Mobile Broadband
Thinking about going mobile with your broadband connection? Dale Baxter takes a look at some of the pros and cons when it comes to mobile broadband.
It's almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing adverts for mobile broadband. The adverts come in all shapes and sizes and are everywhere from TV & radio to newspapers and bus stops, but they all have one thing in common. Each operator promises super fast connections speeds wherever you go, sometimes even faster than a regular ADSL connection could be. It all sounds great, but is it as good as it seems? Well, perhaps.
Many people get their broadband down either their telephone line (ADSL) or a cable connection. As the name suggests, mobile broadband uses a mobile phone operators 3G data network - basically it's a similar concept to a wireless internet connection in your home, just on a larger scale.
To use mobile broadband you either need a laptop which features a built in receiver and you just slide a SIM card in, or as is the case for most people it's just a case of plugging in a USB modem which is normally the size of a large USB memory stick. Once you've done that it's just a case of powering up and getting online.
One of the main things to consider with mobile broadband is that you must have a good 3G mobile signal for the service to be any good, and unfortunately 3G coverage varies widely across the country.
If you live in a city you'll normally be OK, but in rural areas where coverage can be patchy it's worth speaking to the operators and checking what sort of service you might expect.
At the moment Vodafone has the fastest network offering speeds up to 7.2Mbps, but that's only in certain areas. Everywhere else you get the same speeds that Three, O2 and Orange offer; up to 3.6Mbps, although there are plans to upgrade the networks meaning 7.2Mbps will eventually be available to most of the country on most networks.
There are three major problems with mobile broadband that are well worth considering before you take the plunge:
Coverage - Just like your mobile phone and any other radio signal, coverage isn't universal and there are lots of things that can affect your signal. Anything from local weather conditions to the stuff your house is made of can make a difference to your 3G signal. If a 3G signal is patchy in an area on your mobile phone, then don't expect miracles from your mobile broadband.
Capacity - This is a real bugbear for any mobile user. Just think about New Years Eve and how hard it is to get a line to make a call, or those text messages that eventually filter through hours after been sent. If you connect at the same time as lots of other users expect a slow down in your connection speed.
Caps - All mobile broadband packages have some limit or fair usage policy when it comes to the amount of data you can transfer. Some are more generous than others, but that does come at extra cost.
Mobile broadband is becomming much better, and a lot cheaper than it used to be, and for anybody who is always on the move it can be a great investment, most people will still need their fixed line broadband connection, especially for downloading music and movies.
