Mobile Broadband – Who Is The Best UK Provider?

maksim | 5:02 am | February 25, 2008 | Laptop News

It has only been a couple of years since we forgot what a dial-up modem is. Now is the time to question if normal broadband itself has a chance to survive. With mobile broadband becoming faster and many new laptops being fitted with 3G/HSDPA datacards, the only real advantage of common home broadband is the cheaper price.

However, as the competition is getting tighter the prices fall. There are now three mobile broadband providers in the UK- we have put together a couple of tables, to help us choose the best.

UK Mobile Broadband Offers Comparison Table (Contract)

With prices falling each month, 24, and even 18 month contract is not a good idea. The major difference between 12 and 24 month contract is the cost of the modem, 50-100 pounds. It is better to pay the money instead of being tied down to one service for 2 years, which very soon will most likely look slow and expensive.

For mobile broadband, data limit is one of the major drawbacks. Typical home broadband user needs 20-40 Gb of traffic per month, on average. That includes online radio, music and a bit of movie downloading. Here, 10 Gb means there will be no movies. 3 Gb will not be enough to download music or stream radio. 1 Gb is hardly sufficient for anything at all except occasional web browsing and email.

With this in mind, superfast 7.2 connection speed does not make a lot of sense. Apart from downloads, it will not make much difference for regular web user, normal web browsing and media streaming will be just good on lower, 3.6 and 2.8 speeds.

Our choice were Broadband Plus and Broadband Max offers from Three, with difference only in download allowance. There is a 12-month contract, sufficient connection speed of 2.8 Mbps, and best price among competitors.

Broadband Plus gives you 3 Gb of download allowance, and costs £249 for the whole year, including modem cost. Similar offer from Vodafone is £279 per year, and T-Mobile charges £348, while having the arrogance to block the use of Skype and Skype-like programs.

Broadband Max option is 7gb of data transfer per month and costs £300 for a year. More or less similar offer from Vodafone is £349 and £528 from T-Mobile. Dont be tempted by Vodafone’s loose use of the word “unlimited”, there is only 5 gb of data allowed before bad things start to happen, like speed limit or mandatory plan upgrade.

UK Mobile Broadband Offers Comparison Table (Pay As You Go)

In the battle for the best mobile broadband Pay As You Go deal, Three came first again. Vodafone may seem like the decent option for some, but there is a 30 day cancellation notice, and that is just too much hassle. T-Mobile, again, is way behind, being both expensive and slow. 3 is without doubt the smartest choice, with easy option of £10 top-up for each Gb used and fast 2.8 connection speed.