http://forums.o2online.ie/forums/ – also, i didn’t bother with the trial – when you buy it you get a 7 day money back guarantee anyway if you’re not happy… (although i’m not sure if that includes money back on the modem – probably not)
what on earth is your problem with life outside of the internet? so times are tough in seans life, you had to go to a shop….theres life outside of computers, but you never were the social one. each to their own i guess.