Mobile Broadband Guide

Student mobile broadband

Broadband is a basic necessity for students, but once you add line rental, costs can soon add up. Mobile broadband is the perfect way to reduce your broadband bills.

Try a one-month contract or pay as you go

If you want the flexibility of a pay as you go mobile broadband package but want a better value deal, then a one-month mobile broadband contract might be the answer for you. You’ll still be able to top up with extra data if you need to and could get more data for your money. 3 (www.Three.co.uk), Orange (www.Orange.co.uk) and O2 Mobile Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) all offer rolling one-month contracts.

However, if you’re worried about going over your limit, a pay as you go connection might be best. Once you reach your limit you’ll have to top up again before you can get online - so while you won’t ever be charged for exceeding your limit, you won’t be able to access the net until you can afford to top up again.

Orange’s Dolphin packages, which come with a choice of a one or 18 month contract, are a great choice for students. As well as your standard monthly download allowance of 2GB for one month contracts or 3GB for 18 month customers, you also get an hour of “free downloads” once a day (subject to a fair usage policy). You can choose from early morning, lunch time, late afternoon or evening.

Download limits and extra costs

In order to keep your bills down, you need to make absolutely sure that you don’t exceed your download allowance. Data allowances range from 500MB with Orange’s cheapest monthly contract, to a set 15GB from 3, or even a 20GB fair usage allowance on Orange’s 18 month Panther plan. But most providers offer 3GB or 5GB packages.

Fees for exceeding your allowance can be very high and vary from one provider to the next. For example, 3 charges 10p per MB while Orange charges 5p per MB for its one month customers and only 2p per MB to those willing to sign a longer 18 month contract. Other suppliers like Virgin Media (www.Virginmedia.com) and Vodafone (www.Vodafone.co.uk) charge £15 per GB.

Some providers do offer data add-ons to stop you going over your limit. Orange offers the cheapest ones, starting at just £5 for 1GB and going up to £20 for an extra 10GB a month.

T-Mobile (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) and Orange both offer fair usage policies on selected packages which means that you won’t automatically be charged for exceeding your limit. However, you will still face some sort of penalty if you regularly download too much data. Your connection might be restricted or you could be asked to upgrade to a more generous package.

This all means that you have to be extra careful with your download allowance - you can’t download the Eastenders omnibus every Sunday along with all of last season’s Skins without facing some sort of penalty.

Mobile broadband coverage

A mobile broadband connection not only allows you to save money - as long as you don’t exceed your allowance - it also lets you take your broadband connection with you to the library, coffee shop or halls of residence.

Just make sure that you check the mobile broadband coverage of your chosen provider before signing up. You can check more than one postcode to make sure that you’ll get a good signal wherever you need it.

Cutting costs even further

If you just use a mobile broadband connection - and stay within your monthly download allowance - you can save over £135 by ditching your landline. Many people keep their landline just for their copper wire ADSL broadband, but if you make your calls using your mobile phone and just stick to a mobile broadband connection you can get rid of it altogether.

Use our free Broadband Download Monitor to see how much you typically download in a month and choose a mobile broadband package to match your downloads.

Click here to compare home broadband packages, and find a provider that's right for you.

Click here to view a list of UK mobile broadband packages