3G Internet that follows you around.
Posted on July 16, 2009 by Philip Newman
The Vodafone USB Vodem is such a handy piece of kit when you’re travelling around New Zealand. It will give you 3G coverage in most of the places you’ll want to go and 2G coverage in any other places.
While travelling around the country I’ve found the Vodem to be a useful tool. It quickly sets up and installs the correct software on any Windows computer you plug it into giving you the ability to quickly transfer your files to their intended destination.
I’ve taken the pre-pay option for data plans. For now and for my usage their NZ$1 for 10Mb is enough and NZ$10 for 100Mb goes as far as I need it.
This “go anywhere” device is awesome for anyone who feels lost without an internet connection. It’s perfect for updating your blog on the go, catching up with email and loading photos on your favourite social networking websites.
You can expect about 1Mbs down and about 128Kbs up while you’re within a 3G area but these speeds will differ. The Vodem isn’t really affected by weather but sometimes depending on the distance to the closest cell tower you might find speeds drop to a crawl during heavy storms.
If you’ve got a Vodem please let us know about your experiences below.
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Comments (2)
I have found in real world tests the Vodem can achieve up to 4-5mbit down and 1.2mbit up here in Nelson – My netbook on the other hand achieves a pretty constant 3.2mbit down, and 1mbit up – it depends on the area really. If the Vodem’s light is a Light Blue it means it’s connected at HSDPA 7.2Mbit – with this you can achieve speeds up to 7.2mbit, 2mbit up, but real world is about 2-3mbit down / 512kbit up. If the Vodem is connected at a “Darker Blue” Color, it means your connected at standard 3G which is 320kbit down / 128kbit up. 97% of NZ is HSDPA 900MHz now, which can achieve 3.2mbit down / 1mbit up normally.
The new “Black” Vodem supports HSUPA, which is about 3x the upload speed of the White Vodem.
Mine isn’t exactly fast but it works. Probably go over to the XT network soon.