The great 3G data card road test

Scenario 1: Driving through central London.
3G coverage may be limited in the rest of the country but driving through the capital should be a good opportunity to see it at its best.

T-Mobile
This card picked up a 3G signal through the London traffic, and managed to retain it, with intermittent outages when it switched to GPRS. On 3G it offered a connection speed of 160Kbps. By the A4 it was on GPRS, sometimes in excess of 50Kbps.

One problem with the T-Mobile card was its inability to establish a VPN connection, with neither IPSec nor SSL VPNs working at all. Both were fine over Wi-Fi, even when using the T-Mobile client software, but as soon as we switched to GPRS or 3G our VPN servers didn't want to know us.

Orange
Due to circumstances beyond our control and unlike the other cards which were already installed and running on the test machines, we had to install Orange's offering in the car shortly after leaving. But despite assurances that the device and accompanying software were easy to set up, things proved otherwise. This is unlikely to be a hardware issue as Orange uses the same Novatel U530 UMTS card as O2 and T-Mobile. We found we could ping remote computers, so there was obviously a network connection, but no browser or IM client could find the Internet. Having tried everything to get the card working in transit, we decided a more thorough attempt would have to wait until the next service station.

Vodafone
Just before conducting the test we received a new version of Vodafone's client software which included Wi-Fi support. In the spirit of adventure, we decided to update on the move. The operation proved fiddly as the original software proved reluctant to relinquish control. But after two attempts we'd managed it.

The Vodafone card then maintained a constant connection to the Internet. Occasionally, especially when we passed through built-up areas, it would drop down to GPRS. For example, around Hammersmith the connection-speed suddenly dropped to just 7Kbps, before recovering to 50Kbps, hitting the heights of 106Kbps and settling back around the 100Kbps mark (according to its own client).

As we left London via the M4, the Vodafone card maintained a 3G connection, often as high as five bars on the signal meter.

O2
Even at this early point in the trial, we were warming to O2's client software compared to the others. 3G connectivity was good too, although at one point it appeared to have dropped down to GPRS (shown by a green flashing light), when it then claimed to offer 50Kbps. It was soon back to 3G, offering the theoretical maximum speed.

Scenario 2: The Heston M4 Moto service station, over coffee and muffins.
Action: Downloading a 2.7MB PowerPoint presentation.
3G coverage is limited to major towns and cities. In the rest of the country, the cards drop down to GPRS - which is much less useful for activities such as downloading large files.

T-Mobile
As we began the 2.7MB download using the T-Mobile card, the card dropped the connection twice. When it did get going it did so at a sedate 550 bytes per second. The problem was that although the card and the software agreed that we had a 3G connection, as soon as we began the download they revised their mutual opinion and decided that it was really just a GPRS connection after all. The full 2.7MB file would have taken 46 minutes to download had we waited, even after the card shifted up a gear part-way through to 2.5Kbps a second.

Vodafone
Vodafone appeared to be the only one of the three cards still providing a 3G connection as we rolled into the service station. It certainly coped well with the download -- finishing the task in 1min 17 seconds. During this time the client software registered three bars on the signal reader -- poorer than in the heart of London, but still clearly up to the task

Orange
To test whether the laptop, rather than the card was at fault, we loaded the Orange software onto an identical Toshiba laptop. However the card caused exactly the same problems as it had on the previous Toshiba; the software said it was connected, but no applications - browsers and IM alike - wanted to know.

The problem, as it turned out, was with the driver. Like the T-Mobile installation, O2 uses the hardware discovery wizard in Windows to find and install the driver (supplied on the accompanying CD-Rom). Like the T-Mobile installation, this is flaky at best. Luckily we had the Orange CD-Rom with us, and a bit of exploration through the directories turned up a self-installing driver file, which cured the problem when we ran it.

The lesson here is don't lose your installation CD-Rom; the last time we looked, Novatel did not offer drivers for download, and neither did the telcos.

Once up and running, the Orange card claimed to be connected to 3G, but actually only tackled the download at GPRS speeds. We terminated the attempt after it became clear it would take around 58 minutes to complete -- a figure that indicated there were times when no data transfer was taking place at all.

02
The O2 card had also given up giving us 3G by the time we reached the services. Even for GPRS its connection speed was poor, often around the 4Kbps mark. We began the download, and stopped it once it was clear it would take 13 minutes.

T-Mobile
Using Windows Media Player at 220Kbps, we were able to enjoy full-motion video of Steve Ballmer talking about Linux. A couple of frames dropped and the player did occasionally stall, but the video was eminently watchable. The audio quality was faultless.

Orange
The video downloaded with no problems in the same kind of time you'd experience over a corporate wired broadband connection -- with little or no disruption.

Vodafone
This was the point where the Vodafone card, which had been performing very well, lost some ground. It failed to get the video working, and the card became stuck on a constant green light -- rather than a flashing light showing a healthy connection.

02
The O2 card also struggled with this test. The laptop speakers broadcast a regular buzzing noise -- and long experience with the Vodafone card has taught us that this indicated the card is struggling. All we got were occasional repeated snatches of Ballmer saying "OK one more time". The O2 software showed that we were getting occasional bursts of throughput, but no consistent connection.

Scenario 4: The College Arms, Wokingham Road, Reading
Mobile working is demanding, so road warriors need to be able to keep connected at their pit stops.

T-Mobile
We tried the Wi-Fi connection in the pub. Although the software said it was connected, the browser didn't want to know, so we turned our attention to the Cajun chicken and pint of Kronenburg.

Orange
No connection was possible. More Kronenburg.

Vodafone
The Vodafone card fluctuated between 3G and GPRS, which proved ample for some Web browsing and IM conversations with the troops back at base camp.

We also used the updated Vodafone software to look for Wi-Fi hot spots in Reading. It found five -- but unfortunately not the pub in question. Vodafone's hot-spot directory doesn't provide a map of each site, just the address. So users in an unfamiliar town would have to get their 3G or GPRS running in order to use an Internet map service and locate a hot spot. [Unless they had planned ahead and taken an old-fashioned map with them, of course. - Ed]

02
O2's deal with The Cloud meant that we could get onto a fast connection, although we didn't manage it the first time. To authenticate to the hot spot we needed to answer an automatically placed call on the mobile registered to the account. Unfortunately the level of background noise in the pub meant that we couldn't hear the instructions given by the machine on the other end the first time it called. Second time, with the mobile's volume up full and a finger in the other ear, we had more luck. But we couldn't get a VPN connection running.

Scenario 5: On the train from Reading to London Paddington
This was the point when the limitations of 3G became obvious…

T-Mobile
T-Mobile said it had a 3G connection as the train stood in the station, but this quickly dropped to GPRS as we pulled out before disappearing altogether.

Orange
The Orange card refused to give a connection for the first half of the journey, but perked up at Slough with a 31Kbps link. It wouldn't say whether we were on 3G or GPRS, but was soon reduced to staggering along at just 700 bytes per second.

Vodafone
3G as we got on, but very quickly the client software admitted it was "acquiring" a network connection. Once it jumped back to 3G we enjoyed a surge of bandwidth, over 100Kbps, but the connection stopped as we tried the download from Scenario 2 again. It stuck on a miserly 6Kbps for many minutes, before suddenly climbing back to 80 to 100Kbps. The full download took 11 minutes.

Attempts to get a VPN running were fruitless -- suggesting the connection was so slow that the initial handshakes timed out. Instant messenging worked fine most of the way.

02
Refused to get 3G/GPRS, then offered it but failed to connect.

Occasionally the software would alert us that we were in range of a Wi-Fi hot spot accessible through our subscription. But we never managed to get a connection -- doubtless because by the time we'd clicked connect the access point was a couple of miles back down the track.

Scenario 6: Paddington Station
The number of pastry shops at Paddington station is surpassed only by the number of Wi-Fi hot spots...

T-Mobile
Offers in its 3G data card package access to its network of Wi-Fi hotspots, which now number almost a thousand including all the main London stations. The software discovered and connected to the Paddington Wi-Fi hotspot without incident.

02
Also offers Wi-Fi access, in the shape of an account for BT Openzone hot spots, though you do need an O2 handset for authentication and billing. The O2 software pulled a trick that we recognised from our earlier review of the T-Mobile software, and refused to acknowledge that the Toshiba had Wi-Fi. After uninstalling the Wi-Fi driver, and letting the hardware wizard in the control panel reinstall it we persuaded the O2 card that the Tosh really did have Wi-Fi, and we were then able to discover the hot spots.

Vodafone
The client software detected the presence of an "unsupported hot spot" -- i.e. one where access is not possible through a Vodafone subscription. We had no trouble connecting to the hot spot directly -- indicating Vodafone's client software doesn't interfere with a laptop's other connectivity tools.

Orange
No connection.

3G data card providers promise true mobility -- allowing users to break away from the office and be productive almost anywhere. Our tests show that the current products and services aren't there yet.

Things should improve over the next few years as 3G network rollouts continue -- especially near major routes like the M4 corridor and the train lines into London. Manufacturers and developers must also improve products and services to avoid the kind of technical glitches we experienced with Orange's software -- but all 3G data services currently have something of the first generation about them.

Is 3G a must-have for today's laptop user? Not yet. It's surprisingly close if you fit certain profiles of work and location. For example, ZDNet UK's editors and writers use 3G cards on a regular basis with varying degrees of success mirrored by the experiences in this road test. At the moment, the cards are probably only worth investing in if you work within a major city and travel by car; even then you will still probably need Wi-Fi.

In choosing an overall winner, some factors are similar between all operators. For example, there is not a great deal of difference between tariffs (which you can check using the links in the table below). At the time of the road test, T-Mobile still operated a relatively slow connection, though this is due to be upgraded and is made up for in some respects by the bundled Wi-Fi deal, which Orange and O2 are also adding. But after extensive use, we have some reservations about the Novatel Merlin U530 card used by T-Mobile, O2 and Orange. Although it works most of the time, it can be unpredictable -- our advice, if you do buy one, is to use the self-extracting driver that should ship with it instead of letting Windows run the installation automatically.

So, after a full day's road test, separate reviews which you can read below, and further ad hoc usage, Vodafone stands out as the best overall. It didn't claim the fastest speeds in Central London and couldn’t cope with the video download in Reading, but over the course of the day it proved to have the most consistent service and user friendly interface. Reliability counts for a lot when you're on the road. The Vodafone service is also alone in providing support for Apple machines. Given our experience, we've decided to give the ZDNet UK Editors' Choice Award to the Vodafone package.