September 14, 2007 at 8:34 am · Authored by Ewan · Filed under Mobile Data

I’m sat here in the Grand Hotel in Hartlepool. Grand, it ain’t.

However I have my laptop plugged into the power source — and that’s working. There’s no wifi, obviously. Hartlepool is the world’s least connected wifi town (as I proved recently).

Yesterday I popped into the 3UK shop in the Middleton Grange shopping centre, which, by the way, is a hugely depressing place. There was a ton of excitement whilst I was on a conference call sat on a plastic chair outside Boots — I wondered at the overweight security guards jogging with a mix of super-exertion and pleasure etched across their faces. They all converged on a point by the emergency exit — some chap had apparently stolen a handful of pick’n'mix sweets.
I had to put my phone microphone on mute to save my conferenceees from overheading the shouts of exhaltation from the security guards when they caught the guy.

Anyway, I popped into the 3UK store and was given a super service. The only issue? Well there was a disconnect between what I was meant to pay.

In London, the told me that a tenner-a-month USB deal would be free on an 18 month contract if I was an existing customer (it’s a misprint in the brochure, the guy told me).

In Hartlepool, I was told no. That was only if I pre-registered my interest in the USB modem before the 4th of September 2007. I thought of saying that I had effectively done so by blogging it around the time of my meeting with Marc Allera. The sales girl was adamant though. She knew best. Ergo I paid £49.99 up front for the 1GB tenner a month service.

It is brilliant. Really, really, really good. It is — and this is saying something — almost indistinguishable from my 8mb BT broadband service. Even in Hartlepool.

I wonder how it will perform on a train doing 125mph? Not good, I don’t think. I don’t reckon any USB modem would.

However if you’re thinking of getting yourself a USB modem, do think about 3UK. Installation was a piece of simplicity — usage even simpler. Love it.