Recently, we did a hands on review of the Huawei E5830, sold as the 3 MiFi by 3 Ireland, one of Ireland's four mobile phone networks. Having now used the MiFi on a daily basis all over the country, including counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Dublin, Westmeath and Cork (in no particular order), we can talk a little bit more about the service. We have never found the speed to drop below 1 Mb/s as long as there was reasonable coverage in the area. This, for a mobile broadband product, is quite impressive. In fact, overall our speeds always stayed between 2 and 3 Mb/s, and we saw speeds as high as 5 Mb/s on several occasions downloading files as well as when running speed tests. While we would not suggest mobile broadband as an alternative to fixed line broadband, it's safe to say that the technology has improved. You can see an example speed test below, which we just did and is typical of the average speeds we are seeing:



You can read our original hands on review and first impressions of the Huawei E5830 MiFi here.



Our only gripe with the service so far has been that if you even slightly exceed the 15 GB usage allowance on bill pay, 3 Ireland will bill you 5 cent a megabyte. Considering 1 GB consists of 1024 megabytes, that works out as a little over €50. For example, if you used 17 GB instead of 15 during a month, you'd quickly see your bill rise by an additional €100. Of course, if you opt for the prepaid version, you won't experience that problem. However, we would like to see 3 Ireland offer a way to control your monthly spending. For example, if would be nice to have the option to suspend the service after a certain amount has been spent. Perhaps an option where you have to click "Confirm" if you wish to exceed your allowance?

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Tags: Internet, Broadband, Mobile