Compare Mobile Broadband

What’s so great about mobile broadband?

For a start, it does exactly what it says on the tin; it makes broadband mobile. You simply sign up to your mobile broadband provider, who will supply you with a USB modem, or dongle, which you can plug into any PC you want, and connect to the internet wherever you are.

So if you’re on your way to an important meeting, taking a long train journey (though like a mobile phone, connectivity might be patchy), or just want to take your broadband with you everywhere you go, mobile broadband is the answer.

It also means that you can kiss goodbye to your line rental. Mobile broadband modems don’t connect to a phone line in your wall; they use the 3G network and connect to the internet wirelessly. And at £11 a month paying by direct debit to BT (www.BT.com), this could save you £132 a year.

And although the 3G network doesn’t cover the whole of the UK, it does connect almost 90 per cent of the country. At the end of 2006 providers 3 mobile broadband (www.Three.co.uk) and T-Mobile (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) joined forces to improve their coverage and boost speeds, with the plan to cover 98 per cent of the population with speeds of up to 7.2Mb by 2009.

How much does mobile broadband cost?

Each of the mobile broadband providers have different pricing schemes; 3 is the cheapest, starting at £10 a month, but charges customers who go over their download limit, T-Mobile is the mid-range provider but costs are quite high unless customers sign a 24 month mobile broadband contract while Vodafone offers 12,18 and 24 month contracts with a starting price of £15 a month.

However, each company offers a range of packages, including pay-as-you-go and even a pay-per-day package. So no matter how often, or how little, you want to use it, you’ll be able to find a suitable mobile broadband package.

• 3 Mobile Broadband Packages
• T Mobile Broadband Packages
• Vodafone Mobile Broadband Packages
• O2 Mobile Broadband Packages

What can I do with my Mobile Broadband download allowance?

It can be difficult to work out which mobile broadband package is right for you based on download allowances, but you can use this as a rough guide:

• 1GB of mobile broadband data lets you send 650 plain text emails and surf the web for 30 hours and download 30 two minute videos and download 60 music tracks
• 3GB of mobile broadband data lets you send 2,000 plain text emails and surf the web for 100 hours and download 100 two minute videos and download 200 music tracks
• 7GB of mobile broadband data lets you send 4,500 plain text emails and surf the web for 200 hours and download 200 two minute videos and download 400 music tracks

Is it difficult to set up?

Mobile broadband is the easiest of connections to set up. All of the modems offered by the UK’s three providers come with pre-loaded installation instructions so you simply plug in your dongle and it will automatically install the software you need to connect the internet.

Then, whenever you want to surf, you just plug your modem in, open the mobile broadband provider’s logo on your desktop, and away you go.

O2

O2 offers three main contracts, one on a rolling 30 day contract and a 18 and 24 months contract. Customers willing to commit for a 18 or 24 months will get their USB modem stick for free, while those choosing a monthly contract will have to pay £29.38.

Packages start from as little as £9.79 a month and offer either a 3GB or 10GB monthly download allowance, with excess usage charged at 19.6p per MB, and free, unlimited use of The Cloud’s 7,500 UK wireless hotspots.

T-mobile

T-mobile doesn’t charge customers as soon as they exceed its fair usage policy, however, it does publish the limits it sets on its two packages at 3GB and 10GB and any customer who exceeds their limit more than three times will be asked to upgrade to a more expensive mobile broadband package.

Rather than dictating the price you pay for your USB modem, with T-Mobile, the length of the contract you sign will determine the amount you pay each month. Standard contracts are 12 months but customers willing to sign a mammoth 24-month contract can cut their monthly payments by £9.

T-Mobile also offers a “daily” mobile broadband package, and after buying your modem you’ll be able to connect for no more than £4 a day.

Vodafone

Vodafone (www.vodafone.co.uk) recently added two new, cheaper packages to its mobile broadband portfolio and a 30-day rolling option in order to compete with other UK providers. It is also the fastest, offering a choice of modems with speeds of up to 7.2Mb in selected parts of the country.

The Mobile Broadband 3GB package is aimed at moderate users and has a 3GB download limit with a charge of £15 per additional GB. The Mobile Broadband 5GB is for more regular users with a 5GB download limit and a £15 charge per additional GB and the rolling 30-day option is good for users who don't want to commit to a long contract.

Like 3 and T-Mobile, Vodafone offers a choice of three contract lengths at 12, 18 and 24 months, and while all Mobile Broadband 3GB have to pay something towards their modem, on the two more expensive option only customers on the shortest contract will have to pay for their modem. There is no discount for choosing the very long 24-month contract over the 18-month option.

3 Mobile Broadband

By far the cheapest of the mobile broadband providers, 3 also offers very flexible packages, with a range of prices, download limits and even pay-as-you-go options. 3 offers a choice of four contract lengths; 1, 12, 18 and 24 months and unlike T-Mobile and Vodafone, 3 doesn’t apply a fair usage policy. Instead, you’ll be charged per MB if you exceed your limit.

Contract customers will pay 10p for every MB over their allowance, however, installing our free Broadband Download Monitor will allow you to keep tract of your downloads, and set alerts as you reach your limit.