The end of home broadband

On trial is a radical change to how I access the internet. I'm considering doing away with my BT landline, broadband provider freedom2surf and all the paraphernalia of ADSL modem, wireless access point and associated tangle of cables. Considering I'm paying £26 per month for a truly uncapped broadband service as well as the BT landline, which I rarely use to make calls, recent mobile broadband offerings have become viable financial contenders.

At £15/month for 3GB and £25/month for 5GB, Vodafone is offering a similar price-to-download ratio to other mobile providers; however they offer what I think is a better additional usage scheme.

Beyond this cap Vodafone charges £15/GB. I think this is better than other providers such as T-mobile whose attitude to over-usage is to first warn the customer, then if the customer continues to 'over-indulgence', T-Mobile then reduces the level of service. Personally I'd rather pay for the additional usage, and not be penalised.

Like other mobile tariffs the most affordable price plans are offered for long contract commitments, which in Vodafone's case is 2 years.

The Vodafone package comes with a SIM, the USB device and an installation CD. The device is about 7cm in length and resembles a large white memory stick. The SIM slots inside the device. On Windows XP and Vista the software installs itself without too much fuss; the CD is provided for OSX. Here's a screenshot of the Windows software.

Vodafone provides up to 7.2Mbps, and so far at home and at work, the perceived speed is no different to my home broadband. Importantly Vodafone compresses jpeg images which means their file size is smaller, and therefore they have a smaller impact on download limit; however the consequence is poorer image quality.

This is a odd concept, which many would find very annoying. However, after searching the net, I've come across a program called Bytemobile which can configure the level of compression or turn it off. The Vodafone program uses the same software to compress images on-the-fly. By installing it yourself, you can take control. You can also change how the various internet protocols are handled; useful for getting instant messengers working. Read more about Bytemobile and other solutions, and download Bytemobile yourself.

Something else which was a surprise was Vodafone's censoring Access Controls, which they've slapped onto various websites. It prevents access to sites deemed to be unsuitable for those under 18-years. Oddly enough, this includes Flickr. This Access Control can be turned-off by calling customer services, or through the Vodafone account web interface.

So, am I going to do away with traditional broadband and use this little white stick instead? At the moment, I don't know, so the 14-day returns policy could come in useful.

The clear advantage would be that I can use the internet virtually anywhere. However I've only got 5GB to play with each month, which means very little video and bit-torrenting - that's unless I make use of the occasional open, unsecure wi-fi connections in the neighbourhood.

Ditching traditional broadband for mobile broadband would also mean I couldn't concurrently have more than one computer hooked-up to the internet. Although there are solutions on the market to distribute mobile broadband. For example, there's the Billion BiPAC 7300GX router.

At the moment, I don't know what to do!

Introduction to Bushcraft

I went on a two-day Introduction to Bushcraft Course last weekend. It's one of many courses provided by Woodlore - a company run by Ray Mears. The course was held on Etchingham Farm, East Sussex.

The weather wasn't good, especially as I'd recently returned from Morocco where it was mild. Although it was cold and it snowed and occasionally hailed, thankfully the snow didn't settle and the air was quite still. Sleeping under tarp left me exposed to the elements a little. However it offered some nice moonlite views and I could track the path of the moon behind the trees as I lay awake.

The course covered, amongst other things, methods for lighting fire, how to build an improvised shelter, clothing & equipment, and identifying & use of various trees and plants.

Here's some photos.