| Reviewer Name | Rating out of 10 | Review Details | Review Date / Time |
| Londoner | 1 |
I have a vodafone dongle and it hardly works in central london (near victoria station) - The only thing that's constant is the disconnecting and very slow speeds (when it does connect for a short period). I wouldn't recommend one of these to anyone, I'm going to test the rest and see which ones do work... hopefully T-Mobile will.
Admin Says - It sounds as though you have been unlucky with your location. This does not sound like the typical Vodafone Mobile Broadband experience to me.
| 02/02/2010 14:09:06 |
| JAMES | 8 |
All I can say is that after 6 months of being with 3 mobile broadband for my own stupidity, and do feel free to read my 3 review.... Its been a pleasant change being with Vodafone so far...
In Leeds LS8 I do seem to have a consistant (not blistering fast - but pages load in a couple of seconds) that works...
I got the dongle on PAYG for only £25 with £15 3gig of credit included... Well worth a try if you are not happy with 3...
| 29/01/2010 22:08:10 |
| Andy Freegard | 1 |
Absolutely appalling - I've never had anything remotely near 1mb, average webpage load time is circa 1 minute and videos on my laptop are a thing to wonder over but not watch!
Unfortunately I bought it as part of my laptop package and am tied in for 3 years...schoolboy error!
Wouldn't touch it with someone else's bargepole again!
Admin Says - Sorry to hear about your experience. We know that many other people can get a fast connection on 3 Mobile, but there are a few unlucky ones like yourself. That is why our advice to anyone is to ask friends in their area about the performance they receive before going with 3, which does offer very good value for money. Thanks for your review.
| 10/01/2010 21:12:08 |
| Glenn | 10 |
I've had my Vodaphone Pay as You Go mobile broadband modem for about a year now (got it in December 2008). Fortunately, I live in an area where I get good 3G+ coverage (St. Ives, CAMBS). I have 20MB Virgin Media Cable broadband in my home, but decided to buy this thing cause it was cheap...35 pounds, and was a complete one off self-contained package. To my surprise, the thing was easy to install, actually worked and has proved to be useful...especially when I'm at Heathrow waiting for a flight...works great in the Terminal 1 Star Alliance lounge (3G/3G+) and the SAS louge in Terminal 3. I've plugged it into my Desktop which is an Intel Q6700...this thing isn't bad at 3G+ speed on that thing. On the netbook...of course its a little slower. Lots of reviews here stating that it doesn't work in the rural areas, but did you really expect it too for this price? Get serious...big cities and lucky villages only...10 miles from nowhere...forget it. I like this thing...it isn't crap, just bought another one in case this ones goes. Won't use the new one until the one I'm using now goes flaky...from the travel.
| 25/12/2009 22:50:06 |
| Arwen | 9 |
I've had the vodafone dongle for around 8 months now, I'll admit sometimes I want to tear my hair out with it when at times it won't connect! But when I'm on 3G+ it is super fast and I have no issues, Its even faster than my previous virgin media that was costing me a fortune!
When you find the right spot in your home to pick up signal its all good, even though I barely get 1 bar on 3G+ its still super fast and I can browse most sites with ease. And I use gaming sites and applications such as facebook etc with no problems.
Overall I'm happy with the dongle, although the 'content control' drives me nuts at times, but I've contacted them about that so we'll see!
I use my dongle in West Yorkshire, and like I said I barely get 1 signal on 3G or even no signal, but it still runs fast and works if you 'force' it into 3G in your settings.
Therefore I'd highly recommend the Vodafone dongle as I can use most sites with ease, and on the go travelling to visit family in Manchester and West Wales I've had no issues.
| 29/11/2009 03:53:14 |
| Mark Richardson | 9 |
Absolutely marvellous is all I can say of Vodafone mobile broadband. Good, strong coverage in Manchester. I use the service at the following postcodes: M4 7FB and M1 7DL. Several speed checks have confirmed the download speed to be in excess of 3.5MB and 0.9MB upload. This is 5 times faster than my previous provider 3 at the M4 7FB site. I never get any signal drop out and even at busy times the uppload speed never drops below 2MB. I'm not using a dongle as I have my sim card inserted into the sim slot of an Advent 4213 netbook. The integrated modem is a Huawei EM770. The only thing I'm not happy about is that Vodafone don't offer any sim-only data deals so you have to buy their dongle even if you're not going to use it.
| 22/11/2009 10:57:07 |
| Gary | 8 |
I'm currently using mobile broadband on my laptop at Southampton University Avenue Campus. It is alternating between 3G and 3G+. It is certainly possible to get on with work, but it is much slower than my home broadband, but then that's a very good 6MB connection. The computer takes a second or two to bring up each page, even when it's operating on 3G+, but it's still very usable and I am a satisfied user.
| 18/11/2009 18:41:27 |
| Javed | 1 |
W13 OSU - LONDON. ABSOLUTLY RUBBISH INTERNET COVERAGE
| 15/11/2009 19:26:21 |
| Irene Buchan | 1 |
I have recently had mobile broadband from vodaphone, I was assured that If it did not work in Orkney I could return it, it never worked I spent hours on the phone to no avail. I returned it I live 200miles from neerest store so posted it back to Aberdeen store. They returned it stating I had to take it back in person but was now out of time to do this. I will pay £360 for no service over next 2 years this is theft. Why did they not give me top up mobile broadband and at least I would only have lost £34. I have been a customer for 12yrs with 2 hand sets. I will change my phone provider because vodofone do not value customers and their needs the are only driven by short term monetery gain this will lead them to loss out in the long run
| 10/11/2009 17:07:36 |
| MH User | 1 |
I am usinga Vodaphone Dongle when away from home, but now it will not work on the GPRS signal even when it is strong. Trying to get customer services to do anything like take it in a test/repair it is hopeless, I have never in all my life come across service as bad. It is a shame, because when it works it is good but I shall not ever have anything from Vodaphone again.
| 05/11/2009 16:12:31 |
| John Roberts | 2 |
I bought a Vodafone PAYG mobile broadband dongel three weeks ago. 3G worked fine for the first three days since when there has been no broadband internet service in this area(postcode WR141NA). The Vodafone software installed on my laptop show a strong 3G signal is being broadcast, which I am able to conect to, but no internet browsing is posible. It still works just fine four miles away from here on the outskirts of the city of Worcester where the signal comes from an other transmiter and also and various other more distant locations, so I know there is not a problem with my equipment. Strangley the much slower 2G is ok. I reported this problem to Vodafone but nothing has been done. Therefor am very disapointed both as a customer and as a Vodafone shareholder
| 17/10/2009 13:44:09 |
| Toria | 9 |
I've had my Vodaphone dongle for about a month now and I am very impressed with it so far. According to the coverage map I live right on the border of good and intermediate coverage zones. It has always connected without problems and although it usually connects to 3G rather than 3G+ and only usually shows one bar, the speed at which it is operating is only slightly slower than my old broadband and more than adequate for my needs. I have actually found that it to be been slower during the few times it has connected to 3G+. In general it tends to get slower after about 9pm, a couple of times to the point where I have given up, but as I don't regularly use it after this time it is not a problem for me. Sometimes it will come up offering a GPRS connection but has always found the 3G within a few seconds. I am more than happy with my purchase. I live in the Harborne area of Birmingham.
| 15/10/2009 21:11:58 |
| barry close | 1 |
Hi Just purchased a vodafone dongle yesterday, i had a few problems with the previous 3 dongle, it had worked fine but over the past few weeks became very on-off. So as i need this for my work i decided to give vodafone a try. I was told my area had good coverage, now after the best part of 10 hours working on my laptop i have managed to connect to about 1/5 of the websites i use daily, and even then they are so slow to load that you give up the will to live, not only that but i only get fragments of the web page, i know there is some kind of "content control" but i am taslking every day websites i have designed myself. This is truely the biggest waste of money ever and it will be going back to the shop Monday morning. Come back 3 it was fast and reliable almost every where.Anyone know how to uninstal 3 as i can not re install using the usual methods. Thanks.
Admin Says - It does sound like you are out of a Vodafone 3G area, and your mobile broadband will therefore be operating under GPRS, which is very slow. If you can test in other geographic areas you may be able to find a 3G area and therefore see the service operating at full speed.
| 11/10/2009 16:18:00 |
| ARTiSAN | 1 |
No surprise that I'm not impressed with Vodafone Mobile Broadband. I previously tried the O2 dongle however the speed was far too slow as I need to use it for business so it went back (thankfully it was on trial). Unfortunately the Vodafone usage functions don't work very well on a Mac so you're never really sure what's been used.
I recently visited Belgium on business and needed to access the internet to make some client bookings .... no connection and Vodafone support kept putting me on hold while I was on a mobile abroad !!!
... and its just failed ... and because its a saturday there's no-one technical to speak to me until Monday, oh and then they'll be very busy apparently. I did manage to get two months rental back after protesting.
Not impressed - does anyone offer a mobile broadband service that works other than WiFi ?
| 10/10/2009 17:43:27 |
| tom | 8 |
I purchased a Vodafone dongle back in feb 09.I was impressed initially by the pay as you go and some of the downloading of programs was alot quicker ,untill that is when I received a bill from B.T."huhh",adding the usage of my vodafone pay as you go,on my bill! Of course I challenged them,but was argued with and told that I had been using their dial up whilst using my pay as you go dongle!?How? I asked, could that be ?thats not possible.I argued again and again and again etc,but they would not back down.I called vodafone they said it had nothing to do with B.T. "huhh"Now ,I`ve just received a final warning to pay up my B.T bill or they`ll send the lads round attitude.Now who is at fault B.T. or vodafone.Does vodafone in fact use at times, a dial up somehow,of course I doubt it!!I`ve spoken to my computer repair man ,who just raised an Eyebrow and confirmed that there is no way that, pay as you go vodafone mobile broadband, ever uses a dial up of B.T.s !!How did B.T. know i was using my vodafone dongle.Were they tracking me ,and then having the extreme cheek and audacity to then charge me on my bill.Or does vodafone pay as you go link to a dial up as well?!!?????I would be greatful of any suggestions as to deal with this.I thought it was worth mentioning as a warning ,and if others have had anything the same happening. Tom ,Brighton.
ADMIN SAYS - Did you by any chance have a traditional BT dial-up account installed on your computer before you tried mobile broadband? It sounds to me as though the internet connection was opened by Vodafone, using the mobile number associated with your mobile broadband dongle, and then it somehow dialled the old BT dial-up account, which has created the BT bill. Who is liable for that BT bill is open to debate. Feel free to keep me updated by e-mailing siteenquiry at dropcost.com. Thanks.
| 29/09/2009 14:49:43 |
| Florian | 1 |
Stay away from Vodafone - you cannot visit a lot of websites! I bought their mobile broadband product and it works sometimes. A fairly large percentage of websites get blocked by their "Content control". The exact message:
Unfortunately due to a temporary fault we are unable to confirm if you have removed Content control.
As a precautionary measure, Content control has blocked access to this site until your status can be confirmed. Please try again later.
How to disable this? No clue. Searched their website and absolutely no clue.
Sites blocked are, among other, meebo.com and uk.messenger.yahoo.com. Really Vodafone, you are blocking sites and you don't give an easy option to turn off your silly Content control?
What a lame service and product!!!!!!!!!!!
ADMIN SAYS "If you are over 18 and have a credit card, you can phone Vodafone Customer service and get content blocking removed. They charge and refund your credit card to validate your age."
| 08/09/2009 20:37:23 |
| dlan | 1 |
I,ve recently received the so called super fast mobile broadband dongle from vodafone with the slick modem stick pro. I've only had it two days and my average download speed fluctuates between 24 and 50 kbps always with GPRS, total waste of time to be honest, pages take an age to load. My postcode is DH4, Durham.
I changed my broadband modem from 3 because I thought their service was fairly poor. However, I was getting HSDPA with 3, a lot quicker than Vodafone. I will certainly be returning the Vodafone dongle within the 14 day trial period. Absolute rubbish.
ADMIN SAYS "It looks as though you aren't in a Vodafone 3G area. If you were, the performance would be much better."
| 02/09/2009 18:06:39 |
| hassled | 1 |
i got a call from a vodafone salesman suggesting reducing my monthly minutes allowance by half and incorporating a mobile broadband with it and i was to pay £22 a month. He gave me an 18 month contract which i knew nothing about, the quality of the broadband is utterly rubbish and my bill is more than i used to so if you get any of those calls pls dont hesitate to hang up on them!
| 01/09/2009 18:06:55 |
| Stewart | 3 |
I'm 5 minutes from Sheffield city centre, which supposedly has excellent 3G coverage. Unfortunately, I have never had more than 2 bars (out of 5), and more usually 1. Furthermore, it frequently switches to GPRS for no good reason (if I disconnect then search for connections, I can immediately choose 3G again...there is no option to disable this automatic switching).
Download speeds are weak. Typical is about 100Kbps, but it's highly variable, far more often being lower. I have only seen it go above 1Mbps a couple of times and never above 2Mbps.
About the only positive things I have to say is that installation is trivially easy and it's better than 3 Mobile! That didn't work at all.
| 17/08/2009 20:40:35 |
| Carlos Nebbia | 1 |
Vodafone mobile broadband (sic) ... is basically crap!!!
You will be hoodwinked by smooth-talking liars into buying rubbish.
The infrastructure can't cope.
The normal download speed you can expect is about 13 or 14 kilobits per second ...i.e. CRAP!!!
Don't even contemplate buying this rubbish ... you will end up severely angry / disillusioned / fed-up / frustrated / and feeling like the numpty who trusted these smooth-talking sharp suits only to discover you have been conned!!!
Expect to have "dial-up" speeds rather than broadband speeds.
| 31/07/2009 22:04:23 |