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Hidden costs of mobile broadband
It’s now cheaper than ever to make the internet mobile with some of the great mobile broadband packages on the market, but even with the new, cheaper headline rates and the more generous download allowances, the hidden costs of mobile broadband can leave you with some rather high bills if you’re not careful.
Hardware
The cost of buying your USB modem or stick will depend on the provider you choose, and often the length or price of the package that you take too.
Modems are often free on the most expensive, and longest, pay monthly mobile broadband packages - and this is usually what’s advertised, but if you only want a 12 month contract, or pay-as-you-go mobile broadband for occasional use, the cost of your hardware can rise significantly.
Shorter contracts
The trend in the broadband and mobile phone markets is for increasingly longer contracts and mobile broadband is no exception. Most providers will charge more for their modems if you choose to take a 12 or even 18 month contract instead of the lengthy two-year offers.
T-Mobile Mobile Broadband (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) takes a different approach. It only offers 12 and 24 month contracts, and customers who take the shorter option will pay £9 more a month than those on the two-year packages.
Set data limits
If your mobile broadband package has a set data limit - like those offered by Three (www.Three.co.uk) and some of Vodafone's (www.Vodafone.co.uk) packages - then you’ll be charged an additional fee as soon as you exceed your limit - which can range from 1GB up to 7GB.
With Three’s monthly plans, you’ll be charged 10p for every MB over your monthly allowance, and on its pay-as-you-go option, you’ll need to be even more careful as you’ll be charged £1 per additional MB.
Vodafone charges by the GB on its two set allowance plans - Mobile Broadband 3GB and Mobile Broadband 5GB - and you’ll be charged a £15 per additional GB over your allowance - as much as doubling your monthly cost.
'Unlimited' downloads
Other tariffs - like those offered by T-Mobile and Vodafone’s Mobile Broadband Euro Travel and Mobile Broadband Business Travel packages - use fair usage policies rather than set data allowances.
Although they advertise these packages as “unlimited”, they actually have set, stated limits - 3GB and 10GB for T-Mobile and 5GB for Vodafone. What this means is that you won’t immediately be fined for exceeding this limit, but if you regularly do so you’ll be asked to curb your usage, have your speed reduce or be asked to upgrade to a more appropriate, more expensive package. In some extreme cases, you may even be fined or disconnected.
Roaming costs
If you plan on using your mobile broadband service abroad, make sure that you have an appropriate package, such as one of Vodafone’s Traveller tariffs as roaming costs are very high.
However, even these two packages include only 200MB of data abroad and users are charged £4.25 per MB outside of their allowance. And at £60 a month for the Mobile Broadband Euro Travel package and £95 a month for the Mobile Broadband Business Travel package, you would actually be better off going to a local internet café.
Getting tied in
Think carefully before you sign up to a lengthy mobile broadband package. Although the best deals are given to customers signing up for 24 months, think about how much cheaper mobile broadband will be in two years time. Speeds will be much faster and data allowances a lot more generous, but if you’re still stuck in your contract you won’t be able to take advantage of the great deals that will be on offer.
But it’s not all bad
Mobile broadband isn’t just about hidden costs - you can make savings too. If you travel a lot and you’re not a big downloader - so you won’t exceed those limits - and decide to ditch your home broadband connection in favour of mobile broadband, you’ll also be able to get rid of the dreaded line rental you need to connect to your ADSL service.
This could cut your outgoings by £11 a month - saving you £132 a year as well as giving you the freedom to take your broadband with you wherever you go.
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