Best Mobile Broadband Devices

Doesn’t always find a network but when it does it works with checking emails mainly but not streaming. Show details

Support the way you want it :) – I lost the antennas during relocation and needed replacements. Reaching out to the support team at tp-link was the best idea: fast communication,… Read more

hassle free handling. Thanks Cassiel from tp-link for the fast shipping! The router itself is easy to set up, but it also leaves the more enthusiastic IT folks almost without anything more to wish for.

A more useful than expected device – These types of modems have been around for some years but I recently had cause to buy one. There were two motivations; 1. I live in an area where due… Read more

to topography the Telstra mobile data signal is unreliable and I wanted to test the Optus alternative before changing the sims on any of our devices; 2. the 'smarts' on our Samsung Smart TV had quickly reached its upgrade limit so I downloaded all of our favourite internet channels onto a small laptop computer which plugs into the TV. This laptop can be used to make any home TV 'Smart' and when traveling on holiday it is easy to take and it plug into any available TV. Often however, the 'in-house' WiFi is inadequate for streaming or lacks security so I thought the Optus modem could be the answer. The modem has proved to be fully capable of streaming HD movies with little if any buffering and it is capable of running all of our WiFi dependent devices such as tablets and laptops. A further unexpected use of the portable modem which has its own battery lasting around six hours is that living in a rural area we experience fairly frequent planned power outages and our broadband WiFi goes down within an hour or two so the portable modem provides back-up for tablet or laptop use during these times. The Optus portable modem came with a sim card pre-loaded with 50 giga-bytes of data and reloads of 80 giga-bytes lasting up to 12 months are available at around $130.00. The setup and tuning into any WiFi dependent device was quite simple and so far we have experienced no drop-outs. It is small and very easy to carry in a pocket, purse or pack. A very useful item which can be used simultaneously by several devices which has obviated the need for expensive sim cards in a number of devices.

Works well with minimal amount of devices – I bought this as I was going remote and Telstra was the only service available. I’m with Optus. It works well, yet the light panel doesn’t work the… Read more

way it should. As long as it does what it is meant to, that is all that matters. Because the lights weren’t working correctly, it took a little while to figure out. We only connected three devices. Therefore we had enough speed to get us by and still using it at the moment. It’s pretty good, just the light issue and that’s it. I bought it from Big W $30 off the original price

Completely satisfied. Works well has a long distance range and can connect up to 10 devices Show details

$120 piece of junk – What a piece of $120 junk, sim card is held in with sticky tape. Put it in 5 times and it said no sim card each time put it back in my phone 100% signal threw the heap of junk into the bin Show details

Avoid at all costs! – I am a computer buff & love technology, so I consequently NEVER give up when issues are experienced. This device however was the first that I… Read more

conceded defeat with. It regularly dropped the router connection EVERY day many times over. Transferring files to a NAS impossible. I Googled this extensively & I wasn't surprised to find a massive number of users with this exact same issue, most like me they too had tried EVERY suggestion as I did & they too had given up. As I said I have high technical understanding & persevered with this rather expensive device for over eighteen months finding no solution. I finally used a much cheaper thumb drive D-Link DWA-171 Wireless AC adapter & "problem solved". I have never had a dropout since. In hindsight I should have tried this way sooner but believed that because of the distance from the router I needed the Netgear, A6210, when in reality I didn't. Netgear should listen to their customers & fix the problem or remove it from sales. Many irate users said this over & over but like me were & still are ignored!

Things Telstra don’t tell you when purchasing a USB Modem – Your Telstra pre-paid USB modem comes with a couple of nasty catches 1. You’ll find it’s locked to Telstra only SIMs 2. Unlocking an item that… Read more

you’ve already paid for may cost up to $78, depending on length of ownership 3. Even after paying to have a device you own unlocked, it may then take between 5 and 10 business days for the device to become available to other service providers 4. That’s after waiting on hold for 45 minutes listening repeatedly to a recording confirming that Telstra are aware customers don’t like speaking with a machine Perhaps I missed the fine print when buying my USB Modem all those years ago but, this is another example of terrible customer service with a trap that lasts for the life of the device Not happy Jan