TechWire

Vodafone's new broadband dongle hits 14Mbs. (Yes, in the real world.)

Yesterday I got hold of Vodafone's latest mobile broadband dongle, a Huawei K4605 model. Its selling point is that it is the operator's first HSPA+ dongle.

That means that it has a (notional) top download speed of 42Mbs. Vodafone itself claims that its peak speed is likely to be closer to 27Mbs, which is still a phenomenal result -- if borne out -- for a mobile broadband dongle.

So far, I've only used it in Dublin's city centre. While I haven't got 27Mbs (or anything like it), I have recorded download speeds of 9Mbs and 14Mbs (see screenshot). Upload speeds have varied between 2.4Mbs and 2.9Mbs.

This is a very impressive result for a mobile broadband dongle.

Vodafone says that its HSPA+ (not to be confused with HSDPA) service is available in Irish cities, with the rest of the country to be upgraded "within 18 months".

The dongle costs €35 per month.

Why can't Irish education produce a Nobel laureate?

It's sad. There is little or no debate about quality in third-level education. It's all about access and free fees.

For example, how many patents do we file? How many world-class scholars do we produce? Any Nobel laureates? (And no, neither Seamus Heaney nor Brian Friel are products of the Irish education system.) How many students from abroad aspire to come to an Irish university as opposed to a British, American, French or Belgian one?

Think this doesn't matter? Tell me this, then: what university did Mark Zuckerberg go to? (Yes, that would be the guy who's increasing employment from 300 to 400 in his Dublin office.) Think someone from an Irish university is likely to found a world-beating company based on the creative/innovative environment there?

The lack of any interest in this area of Irish education -- both from political parties or from our 'sophisticated electorate' -- is a shame. But it probably reflects voters' priorities accurately. Ireland is not really ambitious. Sure, we're 'well-educated' compared to Romania and Albania. But we're not compared to Holland, Belgium and Denmark. And that doesn't even bother us: we're still kind of proud that we're not really poor and scraping and bowing before someone.

So a 'debate' on education is purely about fees and classroom sizes; it's not about producing world-class scholars, innovators or thinkers; it's about making sure middle-income people can afford two cars and two holidays because they've no third-level fees.  It's also about staving off illiteracy. (Reducing illiteracy is a proper goal, but surely not the totality of an education policy.)

What a shame.

Anyhow, here are four basic questions (to keep it simple) about education, technology (the broadband one I'm throwing in just because I'm curious) and industry I have for political parties. In a truly developed country, there would be someone running for office who would feel it's worth their while having genuine answers to these questions.

Education

1. How are colleges to improve standards (recruit top people, attract best students, create the best research) without the reintroduction of student fees or additional exchequer funding?

Avoiding-the-question answer: "We need a system that provides access to all, regardless of background." [Access to education is a different issue.]

2. At a more general level, Irish third level institutions currently trail their counterparts in leading European and US cities in innovation and achievement. Is this of concern and, if so, how can it be reversed?

Avoiding-the-question answer: "Education is a key human right for all Irish citizens. If elected, we intend to ensure that Irish students have the best facilities possible." [That wasn't the question.]

Broadband

3. Eircom wants the state to help fund a new fibre network. Do you intend to do that? (Note: that's a spending commitment.) If not, do you have a plan (or any thoughts whatsoever) on how high speed broadband should be rolled out nationally outside urban centres?

Avoiding-the-question answer: "It is our intention to ensure that all citizens have access to modern communications. [Our party] will end the digital divide." [99% of citizens already have access to modern communications, final 1% next year. That wasn't the question asked.]

Industrial priorities

4. If elected, what kind of industry development would you prioritise, and how?

Avoiding-the-question answer: "The first question we have to answer is how to get our 400,000 people working again, And that's *our* priority." [Complete avoidance of question.]

 

Facebook beats mobile for teens (and other bits)

Damien Mulley has conducted a survey among 101 teenagers on their mobile and digital habits. It throws up some interesting trends. For example, more teens use Facebook than phone calls to contact mates on their mobile. (The Irish Times takes a slightly different tone in its coverage of the survey here.) Also, Meteor is cited as having almost half the teen market, with Nokia being the most common handset (though iPhone is "most desired). Both of these statistics are probably as much to do with parents and budgets than individual preferences.

What happens to your digital accounts when you die? That's what iDeparted.com is for. Mainly Twitter and Facebook, but also blogs.

Related: the blog of David Stewart, a much-missed Irish journalistic colleague, is still up. The last entry was written two weeks before he died, in 2006. Bit macabre.

A well-argued piece on why slashing 'fair-use' data allowances (as mobile operators are currently doing) isn't 'fair'.

Argos has (for once) a decent clearance sale on TVs. 32-inch 1080p Samsung sets for €300. (In its Santry, Dublin, store anyway.)

Live long and prosper. And do you come here often? Trekkie dating site.

Hacker translates DUP websites into Irish.

A first glimpse of Rupert Murdoch's new iPad newspaper. Not so promising.

Sky shelves its Irish broadband plans (for now)

It seems that Sky has nixed its plans to introduce broadband into the Irish market.

For the time being, at least. The satellite broadcaster, which has a broadband service in Britain, had been telling its customers for some time that a broadband launch was on the way. But it has recently changed its tune with punters, citing "differences" in the Irish market. Here's the Irish office's official word on the matter:

"Sky successfully launched broadband and telephony services to its British customers over 4 years ago. We would like to do the same in Ireland but there are a number of differences between the UK and Irish marketplaces. Sky continues to explore opportunities to launch broadband and telephony services in Ireland".

Decoded, this means that we'll be lucky to see a launch by the summer, if at all this year. Whether or not this news will come as a disappointment to anyone is unclear, as the service would, most likely, have simply been a rebadged Eircom product. And with 100Mbs services now in the market, 1Mbs satellite broadband isn't exactly a compelling prospect.

Other bits 'n' bytes...

Pay attention Leaving Cert students: good guide to Hamlet resources on Rathfarnham SCC's excellent education blog.

Anyone tried Volta.ie's movie download/rental/streaming service? Some good Irish films up there.

Rumours are getting stronger that the next iPhone update will include wifi hotspot capability.

Sometimes telcos do listen: Britain's T-Mobile has backed down (partially) after punters complained about its monthly data cap being reduced from to 500MB.

My colleague, David McWilliams, loves making up words. The latest one: bankocracy.

January's car market isn't doing too badly, it seems. There are at least 2,500 cars sold in Dublin (alone) in the first two weeks of the month. (As this pic shows.)

Daily tech notes...

 
With the cold weather possibly on the way back, be warned: Apple won't fix your broken iPhone if you use it below zero degrees celsius.

Speaking of smartphones and data allowances, got a Windows 7 phone? If so, better check it's not sending out between 30-50MB per day without you knowing. That's 1GB in 20 days, possibly leading to data bill misery.

Facebook is making its "new" profile layout compulsory, starting today. Hey, if it helps the company's stock price...

Notice an increase in your spam? You're not alone. Spam has rocketed in January, according to experts. And it's mainly down to one Russian botnet, Rustock (responsible for up to 50% of all world spam at its peak).

Nintendo: upcoming 3DS "might be harmful" to kids' eyes but, apparently, "is not dangerous".

My SBP colleague, Dick O'Brien, interviewed Ciaran Crean, co-founder of Mick's Garage. That company is going a bomb.

The first cinema-release movie coming out shot entirely on iPhones. By Oldboy's acclaimed director, Park Chan-Wook, no less.

Know what turns most people off eco-friendly hybrid cars? Their boring looks and design. The new Toyota Prius range, for example.

The first wannabe porn game for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect. Can't see this one getting released.

Even before any of us have gotten Gingerbread yet, Android has a new mobile OS on the make: 2.4 'Ice Cream'. (Like hurricanes, they name each updated OS alphabetically, it seems.)

Anyone else think Pat Rabbitte bears even a slight resemblance to Angry Birds?

Irish operators' wifi dongle plans: a comparison

Looking for a 3G wifi broadband plan? It's a byzantine task trying to compare Irish operators' pricing and data plans. So here's a chart comparing Irish operators' (i) prepay wifi dongle plans and (ii) billpay wifi dongle plans.

 

Mobile operators sell two kinds of mobile broadband devices. One is a stick that slots into your computer's USB port. The other is an oval dongle (see picture above) that generates its own wifi signal. Up to five devices (laptops, iPads, smartphones, desktops) can use it at the same time. This is the one I'm focusing on in this post.

Note: this is aimed mainly at novices and beginners. In other words, where there has been a choice between various 30-day access packages, I've chosen the cheapest one available, based on an assumption that novices are less likely to be power-users. I've added in the higher data options in the fine print section below each table.

(i) PREPAY WIFI DONGLE BROADBAND PLANS

Operator                   3            O2         Voda     Meteor    Emobile

Dongle price:           €70         €60        €60        €70*         €60

1 day access            €5           €4           €3          €3           €3

1 week access          €10          --           €10         --             --

1 month access        €15         €20         €20        €20           --

Out-of-bundle MB      €1          €0.02*     €0.19    €0.02*     €0.02

 

(ii) BILLPAY WIFI DONGLE BROADBAND PLANS

Operator                    3         O2        Voda      Meteor    Emobile

Dongle price:            €10      €30        €40*        €40          €40

1GB                          €10        --            --            --             --

5GB                            --         --            --           €17           --

10GB                          --         --           €20         €20          €20

15GB                         €20      €20         €25*         --             --

20GB                          --          --            --           €25           --

30GB                         €26*       --            --            --             --

Out-of-bundle MB      €0.05   €0.02     €0.02       €0.02       €0.02

* Now here's the fine print (including data caps) on PREPAY plans:

3 Ireland: 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 week access up to 2GB. 1 month access up to 1GB. HIgher-priced 1 month packages are also available for up to 20GB (€35). 3 also has a current offer where pre-pay broadband dongle comes with 1GB of free data pre-authorised. However,  wifi dongle is currently out of stock. O2: 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 month access up to 5GB. Out-of-bundle charge of 2 cents per megabyte applies until the session is over and then you must take out a new full-price top-up. O2 also offers a "free 24 hour pass" when you initially sign up. O2 also has a special dangle purchase price of €80 with €40 credit. Vodafone: 1 day access up to 500MB. I week access up to 2GB. 1 month access up to 5GB. Add-on data allowances of 500MB (€3), 2GB (€10) and 5GB (€20) are available on prepay plans. Meteor: dongle is €60 if purchased online. 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 month access up to 7.5GB. Free access to Eircom public wifi hotpots with subscriptions. Meteor's high speed broadband access coverage is limited to large urban areas. Emobile: 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 month access up to 7.5GB.

* And here's the fine print on BILLPAY plans:

3: 30GB tariff of €26.24 is a promotional tariff, ends Feb 28th. O2: purchase price is based on 18 month contract. For 12 month contract, €50 purchase price applies. For 6 month contract, €60 purchase price applies. Vodafone: 15GB (€25) plan also gives higher speed, free modem ('up to' 14.4Mbs download) on 18-month plan. A reduced rate of €17 per month is available to Vodafone bill pay phone customers. Meteor: Prices based on 12-month contracts. For 18-month contact, 20GB product falls to €20 per month. Wifi dongle costs €20 extra if bought with 5GB or 10GB plans. Free access to Eircom public wifi hotpots with subscriptions. Emobile: 12-month contract applies

So which one do I use?

I've used wifi dongles from 3, O2 and Meteor, on and off. Of these, I've found 3's dongle probably to be the fastest and the widest in reach. Meteor gives a great perk in the form of free wifi at Eircom public hotspots, but its own high speed 3.5G coverage is far more limited than its rivals. I only recently started using O2's Hotspot wifi dongle and have found it to be a reasonably decent service.

OTHER ISSUES/QUESTIONS

1. How wifi broadband dongles work with your computer/tablet/smartphone: when you turn the dongle on, it emits a wifi signal (based on the sim card housed within it). You will see the dongle's wifi signature in your device's wifi detector. Simply choose it, enter the given password and you're connected. Up to five devices can access this wifi signal at the same time. The dongles are rechargeable: you will get between 3 and 5 hours use from a single charge, generally.

2. Where do they work? Anywhere that you find a 3G mobile phone signal (which is all urban areas and most towns or large villages). I have used dongles with little problem in remote West Cork (Beara peninsula) and rural Mayo (Erris and Belmullet).

3. Do they suffer form the same constrictions as mobile phone signals? Yes. So for example, they work less well in basements or deep inside a large building (unless there are extra transmitters in the building, such as a shopping centre). So if you normally have difficulty picking up a strong mobile phone signal in your home or your office, you will also have difficulty using one of these devices for your internet access.

4. What speed to they connect at? Generally 'up to' 7.2Mbs (download) and 'up to' 5Mbs (upload). (Some connect 'up to' 14.4Mbs.) In practice, it's about half that speed in urban areas and can be as little as a tenth of the advertised speed.

In general, I've been pretty happy with 3G broadband, mainly because I move about a lot. But it may or may not be the right service for you. 

How I got on with six weeks of UPC's 100Mbs broadband service

For almost two months, I have had the holy grail of broadband services in Ireland: UPC's 100 megabits-per-second (Mbs) Fibre Power package.

As the trial period comes to a close, I can only say that most of the time, the service delivered what it said on the tin.

That's right: "most of the time". For, even though I achieved blazing hot speeds of up to 108Mbs (I've heard of others getting up to 120Mbs), the service sometimes played up a little. As in, occasionally cut out for no good reason. In fairness, few broadband services are perfect all of the time, so the occasional service interruption can be overlooked: I'm willing to give UPC the benefit of the doubt.

I did observe that the speed and signal strength fell off dramatically, if I was using the service over wi-fi. In the same room, the laptop clocked 60Mbs, a 40% fall-off (with about 5Mbs upload speeds). But two rooms away (about six yards), that fell to 30Mbs. Don't get me wrong; 30Mbs is a great broadband connection. But it's a long way off 100Mbs. In fairness to UPC, broadband speeds always fall off a little over wi-fi. To me, 70 per cent seems like a lot, though.

By comparison, my current broadband service terminates in the same room as the UPC package. It is a 6Mbs service. But two rooms away, it clocks 3.5Mbs, a fall off of just 45% (and not 70%). And that's on a mature broadband service with several other people in the area also using the technology.

So what did I use the 100Mbs service for? Do I now have a library full of high definition films, downloaded in minutes from The Pirate Bay?

Nope. By and large, I used it for the same stuff I use my 6Mbs connection for. Uploading photos. Web-browsing. Some light streaming. You know, regular home stuff. This may show my impending stuck-in-a-routine, old-fartness. Or it may be indicative of what most people do: I'll let you decide that. But I would certainly struggle to make a strong argument for a broadband service much faster than the one I have at present. 

Granted, I am starting to download films from iTunes a bit more, but that's mostly in advance for trips away: it doesn't make a huge difference whether it takes 7 minutes or 27 minutes. And I do dip into Xbox Live a bit, too: the extra speed certainly helps for downloading games. But as they're not really much cheaper than buying the boxed game, and I can't trade in a digital download, I don't generally choose new release downloads over DVDs.

Perhaps if there were a lot more mass-market TV or movie downloading services online I'd get real value out of 100Mbs. For example, I'd certainly go for a HD film-on-demand streaming service straight to my TV, which would take something in excess of 20Mbs to guarantee.

But without something like that, it's hard to see a pressing need for anything over 10Mbs. 

In conclusion, I can say that you'd want to be a fairly extreme downloader to really get your use out of this 100Mbs broadband service. Or have a really big family, all of whom use the service at the same time. Or use it as part of your small business. After all, €87.75 per month (well over €1,000 per year) is a lot of money for your broadband. (It's €80 per month if you also subscribe to a UPC television package; there's a 'reduced' €80 connection fee, too, when ordered online. UPC says that the service is now available to about a third of its installation base.)

Oh, and don't expect anything like 100Mbs if you're hooking up a wireless router: you'll be lucky to get close to half that speed.

 

Vodafone to follow Eircom into 3 Strikes territory? If so, open the floodgates

In last Sunday's SBP, I wrote that Vodafone was in discussions with Irma to possibly introduce a 'graduated response' (or 3 Strikes) system.

A further report in today's Irish Times indicates that this will now happen.

"EMI Ireland chief executive Willie Kavanagh said “significant progress” had been made with Vodafone in relation to implementing a solution similar to that which Eircom is using to deter file-sharers," writes Ronan McGreevy in the Times article.

As I pointed out in Sunday's piece, this is is likely to herald a new wave of 3 Strikes ISP agreements.

For instance, Digiweb's chief executive, Colm Piercy, told me that defending a costly High Court action against ‘‘the might of the music industry’’ is just not a realistic option. And the same goes for every other small to medium sized ISP in the country.

Yes, UPC will fight this court case. And both 3 Ireland and O2 probably will, too.

But it may well just be a matter of time before a huge swathe of Ireland's internet customers become governed under the 3 Strikes system.

Eircom's '3 strikes' letter

As the world now knows, Eircom has begun sending out its '3 Strikes' letters to customers suspected of filesharing illegally.

If you want to know what the letter looks like, this is it.

Dear ______

eircom has agreed to work with the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) to combat illegal music sharing.  We want to make you aware of this activity and assist you to use your broadband service to enjoy digital music legitimately.

Many music files are protected by copyright and while it may be acceptable for you to store them personally on your computer for personal use, it is unlawful to share those files without the copyright owner's permission.   In the terms and conditions of your broadband service, you have agreed not to use your broadband service to create, host or transmit material, which infringes among other things the copyright of another person or organisation (see www.eircom.net/termsandconditions).

IRMA on behalf of its members has notified eircom of illegal peer to peer (P2P) file sharing using eircom internet protocol (IP) addresses.  eircom records have identified one of those IP addresses as being linked to use from your eircom broadband account.  Some of the details of the notification supplied by IRMA are set out below and can be viewed online at  www.eircom.net/legalmusic.

Timestamp of report:

Track details:

IP Address:

Website or protocol used:

Copyright holder:

It is important that you know that eircom has not in any way monitored your internet connection or activity, nor have we shared any of your account or personal data with IRMA or anyone else as part of this communication.  The notification has resulted from independent monitoring conducted on behalf of IRMA.

We understand that you may be concerned on receiving this letter from eircom.  It may be that you do not know how this happened and that you yourself have not shared music files over the connection in breach of copyright.  It could be that someone else who uses your computer and internet connection might be responsible, however you as the account holder need to make sure that music files are not shared or downloaded illegally on your account. 

If you have concerns, or wish to avoid this happening again, please visit www.eircom.net/legalmusic for details of the steps you can take to ensure that your computer and internet connection are no longer used for such activity.  There are alternative services available where you can enjoy music online legitimately, including www.eircom.net/music  and http://www.itunes.com/. 

If you have been unlawfully sharing music, even if unknowingly, then we would ask you to please stop. If we receive another notification from IRMA relating to your account, we will be required to take further action and you risk having your broadband service withdrawn.

We hope that this assists you in using your broadband service to enjoy music legitimately.  We will call you to answer any questions you might have. However, if you would like to contact us in advance please LoCall 1890 253 059 or visit www.eircom.net/legalmusic.

Yours sincerely

Carlos Hernandez

Director of Customer Management and Operations

eircom Limited

Irma wants up to 10,000 such letters to be sent out weekly: Eircom is currently processing closer to about 100 a week.

3 Ireland to "sell iPad"

3 Ireland will soon be "selling the iPad", according to the company's chief executive, Robert Finnegan.

The company is in discussions with Apple about exactly how the device will be sold. It may not be directly from 3 itself. However, speaking at the company's i-HSPA launch today, Finnegan made it fairly clear that the iPad will be operating on 3's network.

Unless Apple radically changes its established pattern, 3 will be setting the data rates, too. Last week, both O2 and Orange revealed their UK iPad rates.

Separately, 3 Ireland will also begin selling the iPhone within a matter of weeks. Discussions are believed to be wrapped up with Apple, with an announcement expected soon.

There are no pricing details released for either product.

4G mobile services

Meanwhile, 3 will start trialling a 42Mbs service this Autumn, according to the company's chief technical officer, Dave Hennessy. Hennessy said that the entire network would be upgraded to 14.4Mbs by the end of the year. He also said that the 3's network is now "LTE-ready" and is just waiting for the availability of new spectrum to activate it.

But this spectrum may not become available for at least another year, he said. Hennessy identified three possible spectrum allocations, all of which are not currently available:

1. 900mhz: this band will start to become available once the GSM licences of Vodafone, O2 and Meteor start expiring next year. However, it will take some time for all the licenses to expire.

2. 2.6ghz: this is the band that 3 has begun using in Denmark to roll out LTE there. However, it is currently licensed to UPC for its MMDS operations

3. Digital dividend spectrum: when Ireland switches from analogue to digital television, there will be enough spectrum "left over" to use for LTE. However, the switch to DTT remains plagued with delays.

Google, Microsoft 'should pay for Ireland's broadband roll-out': Eircom exec

Last Friday evening, a senior Eircom executive (John McKeon, director of Eircom Wholesale) made an audacious pitch. Speaking at the annual Ibec telecoms ball, he told the crowd of telecoms bosses that it was time to look again at how Ireland's broadband roll-out was funded.

His proposal: that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and other large web content providers should co-pay for infrastructure costs.

The pitch is not a new one. For many years, the US telecoms and cable giants have been calling for some form of "contribution" from content-providers toward their costs. The most oft-used rationale is that Google and Yahoo are getting a "free ride" off their infrastructure.

But this new thinking is likely to be provocative to firms such as Google and Microsoft, multinationals we're supposed to be courting. It might also prove a little unpalatable to film, television and music producers (including RTE), who might have mixed views on their downloadable products being cited as the reason they get a bill for network fees.

The Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, got up to speak after McKeon. He acknowledged the point without commenting on it.

Eircom moves from 1Mbs to 8Mbs: upgrades punters for free

As reported in my SBP column yesterday, Eircom today announces that it is upgrading its entry-level broadband packages to 8Mbs from now on.

1Mbs, 3Mbs and 7Mbs customers will be upgraded for free, if you're in the right area. Starts in Dublin, expanded to all cities by the end of the year (by which time UPC will have a 100Mbs product in place across its network). Here are the details (from its press release)...

Next Generation Broadband Product Details

Consumer Products
There are 3 consumer NGB products. Each product provides the same speed of up to 8Mb and has varying download allowances designed to suit individual customers’ online usage needs:

• NGB Up to 8Mb Basic (10Gb download allowance) €24.99 inc VAT
• NGB Up to 8Mb Regular (30Gb download allowance) €29.99 inc VAT
• NGB Up to 8Mb Advanced (Unlimited download allowance) €39.82 inc VAT
  
  

Business Products

• Business Lite Next Generation (Up to 8Mb, 10Gb download allowance) €20.65 ex VAT
• Business Lite Plus Next Generation (Up to 8Mb, 30Gb download allowance) €24.78 ex VAT
  

eircom has also dropped the price of excess usage charges from €10.24 per Gigabyte to €2 per Gigabyte. To ensure no excessive broadband bills are received there will be a monthly bill limit for broadband usage of €50 per month.

Next Generation Broadband rollout will be expanded to all major urban areas including Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford by the end of the year. Customers can find out more on www.eircom.net/ngb.

Wimax v 3G: will 3G run into problems soon?

One of the things I didn't get around to reporting on at CES a few weeks back was Intel's Wimax stand.

It had several laptops on display from Dell and Lenovo (among other brands) that had the Wimax processor built-in. For those unaware, such a laptop can receive a Wimax broadband signal, if it's available. In Ireland, Imagine has launched Wimax and is building it out across the country's biggest cities and towns. The service offers speeds of 7Mbs (for €25 per month).

The Intel demonstrator knew all about Imagine. He knew about the frequencies involved and the general project underway in Ireland. This would tend to lend credence to Imagine's claims that Intel is taking Ireland seriously as a Wimax test-bed.

I asked him about competition, especially from mobile 3G networks, who will soon move to speeds of ("up to") 14Mbs and, according to the head of 3 Ireland, may hit 28Mbs by the end of 2010.

He made one interesting point about mobile 3G broadband. While the speeds can be turned up, there is a lack of spectrum to host very many people using the service at the same time. That means that if the numbers signing on to 3G broadband continue to grow at the pace they're doing at the moment, it doesn't matter how fast a download speed an optimum signal can deliver: it'll never deliver more than 2Mbs or 3Mbs at peak usage times.

Right now, though, 3G definitely has the edge over Wimax. The main reason for this is coverage. If you sign up for a Vodafone, O2, Meteor or 3 Ireland 3G dongle, you can use it just about anywhere in the country. (Okay, so there are a few place not covered. But the vast, vast, VAST majority is covered.)

You can also use it in some European countries (although watch out for data roaming costs, which are insanely expensive). At the moment, you can only use Wimax in a handful of Irish cities and not when you're on the road.

O2 Ireland finally allows laptop 'tethering' with iPhones

It's been a long time coming, but O2 has finally moved to allow its iPhone customers use their iPhones as broadband modems for their laptops.

You can simply pair the devices using Bluetooth or an iPhone dock.

Naturally, this doesn't apply to all IPhone plans (no pre-pay customers need apply, for example). And even for O2 contract customers, knowing which plan you can use it with and how much you can use is a muddy process.

O2 has put up an FAQ section on the issue here.

 

Vodafone email accounts "blacklisted" by Hotmail

Thousands of Vodafone email users -- ie people with vodafone.ie email accounts -- can't send emails to Hotmail accounts. Many are claiming that Vodafone has been blacklisted by Hotmail.

Here's what Vodafone.ie emailers get back from Hotmail:

"This is the Vodafone Mail service... I'm afraid we were not able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; Your mail will not be sent...
Remote host said: Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. The mail server IP connecting to Windows Live Hotmail has exhibited namespace mining behavior...."

As many of you will know, "namespace mining behaviour" can be shorthand for phishing (among other things).

Vodafone customers aren't best pleased. All the more so as the problem has been ongoing for three months, with promises to fix it from Vodafone every couple of weeks.

In fairness, it does not appear to be just Vodafone experiencing difficulties. There are numerous reports around the web of similar problems with sending mail to Hotmail and Windows Live.

No response yet from Vodafone or Microsoft to queries lodged.