I’ve reviewed Mobile Broadband modems from 3 of the big operators on GadgetStylist.com. Just click the links below to check them out…
Posts tagged ‘usb modem’
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.
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…
I’ve just popped into my local 3 store to bore them all about Mobile Broadband (It’s ok, they looked bored already) and I spotted a leaflet that says you get their Mobile Broadband for half price if you’re already a 3 customer. So you could get their cheapest package Broadband Lite for £5 per month. That’s next to nothing!
So if you’re already a 3 customer you should seriously consider getting Mobile Broadband from 3, particularly if you just want to test the water for the first year.
I also found out that their new USB stick modem has got built in Mac installation software which should make it very easy to install. One trick that I think they’re missing is that the sticks don’t have any memory storage built in like a USB memory stick, but I suppose that would make them more expensive and bulkier.
New research released by broadband comparison site Broadband Expert suggests that the average download speed of mobile broadband in the UK is 1.46Mbs. Earlier surveys by the same company revealed home broadband services deliver average speeds of 2.95Mbs, so Mobile Broadband is half the current speed of home broadband.
Download speeds should increase over time. One thing that seems to have been glossed over by the survey is that the majority of people who have signed up for mobile broadband are more likely to have the older, cheaper USB modems that run at a maximum download of 1.8Mbps. In my opinion this would skew the results and actually make an average of 1.46Mps pretty bloody good! In another year I would expect the average to rise closer to 2.5Mbps as the newer modems and upgrades to the operators networks kick in. In fact, in a year we may see average home broadband speeds being overtaken by mobile broadband. You heard it here first…
1.46Mps is way ahead of the speeds we all accepted at home 3 years ago and it’s more than fine for browsing the internet, receiving emails and watching shorter video clips. It’s obviously a little slow for downloading large amounts of music and video, but with a relatively low download cap (a maximum of 3GB per month in most cases) you aren’t likely to be using a Mobile Broadband for lots of heavy downloading.
The top download speeds ranged from 2.3Mbps for Vodafone to 1.1Mbps for T-Mobile and 1Mbps for Three. The average upload speed for all providers was 0.38Mbps which is a little on the low side. Upload speed describes how quickly you can send data from your laptop which is important for sending large documents such as emails with photo or Powerpoint attachements.
As you may expect, download speed varied between areas depending on the mobile coverage and the network used, with higher speeds more likely to be achieved in bigger towns and cities. It’s important to note that even in areas of good coverage 3G signals can quickly become weak once deeper inside a building.