A lot of people ask me why I didn’t purchase the 3G iPad. There were several reasons why I decided to go for the WiFi version of the iPad.
1) I wanted to get the iPad from the US before it was released in the UK and at that time the iPad WiFi version was the only one available at that time.
2) I typically find 3G too slow, and if I could find a HSDPA router and create a WiFi hotspot just for myself from that router then I could achieve much higher speeds on the iPad when surfing the internet, downloading photos, music, blogging and much more.
If you take a look at the speed test image below, you’ll see I managed to get 3.21 Mbps on 3G. This is typically what the iPad WiFi +3G will achieve as standard.
Now if I hook up my HSDPA router to the iPad, I am able to now get a whopping 9.06 Mbps. Which is actually faster than my 8 Mbps ADSL line at home.
I use the HTC HD2 as a HSDPA / 3G router with an application called WiFi Router for WinMobile 6.5. It means I have to carry two phones, my main iPhone 3GS along with the HD2 but it gets me the speeds I want. Most of my apps are on my iPhone and not the HD2 so I still can’t replace my iPhone with the HD2 yet.
Hi, what network are you using for the HTC and how much is it costing? Also, do you have separate contracts for your iphone and the HTC? Thanks, Tim
By: Tim Leitch on July 24, 2010
at 12:41 pm
Oh and what router do you use? Tim
By: Tim Leitch on July 24, 2010
at 12:41 pm
Hi Tim,
I’m using a WinMobile HTC HD2 as the HSDPA router, I’m using it as I already have the device but any mobile 3G router will work, and most of these have a USB port that you can stick a USB wigi dongle in which you would put a SIM card into. I use a second PAYG SIM card in the UK and am on the O2 network. O2 and other networks will allow you to purchase cheap PAY AS YOU GO SIM cards for a couple of pounds, and for around a tenner a month you can get 250mb of data which is fairly reasonable. Unless you’re going to be heavily using it each day (which I’m not) – only when I need to when I’m out, it works out pretty well for me.
Thanks
Dave
By: Dave Burrows on July 24, 2010
at 1:24 pm