Further details on new O2 broadband package

From the press release:

O2 Broadband, through a wireless USB modem, will enable up to 10GB of data to be downloaded as standard per month, with no additional charges for occasional usage in excess of this. O2 is the first mobile provider in Ireland not to automatically charge customers if they exceed the 10GB usage limit, subject to fair usage policy.

The service will initially be available for a three month introductory price of €15 per month for those with an existing O2 post-pay voice connection or for new post-pay customers taking a voice connection*. It will be €20 for all other customers. Following the three month promotional period, the monthly cost is €30 (with voice connection*). For all other customers the cost is €40 per month. The USB modem will be priced from €69 (all prices quoted are inclusive of VAT).

I’ll be trialing it this week to see what it’s like. I’m going to try and get clarification on the “occasional usage” line.

Update: So basically 02 are saying, don’t ride the system and everything will be ok. If someone goes over they will be informed if they will be charged if they further go over the cap.

30 Responses to “Further details on new O2 broadband package”

  1. Justin Mason says:

    That’s a major improvement!

    Is there any upload limit mentioned?

  2. Niall O'K says:

    The O2 web site says on it’s “coverage map” page : “For more detailed coverage information please visit your nearest O2 store. Check our store locator.” The manager of the local O2 store here has told us that they don’t yet know what their coverage is like.

    First three months aside, existing customers get O2 broadband for €30 and new customers get it for €40.

    Contrast that with the offering from 3 – between 1 and 3.6Mbps broadband. full coverage maps available online (with over 85% of the population covered – wider coverage than Vodafone and most likely much wider than O2) via http://www.three.ie/coverage/index.htm – and it’s only €20 per month whether you’re a new or existing customer for the first three months, the next three months, etc. etc. etc.

    I know which one I’d go for if I were looking for mobile broadband (I’m not!).

    Nice of O2 to say they’re “probably” not going to charge most people for going over 10GB “occasionally” but realistically, the vast majority of ordinary users are not going to download 10GB in 1 month.

    By the way, I’m commenting on my own behalf, not my employers!

  3. I think O2’s throttles are smart enough to constrict at the local mast when someone sucks too much at a time. That is how Eircell used to control my data addiction with HSCSD.

    I’m a long-time user of O2’s Gigaplan. My Sierra modem card gets me 1 megabit a second in the UCC Pharmacy building, even on the ground floor. It feels faster than the campus wifi network. It’s certainly heads-above the sucky wifi we get at Irish business conferences.

  4. Sean says:

    What are the speeds on this going to be?

  5. Speeds vary based on the modem capability. My Sierra wireless card will top out at 1Mbps. The USB dongle will get at least 7 Mbps from a strong mast although the dongle itself can manage around 10 Mbps. I have seen the 7 Mbps running inside an O2 channel partner’s premise already.

  6. Niall O'K says:

    The sooner O2 reveal what their coverage is, the better, IMHO…

  7. Michael Walsh says:

    One thing I’ve noticed some t-mobile users encountering (but not widely known) is for webapps that require unsolicited inbound TCP/UDP traffic, they’d typically open a port on their home router and forward it to their computer.
    However, with t-mobile uk’s 3G service, no inbound traffic can be received. Talking to t-mobile support, users were told “We won’t do port forwarding as it makes our network vulnerable to hacking”.
    That’s a BS claim and practically means you get web access and no exotic internet access.

    Anyone know if O2/three allow port forwarding?

  8. Niall O'K says:

    I don’t believe 3 allow port forwarding OR SMTP access by defaul although they’re suggestible and knowledgeable enough to understand the technology and enable it on a client by client basis when requested.

  9. Michael Walsh says:

    So I’m not allowed to use up my 10Gigs how I want then… 🙁

  10. O2 broadband (ie the modem and sim card) is on the way to me, supposedly. I’ve been told I should be in a coverage area – I’m between a small town (which has Voda 3G coverage) and a small village (which has O2 bb coverage)…I’m either covered by the same mast that covers the small village, or another mast which should be enabled soon if it hasn’t been already.

    I’m really crossing my fingers on this one as it’s basically the only way I’m likely to get broadband in the near future.

  11. I use the O2-Ireland broadband card on a laptop on Bus Eireann and it gives me coverage for most journeys although you will never get complete coverage in all parts of anti-mast townlands.

  12. James Vickers says:

    Will this work with an Xbox 360 or the like. I live in a town with no broadband coverage of any description but o2 reckon they will have coverage

  13. rob kelly says:

    i got the o2 broadband modem. i was told in the shop i am well within the coverage area but i can only get gprs. a total waste of time just like voda and 3. my advice. don’t bother.

  14. martin ryan says:

    rob,
    i’ve got a 3 modem that barely gives me hsdpa speed but otherwise will slip back to gprs. find an old parabolic antenna or check the web for “wokatenna”, find the focal point and stick the modem there. I went from a barely detectable signal to an 80% signal, might be inconvenient but it works. having said that 3 seem to have taken on so many customers that the system seems th clog up a times

  15. MPC says:

    as with rob kelly – had great hopes, tried it and get no signal – will try a few other places but if I cannot get coverage in a “good coverage” area sitting on my couch……………
    fingers crossed its gremlins on new kit

  16. Rob Collins says:

    Just got my o2 modem.
    I’m high up, overlooking Cork city close to the city centre.
    http://www.dslreports.com was giving me speeds of close to 1mb down and 600 up.
    Was originally piggybacking on a neighbour’s wifi, but the o2 box seems like abit of an improvement.
    When the modem was just sitting on my desk, I only got GPRS, but with it velcroed to my window with the longer USB lead I’m getting 3G.

    After dealing with all sorts of wireless access, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.
    But….this is only day one…

  17. Jim St John says:

    Been looking into this as i live near an O2 mast (like 3 miles away) and looks like no plans to bring Adsl broadband to my area for the forseeable future 🙁

    Well hopefully i can get coverage as anything beats unreliable 28.8kbps dial-up at 39.99 for 150hours anytime :p

  18. frankp says:

    3 data modem been a pain the ass since I got it… anyone else finding it to be a nightmare to get working?

  19. CR says:

    i just got the O2 card but am having trouble with my coverage. I have 3g coverage in one corner of the house basicly – is their anyway that i can get a wireless modem or something to plug it into rather than my laptop?

  20. Ronan Hanrahan says:

    Bought the 3 modem on the basis that their coverage map indicated that I would have full coverage – not even a single bar unless I stood upstairs. Very disappointing as I tried it in Shannon and was getting excellent speeds (1.5Mbs at times), so I know the technology works. Like many other of the people commenting, I don’t have any broadband options where I live.

    Have the Vodafone card from work – no coverage at home either, so I don’t expect O2 to provide coverage.

    Maybe if I move house!

  21. O2? it’s fucking rubbish. 24kbps download speed in clondalkin.

  22. […] Mulley seemed to give it the thumbs up, as did Silicon Republic. So I thought I’d check out their […]

  23. […] Mulley seemed to give it the thumbs up, as did Silicon Republic. So I thought I’d check out their […]

  24. Joe Allen says:

    O2 just sucks – they promise you fast speed, but you don’t get it… the “up to 3.6 mbps” is correctly advertised, but you will never reach equivalent download speed of 300-340 kbps. More realistically you will be at 40-50 kbps (in daytime, at the evening this will be even worse).

    The upload speed sucks even more. Sometimes I’m running the same speed as on 56k ~ 4-5 kbps.
    I have tried this various places in Dublin, Ireland… same problem everywhere.

  25. Emma says:

    It’s absolutely rubbish. Been there, done that.

  26. ryan says:

    try going into settings with the o2 modem, and select wcdma only or 3g only, the default mode is 3g preffered or wcdma preffered and can sometimes auto select gsm because it has more coverage… now even if the 3g coverage is very low connect anyway, you should now get download speeds from 60kbps – 360kbps on low coverage……. i myself have not yet experianced high coverage but at 360 kbps do you think theres anything to complain about?

  27. o2 IS SHITE says:

    Argh! Why, under pressure from other half went out and got two (the 3.6 and extra 68 euro 7.2 devices from) o2. NTL unavailable and no DSL cards left. In Ranelagh. Absolute shite. Refuses too work at any decent speed at times when other folks are using phones on the cell (nearly always), IP range constantly being port scanned, sits there timing out without dropping. 20 minutes gets you into a webmail site and a piece of mail open. Averages are about the same as a 14.4k MODEM vintage 1996. Complete and utter rip off. Certain O2 know all this.

    If I sit in a certain place outside my back door I can download a mail attachment.Utter con. It’s not the technology it’s the networks. 12 month lock in for 40 euro a month for something with less bandwidth than a wet piece of string with salt on it running SLIP.

    Bring on the revolution! This SUCKS.
    What the fuck is the point in having a load of tosser civil servents in com reg with free fucking blackberries on 1G ether doing feck all about this?

    Commission for communications regulation and 02 marketing will be up against that wall when the revolution comes!

    You’d be pissed off if you relied on this shite and legalised rip off.

    All O2 customers should storm their headquarters and return the USB devices by anally inserting them into O2 staff! As for the commission for communications quango you can give us your laptops and blackberries in compensation and fuck off after signing an agreement that you won’t scab off the tax payer again on pain of having 02 sims installed in your eyeballs.

    (Legal disclaimer: All violent references are for the purposes of humor and irony, speeds may be up to anally insertable. Any insertion is binding for a period of 12 months and may be subject to a cancelation fee, complains may be made to the commission of communications regulation by shitting in an envelope marked ‘your welcome to my tax money’ addressed to the great gnomes them selves the commissioners in the charge of the commission for communications regulation)

    It’s so bad it’s broken my mind.

    HELP!

  28. tadhg morris says:

    i joined o2 broadband in nov of 2008. works fine. speed is acceptable to me. the 10 gb limit is workable. HOWEVER HERE IS WHERE THE RIP OFF HAPPENS. i discovered that o2 simply pile on the download usage for you as you are connected. for my activities over a month. which was really minimal downloaded one or two movie files about 750 mb each and a few music tracks they told me i downloaded 22.5 gb of data and a bill of around €240 was coming. this simply couldnt be true. i simply didnt download that much. i am an I.T. specialist and have been using broadband in this country for six years. i know what i am doing. i agreed to pay them €50. however the next bill cycle came round. this time i recorded my usage carefully. in a three day period where i used the broadband very minimally, o2 clocked up for me over 2gb of data download. this is absolutely crazy. impossible for the activity i was using it for. IMPOSSIBLE. i made numberous calls to customer service. they would conceed nothing. i am in the process of complaining to comreg now. basically o2 in my opinion are simply exageratting the downloads that customers are doing. however since i kicked up a fuss the problem has no been rectified. but not retrospectively. what i mean is the download as i check it on the o2 software statistics tab on my pc matches pretty exactly what i check the next day on the o2.ie website in my account. but this was not the case until i kicked up a right fuss. SO BEWARE IF YOU ARE USING O2 BROADBAND.

  29. o2 IS SHITE says:

    Any Chance you had P2P running?

  30. michael carr says:

    i would like to know more about broadband