If you want mobile broadband so that you can get connected wherever you are, but don’t want to fork out for a dongle or USB modem, then you need to find the right package; one that offers a free mobile broadband dongle.
3
3 (www.Three.co.uk) offers free hardware on almost all of its contractual packages, with the only exception being the 12 month Broadband Lite plan - where customers will have to pay £49.99 for their USB modem stick or dongle.
Broadband Lite customers on either the 18 or 24 month contracts won’t have to pay for their hardware, and anyone signing up to Broadband Plus or Broadband Max - no matter how long their contract - will get a free dongle.
Broadband Lite costs £10 a month and comes with a 1GB download allowance, Broadband Plus costs £15 a month and comes with a 3GB allowance while the top package, Broadband Max costs £25 a month and offers a 7GB monthly download allowance.
All pay-as-you-go customers taking a monthly add-on will have to pay £49.99 for their hardware.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile's (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) standard dongle is free on all of its mobile broadband plans, but any 12 month customers will have to pay £19.99 if they want the “future proof” USB modem stick.
So any Web’n’Walk Plus 24 months or Web’n’Walk Max 24 months customers can choose from a free dongle or USB modem but Web’n’Walk Plus 12 months customers and Web’n’Walk Max 12 months customers have to pay £19.99 if they want the USB modem stick.
Web’n’Walk Plus 24 months currently costs £15 a month (normally £20) and comes with a fair usage download allowance of 3GB, while Web’n’Walk Plus 12 months has the same allowance but costs £29 a month.
Web’n’Walk Max 24 months costs £35 a month with a fair usage download allowance of 10GB, and Web’n’Walk Max 12 months has the same allowance but costs £44 a month.
Pay-as-you-go customers have to pay £99.99 for their dongle and cannot buy the USB modem stick.
Vodafone
Vodafone's (www.Vodafone.co.uk) costs are a little more complicated, with its prices changing depending on both the package that you take and the contract length.
Only selected Vodafone customers are offered free hardware; namely those willing to take out a mammoth 24 month contract or 18 month Mobile Broadband 5GB customers happy to take the slower 3.6Mb dongle.
Vodafone offers two dongles; a 3.6Mb model and a 7.2Mb dongle, and a 7.2Mb USB modem stick.
All hardware is now free to 24 month customers taking the Mobile Broadband 5GB package at £25 a month respectively, and the slower dongle is also free to 18 month Mobile Broadband 5GB customers and 24 month Mobile Broadband 3GB customers.
Customers on all other packages must pay for their dongles or USB modem stick and those on the 30 day package are restricted to Vodafone’s slowest dongle.
O2
There are currently only two options for O2 (www.O2.co.uk) mobile broadband - 18 months and one month - both of which are currently only available to existing O2 mobile phone or home broadband customers.
Only those customers signing up to O2’s mobile broadband for 18 months will get a free USB modem stick and dongles - already slightly outdated - are not offered.
O2 mobile broadband costs £20 a month for a 3GB allowance and one month customers must pay £119.99
Orange
Like O2, Orange (www.Orange.co.uk) only offers an 18 month contract on its Internet Everywhere mobile broadband, though unlike O2 it doesn’t offer a one month option. So all customers signing up to Orange mobile broadband have to stay with the provider for 18 months but all also get a free USB modem stick - again, like O2, Orange doesn’t offer dongles.
Orange’s mobile broadband package costs £15 a month and comes with a 3GB download allowance.
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