Mobile Broadband

Compare mobile broadband deals

With so many mobile broadband offers on the market, it can be hard to find the best deal for you. Our guide narrows down the options, whether you are looking for pay-as-you-go mobile broadband, a one month deal or a longer contract. (26/10/2009)

Cheapest mobile broadband

Orange Mobile Broadband (www.Orange.co.uk) currently offers the cheapest pay monthly mobile broadband deal on the market, at just £4.89 a month with a 500MB allowance. However, the package is only available to existing Orange customers, and additional monthly data cannot be added - meaning that you do really only have 500MB a month, with extra usage changed at 1.96p per out of bundle MB.

After Orange’s cheapest package, there are a number of £10 a month deals on the market. Orange offers a 1GB monthly allowance for £9.79 a month, while 3 Broadband (www.Three.co.uk) and Virgin Media Mobile Broadband (www.Virginmedia.com) both offer similar deals.

Fastest mobile broadband

Vodafone Broadband (www.Vodafone.co.uk) currently offers the UK’s fastest headline mobile broadband speeds at up to 14.4Mb in major cities. However, the ISP has admitted that “customers can expect to see typical speeds of anything between 1Mb and 4Mb with a practical maximum speed of 10.8Mb”.

Other parts of its network offer speeds of up to 7.2Mb or 2.8Mb, depending where you live.

Best coverage mobile broadband

Because mobile broadband coverage varies so much depending on where you live and how far you are from a mobile broadband mast, you shouldn’t rely on national coverage figures when you choose your provider. Check each provider’s coverage to see which one offers the best service in your area.

A detailed coverage breakdown - right down to individual postcodes - can be found on most providers’ websites or in stores.

Best dongles

Mouse-like dongles have been gradually phased out in favour of faster, more portable USB modem sticks and even laptops with built-in 3G mobile broadband.

All providers now offer USB modem sticks - though some providers, like Vodafone, only offer the latest dongles on longer contract deals or packages offering more data at a higher monthly rate.

Cheapest pay-as-you-go mobile broadband

If you know that you’re only going to be an occasional user then a pay as you go mobile broadband option could be best for you. At only £2 a day, Pay Per Day Mobile Broadband from T-Mobile Broadband (www.T-Mobile.co.uk) and Pay and Go from O2 Mobile Broadband (www.O2.co.uk) are the cheapest on the market.

You can also choose a weekly or even monthly top up, and both providers offer additional wireless hotspot access to make your download allowance go further.

Highest download allowance

3 currently offers the UK’s highest mobile broadband download allowance at 15GB a month for just £15 on a 24 month contract, or £20 a month on an 18 month contract.

Although its limits aren’t as high, Orange’s Early Bird tariffs, which offer allowances of 1GB, 3GB and 10GB, also offer free overnight downloads - which can make a huge difference. It means that you can do all your heavy-duty downloading between midnight and 9am, and keep your data allowance for the daytime.

Again, at 3GB and 5GB, T-Mobile’s download allowances might not be as high as 3’s, but it does offer a fair usage policy instead of a set limit. This means that you won’t automatically be charged if you exceed your limit. However, if you regularly go over your allowance, you might be asked to upgrade to a more appropriate - and more expensive - package, or T-Mobile might restrict how you can use your mobile broadband.

Free mobile broadband hardware

All of the mobile broadband providers now offer some sort of free hardware and even on a pay as you go deal you can get a dongle for less than £20.

Finding the best deal

To find a deal that really suits your needs, think about how often you’ll use your mobile broadband connection, and what you’ll be doing with it.

For example, it’s not a good idea to spend three hours a day downloading programmes from the BBC iPlayer, as download allowances are quite low and you’ll end up being charged a fortune on any of the set download limit plans, or being forced onto a more appropriate, more expansive tariff if you have a fair usage policy.

Do your research so that you can find a plan that will stay economical for as long as possible and try to avoid signing one of the longer 24 month contracts so that you can switch to a better value deal if one comes along.

Click here to read more about the different types of mobile broadband hardware.

Or click here to view a list of Mobile Broadband packages