Hot-Spot or Mobile Broadband

Vodafone have announced the results of, what is claimed to be, the biggest trial into Mobile Broadband speeds in the UK.  They state that the survey proves that:

“…nationally Vodafone is the fastest, most reliable mobile broadband network in all aspects of file download, web page loading and on both datacard modems and handsets.

An independent company carried out 28,000 tests over 10 weeks across the UK and in different types of locations.

Sounds great, but I would love to see the numbers to see how far ahead they were of their compeition, what speeds were achieved and how they fared region by region.  The use of ‘nationally’ suggests that they may not be the leaders in every region…hmm.

Watch out for further developments in the Mobile Broadband speed wars in the near future.

3 Mobile Broadband Starter Kits

3 today announced the launch of three Mobile Broadband Starter Kits on Pay as you go. “What on earth is that?” I hear you cry. Well it’s basically a way of buying several months worth of PAYG Mobile Broadband in advance, which is up to 20% cheaper than topping up as you go along. You choose from 3GB, 12GB or 24GB of data allowance and get a usb modem/dongle thrown in for a one off payment of £69.99, £149.99 or £249.99 respectively.

Why would I buy this?

I see these kits as being the ideal Christmas or birthday present for someone interested in trying out Mobile Broadband. Or perhaps as a caring parent sending young Jimmy off to uni you may want to supply him with a connection to the internet, rather than leave him with the hassle of signing up to 12 months of broadband at home and then fight with housemates who won’t pay the bills. 24GB should last even the most ardent illegal music downloader for 6 to 9 months. Jimmy will be very grateful…

Is it any good?

I’ve tested both of the modems you can buy and rate the ZTE black and green dongle very highly on my sister site, GadgetStylist.com.

I believe Pay as you go/PAYG to be the best way to get into mobile broadband if you’re only going to be an occasional user and these packs offer better value than buying individual top ups alone.

The packs are available now in the 3 online store so just click here if you want to read more.

I’ve just posted a comparison table of the main mobile broadband deals available in the UK market. Have a look by clicking here.

Let me know if you’d like more specific comparisons or more detail in the table.

Cheers

C

One week into my O2 Mobile Broadband usb modem testing and I’m impressed so far. Having wi-fi as a back up for all those nasty gaps in 3G coverage (and they’re all as bad as each other) is a definite winner. Looks pretty nice, in an odd, oversized American rental car kinda way!

I need to sleep more!

Look out for a full and much more serious review soon…

The rapid growth of mobile broadband has got the mobile operators pretty excited. They see an opportunity to infiltrate the huge home broadband market. The early pace was set by the opportunity to connect your laptop to the internet whilst on the move, but I hear mutterings of grander ambitions from some mobile operators.

In order for mobile broadband to truly replace your home connection a few things will need to change. One biggie is that mobile broadband propositions are currently based around a single usb modem. Many, if not most, households that use an internet connection have more than one PC, laptop, Mac, Nintendo Wii or Xbox that require an internet connection. A single USB modem will not enable this. Buying two or three modems means signing up to a couple of contracts, making it a very expensive proposition, removing the only real benefit of going through the hassle.

However this week I found out that it’s possible to get hold of a wi-fi router that uses 3G instead of a normal fixed line (BT or cable) phone line. This would enable more then one person to share a mobile broadband connection. I think Vodafone have offered this as a business proposition for a year or two, allowing temporary offices, such as building site offices, to have some kind of connectivity where a normal phone line may not be available.

So, does this open the floodgates to mobile operators taking on the likes of Tiscali and BT in the home? Not yet. From my experiences, and from feedback I’ve heard elsewhere (including from the store staff of at least one mobile operator) mobile broadband coverage inside a building is still pretty poor. I hear rumours of high return rates as people realise they can’t connect in their home study/bedroom/basement flat etc.

Average download speeds will remain much slower than home broadband for the next couple of years and coverage will remain patchy at best. The download caps and speeds won’t be good enough for applications such as iPlayer or downloading vast amounts of music. And once you stick a 3G SIM into a wi-fi router you lose the great mobility benefit - you can’t pop the SIM out whilst heading away for a weekend and leave the household without internet!

For now 3G based mobile broadband is a great additional service that let’s you connect your laptop whilst out and about. It may be suitable if you don’t need to share your home broadband connection with other people or gadgets, but home broadband still delivers a faster, more reliable internet connection.

Do you agree? Feel free to comment on this article.