Most people have probably already seen the "maps" of 3G (Mobile Broadband) coverage. You know the ones, where reception areas are frequently illustrated through liberal use of multi-coloured blobs that do little, if anything, to reflect the reality of actual signal quality or performance.
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This is all despite a huge investment effort in mobile coverage and new network sharing deals. As an example, mobile operator Three (3) recently spent £400m on a significant expansion of its 3G network to allegedly reach almost 97% (population coverage) of the country. Operators, such as Orange, are also fond of making equally bold claims. In reality the real-world quality of mobile network coverage, especially in rural areas where dense forests and high hills compete with already weak signals to make a bad situation much worse, often does not support what operators claim. At times this can be as much of an issue in built up locations as it can be out in the wilds of rural Britain, depending on how the related base stations and masts have been positioned. Back in November 2009 we explored this issue in more depth with our article on the Top Tips for Improving Mobile Broadband Performance. Suffice to say that finding an effective solution, one capable of producing a truly discernable improvement, proved somewhat difficult. Now a new UK start-up, Deltenna, claims it can do just that and a whole lot more with something called a WiBE (* available from Amazon for just over £200 *).
The WiBE, or Wireless Broadband Enabler if you prefer, is a fairly chunky, but very lightweight (450g), cylindrical shaped device that looks not unlike a huge size D flashlight battery, albeit somewhat bigger (182.2mm [H] x 130mm [Dia]). At the top can be found a simple slot for your SIM card and at the back is a power connector and LAN (Ethernet) port for connecting directly into your computer; not that this is necessary since the WiBE has been designed to distribute your Mobile Broadband connection over its firewalled Wi-Fi (i.e. similar to a MiFi router) connection.
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