Comparing Mobile Broadband Deals

Mobile broadband avoids the complexities of setting up a landline broadband connection, and offers high speed internet access to those without a landline in their homes. It's easy to see why this technology is really starting to take off.

Once you've decided that it's time to give mobile broadband a go, you'll need to start to compare the mobile broadband deals and decide which of them will best suit your needs. This process can become unnecessarily confusing due to all the technical jargon, but it needn't be. In fact, it's actually very simple if you know what you should be looking out for. Here are the key things to think about when you compare mobile broadband deals.

How Much Data Are You Likely To Use?

Data allowance is the amount of data that you can transfer via your mobile broadband connection. This is usually a monthly limit, and currently ranges from 1 gigabyte to 15 gigabytes.

This is the most important thing to think about when you compare mobile broadband deals, as costs for exceeding your limit and needing extra usage can be extremely high. If you generally only use the internet a few hours a day to surf the web, check your emails and browse Facebook then between 1 and 3 GB per month should cover you. If, however, you use the internet a lot or you download a lot of music and movies you may want to go for a package that offers a higher data allowance; say 10 or 15 GB per month. Some websites have very useful usage calculators, which help you work this out.

Does Your Area Have Coverage?

Without coverage, you simply won't be able to use a mobile broadband connection. Thankfully, 99% of the UK now has some level of coverage, but before you rush out and sign up for any old mobile broadband contract, you should know that not all coverage is alike! You really need 3G coverage, which will provide you with true broadband speeds - if you only have 2G coverage for your area, you'll probably find the speed of your connection irritatingly slow. Use online coverage checkers to find out what level of coverage your area has.

The Maximum Connection Speed - Does It Really Matter?

Each of the the mobile broadband networks has an advertised maximum connection speed. You shouldn't pay too much attention to these, as they are pretty much just theoretical maximums - you'll rarely (if ever) reach these speeds in real-world use. The way that a network handles the volume of users it has at any one time is much more important. Don't worry too much about this - the networks are competing hard to lead this market, and this competition is producing great improvements in the speed, coverage and general performance of mobile broadband services.

Contract Length

One decision you'll need to make when you compare mobile broadband deals, is whether you're happy to enter into a long-term contract of between 12 and 24 months, or would rather use a pay-as-you-go plan. As you'd expect, the cheapest per gigabyte deals are the ones which tie you in for the longest - well worth it if you're pretty sure about what you need, but perhaps not if you're just trying this mobile broadband thing out.

Some of the major providers are now offering 1 month rolling contracts too, which allow you to cancel at any time.

Does The Dongle Make A Difference?

The "Dongle" is the little USB device that plugs into the side of your laptop or desktop computer. This is the modem device which provides access to the mobile broadband network. With most contract deals, you'll get one of these free when you sign-up and for pay-as-you-go offers, you'll usually buy this for around 30 or so before topping up with data credit.

The network that you sign up with will generally always provide you with a dongle to suit their network technology, so don't worry about performance issues. However, some dongles will also take a Micro-SD memory card, which you may find useful for transferring and storing files.

Include A Laptop?

A lot of providers offer pay monthly deals that includ a laptop. The laptops are not free as there's usually a one off set-up charge and the cost of the monthly package is usually a little more than those without a laptop. Essentially, you are paying for the laptop on a monthly basis but it may be worth considering if you don't have a laptop already or if you're looking to upgrade, as they often work out a little cheaper than buying the laptop separately.

Check Compatibility With Your Computer

The last thing to check when you compare mobile broadband deals is that your computer is capable of using the provided Dongle. Most newish computers are fine but you should check the 'requirements' section on the package details to make sure. If you use a Mac, double check, as one or two USB dongles don't support Mac OS at the time of writing.