3g isp

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geraldhum
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3g isp

Post by geraldhum »

Hi Guys

I am un able to get a adsl line by my house so my option is 3g. I have 3g signal for vodacom, cellC and mtn. What I would like to know is the speeds and the cheapest in Data pricings. What I'm going to use the dongle for is game updates and all the games u buy now require an internet connection. Maybe even play online.

Please advice me. I am going to go with prepaid and NOT contract.
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3g isp

Post by D3PART3D »

I would say go with cell c giga 200, you get 50gb of peak time data and 150gb to use between 12am-6am for updates and downloads. R1799.

You can get a 21mbps Huawei dongle for R500. Perhaps you should just rica a prepaid sim to test out the speeds you can get from where you live with maybe a R15 data bundle.
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Re: 3g isp

Post by StarBound »

Cell C is the cheapest when it comes to data. You can buy 100mb for R15. So if your not into gaming (updates or online play) it can be ideal. However there is no 3G option that saticefied my needs. I use a minimum of 500mb a day and more often than not 1.5gb usage is my average. I preloaded bioshock inifinite the other day, all 15gb of it so you can imagine 3G won't work for me.

Have you perhaps looked at Wimax? I think the speed is 512kb or up to 2mb and uses an adsl account. You need a telkom telephone line but they need to install the device seperately.
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Re: 3g isp

Post by Ron2K »

StarBound wrote:Have you perhaps looked at Wimax? I think the speed is 512kb or up to 2mb and uses an adsl account. You need a telkom telephone line but they need to install the device seperately.
The OP can't get an ADSL line so, unless it's the "no ports available" excuse, he's unlikely to be able to satisfy the Telkom landline criteria.

To answer the original question, Cell C has been generally regarded of having the best bang for buck, but I'll admit that I haven't kept current of developments in the mobile broadband space; the situation may be different nowadays. Also, keep in mind that coverage and saturation/contention (and, hence, performance) is very area dependent, so your mileage may vary.

(MOD NOTE: moved thread to the correct place myself, as the rest of the team seems to be slacking due to "incoming long weekend" syndrome...)
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Re: 3g isp

Post by StarBound »

Ron2K wrote:The OP can't get an ADSL line so, unless it's the "no ports available" excuse, he's unlikely to be able to satisfy the Telkom landline criteria.
Not sure if I am misinterpreting but Wimax needs you to have a telkom landline for a phone number. The Wimax device itself is a box and antenna they come to install. Unfortunately I can't comment on if things have kept up. I played CoD4 on wimax with a 110ms ping, moved to adsl and got 80ms. In black ops 2 I am getting pings as low as 36ms now so infrastructure might have improved.

I'm just saying that incase he aims to game and wimax is available it might be cheaper to get 1mb uncapped and wimax then go with 3G.

*Edit*

Sorry just reread the question.
Prepaid - Cell C data is the cheapest
Game updates and activation - Games can require a 2gb patch at times eg Tomb raider with a 2gb update and sleeping dogs with a 4gb update.

Alternatives for gaming, console! The only way to play games and get past having to update nothing is to go out and get yourself a xbox or ps3 and play games that way. Everything plays out of the box and updates tend to be smaller but up to 300mb at times. 3G dongle does not work with ps3 though.
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Re: 3g isp

Post by geraldhum »

Thanks guys, I did test a cell c 7.1mb speed dongle on speed test and download speed was 5mb/s. So I am going to go with cellC.
For expample playing WOW 2 hours a night, what do u think the data will be. More than 2gb? I'm excluding browsing and downloads but just online play.
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Re: 3g isp

Post by Ron2K »

geraldhum wrote:For expample playing WOW 2 hours a night, what do u think the data will be. More than 2gb? I'm excluding browsing and downloads but just online play.
I pulled up my ADSL usage statistics to give a useful answer -- last week Tuesday (March 20th), usage on my account was 600 MiB. This would have included a 3 hour raiding session in Throne of Thunder (10 man, I'd expect more usage for 25 man raiding), with Teamspeak obviously running at the same time.

For a daily 2 hour session, 2 GiB should be sufficient, but I'll include my standard "your mileage may vary" disclaimer with that statement.
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Re: 3g isp

Post by StarBound »

I use to play WoW on isdn and clocked it at 25mb a night and 125mb during raids with ts/vent. however times have changed so I will say if your simply playing casually you should roughly use double. Let's say 10mb/hour doing things around the world, 20mb an hour on battle grounds, raids will depend on other factors.

Also Starcraft 2 clocks in at about 5mb/hour.
Diablo 3 around 100mb/hour (was a hot topic in gw2 last night)
Think gw2 clocks in at 25-40mb/hour
CoD clocks in at 60mb/hour
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Re: 3g isp

Post by geraldhum »

I bought a 7.2mb/s dongle from the matrix for 399. Will test it out tonight on cellC and see how it all goes.
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Re: 3g isp

Post by geraldhum »

I ran the a speed test and my download speed is 5.2mbps which is good enough. I have one problem and that is having to take my sim out the dongle and insert it into my phone and recharge or check balance like that. I'm using the Huawei E303 modem and the software isn't that great. The driver installs as a network device and not modem. I have tried running other software and nothing appears to work with this device other than the software that comes with it. Does anyone know is it possible to get cellc software to run or at least any software that will allow me to recharge via the modem?
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Re: 3g isp

Post by D3PART3D »

I don't know about that but you may be able to do it through cell c's website- I know you can check your balance that way.
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geraldhum
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Re: 3g isp

Post by geraldhum »

I started playing WOW and using about 5mb every 2 hours:) not bad at all. Must say cell c is by far the cheapest in 3g connectivity and really great speeds. I am very addicted to WOW and only on level 15 with my hunter
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