Can't Pick Up 3g At All!

[Rachel42]

I have previously emailed Vodafone to complain about this but didn't get a reply, so I'm trying something else!

I've had my 'pay as you surf' dongle for a few months. All I ever get is a GPRS signal which is worse than dial up ever was. It took 1hr 10mins to download ONE song from Itunes. I can usually get Google up but little else as the pages take too long to download and/or timeout.

For a couple of days, I did manage to get a 3G signal and it was fabulous. The signal was weak but I was able to do what I needed on the internet. Now I can't get anything more than GPRS.

According to the Vodafone website, my area of IG8 0US has really good 3G coverage!! I can get a 3G signal on my mobile which is usually right next to my laptop though.

I'm doing a part-time university course and it's vital that I have access to the internet for course material and research but I just feel like I've paid out money on something totally useless.

[Retired-Adam_V]

Hi Rachel42,

Welcome to the eForum I'm sorry to hear you're having connectivity issues with your Mobile Broadband. I've checked the coverage at your post code and can totally agree you should have excellent coverage in that area. I've also checked the health of the local transceivers and so far no alarms are showing. So we need to look into why your dongle isn't hooking onto the 3G side of things.

Is your phone with Vodafone or a different network? If it's on Vodafone and you're getting a 3G signal then we definitely know the signal is fine. If you're on a different network try placing the SIM card from the dongle into your phone briefly and see whether it picks up the Vodafone 3G network.

Beyond this it might be the settings in your Vodafone Mobile Connect (VMC) software. Go into Manage Connections and you should see a connection for Vodafone 3G UK. If it isn't showing 3G try searching the network and see whether you can pick up the 3G version.

Also, do you get 3G signal in different areas with your laptop outside of the post code you provided?

Let me know your findings and I'm confident we can come to some answers

Thanks,

Adam
eForum Team.

[Rachel42]

Thanks for responding.

My mobile is Vodafone. I've tried switching sims but get the same problem.
I've tried changing the preference for my dongle to 3G only but don't get anywhere so have changed it back to 3G preferred.
I have tried by-passing VMC and instead using the Connect To feature of Windows, but no luck.
I don't take my laptop outside of my flat, other than to my mums but I use her Talk Talk broadband when I'm there anyway.
Very, Very occasionally I can pick up a "very poor" 3G signal but it's infrequent. A GPRS signal is insufficient to pick up most websites as they are too complicated for it.
I actually spent about 2 hours yesterday unable to pick up any signal whatsoever.

Very frustrating!

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi Rachel42,

Since this poor signal quality only affects the modem and not your phone in the same area, it is a good indication that the 3G antenna in your modem is faulty, and will need replacing.

Please follow our warranty repairs process to have this issue resolved for you

Jon

eForum Team