More and more of us these days need access to the Internet everywhere we go, whether it is for our jobs or just for fun. In the past 6 months or so there has been a massive increase in mobile broadband devices, but are the any good and are they worth the money? Lets find out.
Being a technology geek I had wanted to try a mobile broadband when they first came out but never really got round to it. However back in May when my mobile phone contract was due to come to an end I had the opportunity to do so. Three mobile were offering half price mobile broadband if you already had a phone contract. Therefore I took out a new phone contract and the broadband for an excellent value £17 per month.
Mobile broadband works in a similar way to a wireless network, but the network that you join when on your laptop out and about is the mobile phone network, rather than your home network. Three supplied me with a small USB dongle, which looks just a like a USB flash drive. It really was simple to install as all the software that is needed is on the dongle itself. Therefore you insert the Sim card that came with it into the dongle and then you plug in to your computer. Run the software installed on the USB dongle and then you are ready to just press connect and get on the net.
I have to say that I have been thoroughly impressed with the service. Being new technology I suppose I expected it not to be that good really. How wrong I was. It has connected everytime and I am consistently getting a connection at just over 1MB/second, which although not rapid is ample for surfing the web without a noticable difference from landline broadband.
I opted for the cheapest package that 3 offered, which to non 3 customers was £10 per month for a 1GB download limit. This seemed not very much at first but I have never used half of it yet and so I am sure that it will be an ample amount of downloading capabilities.
To sum up then, if you need to ability to get on the web anywhere and everywhere on your laptop, whether for work or pleasure, 3 mobile broadband gets the thumbs up from me. A good price (and even better if you are an existing customer) and a (so far!) reliable service.
