3G rubbish

I've just given up trying to watch the Liverpool v PSV Eindhoven match online via skysports.com using my T-Mobile 3G data card. When I tried the demo earlier to see if my connection speeds would cope it seemed ok, but when I've tried to watch the live match it just keeps stuttering - I reckon I've only managed to watch about 5 minutes from the first 45!

T-Mobile UMTS is supposedly quicker than standard 3G - up to 1.8mbps if their website is to be believed. In reality I'm lucky to get 600k at it's peak, and most of the time hovering around 60kbps and every now and again even dropping to 0 - even when I have a strong signal being in the centre of Manchester. It's fair to say that the service is no good for watching streaming video.

If it was constantly at 600kbps then with buffering, I could probably get decent quality, but the speed just keeps going up and down all the time. It's not like I'm on a train - I'm completely stationary in a hotel room!

I new I should have made the effort to go out to the pub to watch it. However, having to get up at 5:30am this morning to get my train, and with me not being a morning person, I'm cream crackered this evening.

I suppose I better get used to not being able to watch live games. I just hope they've got decent broadband connections in Oz.