T-Sticks: MF626 vs MF636 vs Sierra Wireless 308

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › T-Sticks: MF626 vs MF636 vs Sierra Wireless 308

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frednz

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#374700 31-Aug-2010 09:20

quickymart:
frednz:
Thanks for your comments. No, I have never uploaded or downloaded videos, but I sometimes watch videos that are on YouTube. I'm not insistent on having a high upload / download rate, I'm just assessing whether it's worth the extra money to buy the MF636, or Sierra Wireless 308, instead of the MF626. Do you think the MF626 can handle a web site like YouTube satisfactorily?

Yep, I've got one myself and it plays Youtube videos just fine. Note that you need to get a decent signal to make the best use of it - how much XT signal do you get where you are currently (I'm presuming you have an XT phone)?

I am in a very good signal area (according to Telecom), but I don't have an XT phone. I mainly want to use the T-Stick for travel, and I realise that the signal can vary according to where you are. Perhaps the MF636 may work better than the MF626 in marginal signal areas?

Regards
Fred

frednz

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#374744 31-Aug-2010 10:34

nzbnw:
frednz: In addition, there is no "free credit" of $29.95 given,

Prepaid Data SIM's when purchasing a Data Card are $29.95, and come with $29.95 credit on the 500MB plan.

nzbnw

Thanks for that information, I have talked to a helpful person in a Telecom store who advised me that, if I buy the MF636, it will cost me $199, and the SIM card will cost an additional $29.95. He said that the SIM card is loaded with $10 "free" credit, and that when the SIM card is registered, I will get an additional $10 credit, giving me $20 data allowance altogether.

I have found that, the answers I get from Telecom are not consistent with the answers I get from the retail stores, so it pays to "shop around" to get the best deal. One Telecom person told me that the stores can run their own deals, which can result in you paying different amounts than you would if you dealt with Telecom directly. And the retail stores are not consistent in what they charge either, but overall, the amounts are fairly similar!

At present, you can't buy a MF636 from Telecom directly, because they say it's out of stock, but their dealers seem to have plenty available.

An important advantage of the prepay option is that if, for example, you pay $79.95 for 4GB of data for a month, if you use less than 800mb of data in the month, your remaining credit balance will roll over to the next calendar month. So, if you used 600mb when on a 4GB prepaid plan, you would get a credit of $20 rolled over to the next calendar month. There is a limit of 6 months for carrying forward credit, after which it will expire.

But, if you are on a "pay monthly" plan, there is NO rolling over of what you pay each month, even if you don't use any data in a particular month. Perhaps someone could confirm whether or not they agree with the above pricing comments?

Regards
Fred

BarTender

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#374766 31-Aug-2010 11:13

frednz:
nzbnw:
frednz: In addition, there is no "free credit" of $29.95 given,

Prepaid Data SIM's when purchasing a Data Card are $29.95, and come with $29.95 credit on the 500MB plan.

nzbnw

Thanks for that information, I have talked to a helpful person in a Telecom store who advised me that, if I buy the MF636, it will cost me $199, and the SIM card will cost an additional $29.95. He said that the SIM card is loaded with $10 "free" credit, and that when the SIM card is registered, I will get an additional $10 credit, giving me $20 data allowance altogether.

I have found that, the answers I get from Telecom are not consistent with the answers I get from the retail stores, so it pays to "shop around" to get the best deal. One Telecom person told me that the stores can run their own deals, which can result in you paying different amounts than you would if you dealt with Telecom directly. And the retail stores are not consistent in what they charge either, but overall, the amounts are fairly similar!

At present, you can't buy a MF636 from Telecom directly, because they say it's out of stock, but their dealers seem to have plenty available.

An important advantage of the prepay option is that if, for example, you pay $79.95 for 4GB of data for a month, if you use less than 800mb of data in the month, your remaining credit balance will roll over to the next calendar month. So, if you used 600mb when on a 4GB prepaid plan, you would get a credit of $20 rolled over to the next calendar month. There is a limit of 6 months for carrying forward credit, after which it will expire.

But, if you are on a "pay monthly" plan, there is NO rolling over of what you pay each month, even if you don't use any data in a particular month. Perhaps someone could confirm whether or not they agree with the above pricing comments?

Regards
Fred

If you look at the Prepaid Mobile options: http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/mobilebroadband/plansandpricing/prepaid

You will see you're charged for 10c/MB upto $79.95 for 4GB.. So that would mean you could use up to 800MB (well technically 799.5MB) and get changed the $79.95, then the remaining 3.2GB would be "free".

If you use less than 800MB then you only get charged for what you use in the calendar month.

The same applies for the lower rate plans.

IMHO, I would go for a Sierra 885 off Trademe like this one. As they are far better cards than the MF636's. And then either if you have an old CDMA Phone (even a disconnected one), go into and get it tranferred from CDMA to XT, and you get a free XT Sim card. And you're done!

frednz

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#375061 31-Aug-2010 19:54

BarTender:
frednz:
nzbnw:
frednz: In addition, there is no "free credit" of $29.95 given,

Prepaid Data SIM's when purchasing a Data Card are $29.95, and come with $29.95 credit on the 500MB plan.

nzbnw

Thanks for that information, I have talked to a helpful person in a Telecom store who advised me that, if I buy the MF636, it will cost me $199, and the SIM card will cost an additional $29.95. He said that the SIM card is loaded with $10 "free" credit, and that when the SIM card is registered, I will get an additional $10 credit, giving me $20 data allowance altogether.

I have found that, the answers I get from Telecom are not consistent with the answers I get from the retail stores, so it pays to "shop around" to get the best deal. One Telecom person told me that the stores can run their own deals, which can result in you paying different amounts than you would if you dealt with Telecom directly. And the retail stores are not consistent in what they charge either, but overall, the amounts are fairly similar!

At present, you can't buy a MF636 from Telecom directly, because they say it's out of stock, but their dealers seem to have plenty available.

An important advantage of the prepay option is that if, for example, you pay $79.95 for 4GB of data for a month, if you use less than 800mb of data in the month, your remaining credit balance will roll over to the next calendar month. So, if you used 600mb when on a 4GB prepaid plan, you would get a credit of $20 rolled over to the next calendar month. There is a limit of 6 months for carrying forward credit, after which it will expire.

But, if you are on a "pay monthly" plan, there is NO rolling over of what you pay each month, even if you don't use any data in a particular month. Perhaps someone could confirm whether or not they agree with the above pricing comments?

Regards
Fred

If you look at the Prepaid Mobile options: http://www.telecom.co.nz/mobile/mobilebroadband/plansandpricing/prepaid

You will see you're charged for 10c/MB upto $79.95 for 4GB.. So that would mean you could use up to 800MB (well technically 799.5MB) and get changed the $79.95, then the remaining 3.2GB would be "free".

If you use less than 800MB then you only get charged for what you use in the calendar month.

The same applies for the lower rate plans.

IMHO, I would go for a Sierra 885 off Trademe like this one. As they are far better cards than the MF636's. And then either if you have an old CDMA Phone (even a disconnected one), go into and get it tranferred from CDMA to XT, and you get a free XT Sim card. And you're done!

Thanks for your reply. Yes, not a bad deal with the bidding now at just $34!

The prepaid option certainly seems to be the way to go as you have the option of transferring any unused credit to the next month, but I'm surprised at the rather high cost of mobile broadband.

The overall average cost of data, if you use all the allocation, is 6 cents per MB for the 500MB plan, 3 cents per MB for the 2GB plan, and 2 cents per MB for the 4GB plan. If you use just 300MB of data each month, this costs you the full 10 cents per MB, so I guess it pays to sign up to the 4GB plan and use the full allocation each month! Perhaps a 1GB plan would also be a good option?

Regards
Fred

tchart

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#375109 31-Aug-2010 21:42

+1 for MF626

Never had any issues with mine on Win 7 Professional. As mentioned always plug it in the same port (pays to invest in a USB extension cable - on my laptop I can plug anything else in if its plugged into the port).

I use a Telstraclear SIM and Vodafone before that. Speed is great - apart from when I was in CHCH the other day and it only got GPRS!

Also make sure you shut down the software and dont just yank it out the USB port, my mate at worked borked his laptop but just pulling it out.

mort

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#377210 6-Sep-2010 17:17

HSPA+ is nation wide so you should see an improvement in performance unless you are in a marginal coverage area.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/reynolds-hspa-upgrade-complete-xt-marketing-resume-122743

i regualry get 8 to 10Mbps in central wellington and 6 to 7 in Island Bay.
4Mbps is the safe marketed average but you should get higher speeds than this but never 21Mbps

njm

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#377227 6-Sep-2010 18:10

I have use the MF636 and the Sierra Wireless 885 and 308 and the best device has been the 308 by a long way with average speeds of around 5mbps when I have bothered to test.

I found the MF636 and 885 around the same performance wise.

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