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If you have ever relied on mobile broadband then the title will give you a good idea of what I am going to talk about in this post. All of the adverts on television show an idealic world where you can watch your favourite program's on the move, watch a movie on Netflix, watch your favourite football team gat thrashed on Sky Go or BT Sport, send movies to your friends and family, upload to YouTube, post a picture of your dinner to your favourite social media site and more. What total and utter bulls**t. For one, the data you consume by watching an average football game including build-up and post match analysis is around 1.5GB, if you want to watch F1 the following day that will eat up at least the same. so, that's just two things I have watched and have now used my 3GB monthly allowance that cost me £15 with the Three network, or my £12.50 allowance on my iPad with GiffGaff. Now I have absolutely no data left to email that urgent graphic required by my client, or enough data to FaceTime my daughter or mum - unless I pay another sum of money for another 3GB data allowance.

Now that is not the only thing as most people who rely on mobile broadband who live outside a major city know very well. Data speed is the next big lie from our mobile network suppliers. 4G is the new thing. Makes no difference as I will never get that on the marina, 3G is the best I get and to be honest the fastest download speed I have achieved on my boat is 1.2mb a second, much less than the claimed speed I should get of 3mb a second. Let's not forget that the speed I just quoted is a very rare occurrence, most of the time my speed is measured in bytes, or I lose connection completely.
The odd thing is that when my wifi goes dead on the boat, if I unplug the little mifi box (turn it off) and then power it up again a few minutes later I will be connected again, this is hugely annoying as I have to do it at least 4-5 times a day if I am working on the boat.
The same thing happens on my iPhone with O2. One minute I have 3G and then it drops to GPRS and won't budge. If I reboot my iPhone then I usually get 3G for a while again - it's definitely switching as I can tell from the speed. Talking of my mobile phone network provider, and I believe all the others too. When I got my first iPhone 3G, I got unlimited data on my £45 per month contract. When I upgraded to a 4s a few years ago that data plan went down to a paltry 500mb but I was still paying the same amount. When I upgraded to my 5s I moaned a lot and now I have a massive 1GB which will allow me to watch perhaps 2 episodes of East Enders before I run out of my monthly data allowance. To be honest, iPhones are not really that great for the web - no smartphone is. Tablets are a bit better but for me, I need my MacBook Pro to be connected for real work which is why I went down the mifi route - which is basically mobile wifi for my boat.
As far as I can see, please correct me if I am wrong, there is nobody that offers unlimited mobile broadband for tablets or for mifi. GiffGaff offers a smartphone goodie bag that is unlimited (it's not really though when you read their terms and conditions, use 5GB or more and they will soon be telling you off) but you can not use that phone as a personal Hotspot (using as a modem for your tablet or computer). So they seemingly don't mind us all watching films and sports etc on a tiny screen but if you want to actually see it clearly on a iPad or computer then you will have to pay more! What a pile of cr*p.
Now, on the other side of the coin lets say that I have just purchased a 3GB allowance on arrival at Hannah the Narrowboat. I spend just the weekend aboard and use perhaps 500mb data leaving 2.5GB. If I can't get back up to the boat for a few weeks because of other things that pop up then why should I lose that 2.5GB? Three says I have to use it within a month - that's disgraceful practice, I paid for 3GB so I should get the full 3GB. I could understand if it were an unlimited data plan as then you are actually paying to be connected for a month. Imagine if you went in a pub, bought a pint and then they took it away again before you finished it because you did not drink it within an allocated time period!
Over the past 4 weeks on the boat, I have paid £60 for irritatingly slow broadband and not even watched a football game, or porn before you ask. This is not really acceptable to be honest but if I want to actually work from my boat I have absolutely no choice - unless you know otherwise?
To recap: The mobile network providers, television companies, Sky, BT etc have us believe that we can all catch up on the lastest episode of Britains Got No Talent whilst sitting by the riverside, or catching up via FaceTime or Skype on the train yet in reality the network speeds are not fast enough anywhere outside a major city and if you do get a good connection you will run out of data allowance before the end of that romantic comedy you are watching on your tiny little smartphone screen.
Data costs are too expensive and too slow to be able to work or play away from your home broadband.
By the way, I just had to restart my mifi again as it failed to post due to no data connection (even though my mifi says I have 3G with 3 bars!). Now it says I have used over 2mb since restarting, yet I have not even looked at the web etc - so it must nick a couple of meg when you restart it which, for me, means it will steal 10-12mb a day!