Writing for life

On a whim earlier this week I rang Vodafone and asked about Mobile Broadband coverage in my area (I’d already tried O2’s offering with no joy).

They informed me that Rosscarbery, just down the road in one direction, had full coverage, while Leap, just down the road in the opposite direction, didn’t. It was, they advised, worth a try. So off I went to Skibbereen to buy my Vodafone HSDPA mobile broadband modem on a 14-day no quibble money-back trial.

When I got home I found a very clear GPRS signal that gave me dialup-like speeds — which although better than the O2 experience, was pretty disappointing. I spent an hour or so wandering the premises, and found that occasionally the signal would change to 3G (weak, but there nonetheless) and speeds would climb slowly to peak at about 200kbit/sec. On a whim I went into the children’s playhouse in the back garden. It has an upstairs, and up there I watched in amazement as the signal changed to HSDPA and my connection speed soared to a very respectable 1Mbit/second. I downloaded the most recent version of OpenOffice.org in minutes — then went back to my home office (also in the back garden — some 15 metres or so from the playhouse) only to find I was back to dialup speeds again.

I went all over the house and garden — and the only place I could get a broadband signal was upstairs in the girls’ playhouse.

Talk about frustrating!

I rang Vodafone to see if there was any chance of things improving any time soon. They told me that there was absolutely no broadband coverage where I am, nor was there any planned for the near future. Apparently it was an absolute fluke that I got a HSDPA connection at all. So I tried it again, and sure enough, upstairs in the playhouse I get a 1Mbit/sec HSDPA connection most of the time. It’s bizarre!

Anyway, the modem’s going back next week — I can’t adjourn to the kids’ playhouse every time I want to access the internet.

So near… and yet so far….

Technorati Tags: mobile broadband, Vodafone, O2, coverage