While fixed broadband has become as normal in people’s homes as toasted cheese sandwiches, another means of connecting online is starting to take the market by storm: mobile broadband.
Mobile broadband basically frees you up to check up on work emails and the latest sports results while you’re out and about instead of having to be stuck indoors close to a modem or router. Seeing as laptops have given us the freedom to do the same thing, it only stands to reason that internet access had to follow.
You may be thinking that you can already check up your mates’ latest facebook statuses on your smartphone. The beauty of mobile broadband is that you don’t need to squint and curse your human-sized fingers on a 3-inch screen.
How does it all work though? Well, mobile braodband connects you online through mobile phone networks so if you can receive mobile phone signal, you can access Google.
So, after touting the benefits of mobile broadband, which provider will give you the best deal for your needs? We’ve had a look at the UK’s top five providers and their different packages to see whose modem is the best fit for your laptop.
We thought we’d start with quite a nice deal to ease you into the mobile broadband world: Vodafone are currently offering a free three month trial with a £15 a month plan thereafter.
The plan includes 3GB of downloads a month which is enough to surf for 100 hours, send 2000 e-mails and download 200 music tracks and 100 short video clips. If you do go over the 3GB limit you will need to pay an extra £15 for every additional GB you use. This plan lasts for 24 months, but with the free intro deal, you will save £45 overall.
You can also get the same 3GB deal on a 12 month plan at £15 per month, but there’s no intro deal with this which you may want to factor in.
The Vodafone network covers 81 per cent of the UK population, so there’s quite a good chance that you’ll be able to access YouTube from wherever you are.
T-Mobile offer the choice of Mobile Broadband Plus, Mobile Broadband Extra and Mobile Broadband Daily plans, which is great to fit the right plan into your life.
The Mobile Broadband Plus comes at either £15 a month for 18 months or for 24 months. If you go for the 24 month deal, you do get an offer of £10 a month for the first three months. Not quite as good as the current Vodafone deal, but not bad at all.
Again you will receive 3GB worth of downloads a month which should keep you going for all your social networking needs. The provided USB stick has a Micro SD memory card slot which can store up to 8GB.
T-Mobile’s Mobile Broadband Extra plan is £30 a month, but will provide you with up to 5GB of monthly downloads
The Mobile Broadband Daily plan is for the irregular light user, so you don’t miss out on the beauties of surfing the net while you’re stuck on a train. For either £2 a day or £7 a week or £15 a month, you end up paying only what you need to. You get the standard 3GB download limit included, but you do need to buy the USB stick as extra for £24.46.
They say variety is the spice of life and 3 Mobile have taken this to heart when creating its mobile broadband packages. 3’s monthly packages start from £10 per month to £25 per month, with a download range of 1GB to a monster 15GB.
To compare it to Vodafone and T-Mobile, 3 has a package offering 3GB for £15. The difference is, this plan is only for 12 months, so you’re not locked in for longer than you need to be.
3’s Broadband Lite package starts at £10 per month for 1GB, which is a good deal for the on-and-off user. Opt for the 18 month plan over the 12 month, and you’ll get the modem thrown in as well.
If you’re an existing 3 mobile user, you can even get 25 per cent off your mobile broadband deal. Nice.
O2 have made it nice and simple to choose one of their plans, by offering an initial choice of 3GB or 10GB per month, and then selecting how long you want your contract for. Easy!
Contracts can be either 1 month, 18 months or 24 months, but you’ll only get a free modem with the 18 and 24 month options. If you only want to take it 1 month at a time, the modem will set you back £57.81 at the start.
To look at the comparable 3GB plan, you will be set back £14.69 a month, which breaks the £15 barrier. If you opt for 24 months, you can even get a deal for the first four months and pay only £9.79.
O2 also has a network coverage checker, so you can be sure from the start if this network is the right one for you. As an added security blanket, O2 offer a 30 day Happiness Guarantee which means you can cancel your contract and O2 will also refund the cost of your USB Modem if you paid for it.
Much like O2, Orange’s plans range from 1GB to 10GB of monthly usage. However your contract lenghts are limited to either 30 days or 18 months. That’s it.
Where Orange does stand out is with its current limited offer deal on its lower plan. If you only need 1GB of downloads per month, you can opt in for a plan of £9.79. The beauty of this deal, is that you get the modem thrown in for free.
To do our usual 3GB comparison to other providers, you hit the same price range with Orange at £14.68 per month for (you guessed it) 18 months.
If you are tempted by the short 30 day plan, then you will need to fork out extra for the modem. Currently these are on sale though, and instead of paying £48.50, you can score one for £29.00. For 3GB of monthly usage, you still only pay £14.68 (currently down from £19.67).
The moral of the mobile broadband story is that it’s becoming popular enough and competitive enough for providers to do deals (like offering free laptops however read this too here) , which is a strong sign for the future. If you’re tempted by the awesome power of being online 24/7 and having the ability to use a REAL keyboard, then make sure you decide how often and for what purposes you’re going to use mobile broadband for before you buy.
You can rest in comfort knowing though, that there is no doubt a plan out there for your needs. whatever they are.
3 thoughts on “Top Five Mobile Broadband Providers: Which Package is Best for You?”
This is astonishing. I never even knew all this was going on until I read this article. I cant wait to experience the finished product.
In fact, Three is current offering an impressive package of 15GB for £15 24 month contact. Although mobile broadband is getting cheaper and cheaper, the offer is still a nice deal for some time to come.
I would go for Vodafone. I have been using their mobile broadband for the last couple of months and it works perfectly. I have to use voip very often therefore I’ve tried a few mobile internet solutions and in the end I picked Vodafone, because they are having the biggest coverage. Maybe 3 Mobile has a better offer, but I personally think they don’t have enough coverage.