How To Choose a Mobile Broadband Provider
If you’re taken by the idea of using the internet on your laptop when you’re out and about, then mobile broadband is for you, but how can you decide on a provider and what is the connection quality like? When evaluating providers, chief concerns will be the broadband speed possible and the reliability of the broadband connection. Being a radio service, mobile broadband is always dependent on the exact location at which you’re using it, so assessing a provider before signing up can be difficult. In reality, the speed of your mobile broadband connection can be greatly affected by local factors, such as high buildings in the vicinity or the thickness of the walls of your house.
You can check to see whether you’re in a 3G signal area by checking the mobile broadband coverage maps that all the major networks provide online. It is only when the map shows you’re in a 3G area that you have the possibility of a fast mobile broadband connection (although it’s still no guarantee) otherwise the service will revert to GPRS and be very slow, even slower than traditional 56k dial-up. A quick search for “mobile broadband coverage” on a major search engine will take you to the maps where you can type in your postcode to find out whether you are in a 3G area. However, even if the map shows a 3G signal area, you shouldn’t necessarily get your hopes up for a fast mobile broadband experience. Firstly, the online coverage maps aren’t always reliable, secondly, they don’t take account of highly localised factors, e.g. small dead spots in the signal, and thirdly, some of the networks seem to have capacity issues, so even though you have a strong radio signal, the service is slowed down by the number of people trying to use it. To improve your chances of selecting a network that you are happy with, we suggest trying the following steps:
1) If a friend already has mobile broadband, borrow their USB modem to trial it in your area. The modem only takes a few minutes to install so it’s well worth the trouble to find out exactly how well mobile broadband will work at your location.
2) An alternative to the above is to make use of the trial period offered by most of the networks. If you decide to do this, just make sure you comply with all the Terms and Conditions and if unsatisfied return the modem in good time, as there are reports that the networks can refuse a return if their T&C’s haven’t been strictly complied with.
3) If you have a fairly new mobile phone, this will be able to indicate whether you are in a 3G area for the phone network you are using. This might be of some use if you are thinking of getting a USB modem from the same network, but actually trying a USB modem is still a better option.
4) Read some real user reviews of mobile broadband services. You can find plenty of these at our mobile broadband reviews site, good and bad, and they give you a real insight into how well the networks perform, and how well they treat you if you run into problems. From these reviews it is clear that network performance and customer service experience do vary greatly from network to network. It seems to us that Vodafone and T-Mobile are currently leading the market.
5) Look for industry awards. In 2008, Vodafone won Best Wireless ISP at the Internet Service Providers Awards, an accolade which is voted on by industry peers, and in 2009 there will be a new Best Consumer Mobile Broadband category. T-Mobile came first in the Jan 2009 YouGov DongleTrack mobile broadband survey, which took account of download and upload speeds, customer service, usabilty and value in declaring T-Mobile to be the best mobile broadband service.
For our own usage, we opted for Vodafone mobile broadband, and we have been more than satisfied with the service so far. Whilst in a 3G area, the service has always been fast enough to get on with standard internet browsing without noticing much of a difference from home broadband, and often it has been fast enough to stream radio and video. It would be true to say that 3G coverage in the UK is still mainly limited to cities and larger towns, but coverage is set to improve greatly as all the networks are striving to increase their 3G coverage. Industry experts predict that mobile broadband will soon become the most common way to access the internet, perhaps as early as 2010. There are certainly many other satisfied mobile broadband users out there, so if you are thinking of joining them, follow the above tips to find the best provider and we hope that you too will find mobile broadband to be a useful and rewarding advance in communications technology.
For more information about UK mobile broadband, please visit our partner site Best Mobile Broadband.
You can check to see whether you’re in a 3G signal area by checking the mobile broadband coverage maps that all the major networks provide online. It is only when the map shows you’re in a 3G area that you have the possibility of a fast mobile broadband connection (although it’s still no guarantee) otherwise the service will revert to GPRS and be very slow, even slower than traditional 56k dial-up. A quick search for “mobile broadband coverage” on a major search engine will take you to the maps where you can type in your postcode to find out whether you are in a 3G area. However, even if the map shows a 3G signal area, you shouldn’t necessarily get your hopes up for a fast mobile broadband experience. Firstly, the online coverage maps aren’t always reliable, secondly, they don’t take account of highly localised factors, e.g. small dead spots in the signal, and thirdly, some of the networks seem to have capacity issues, so even though you have a strong radio signal, the service is slowed down by the number of people trying to use it. To improve your chances of selecting a network that you are happy with, we suggest trying the following steps:
1) If a friend already has mobile broadband, borrow their USB modem to trial it in your area. The modem only takes a few minutes to install so it’s well worth the trouble to find out exactly how well mobile broadband will work at your location.
2) An alternative to the above is to make use of the trial period offered by most of the networks. If you decide to do this, just make sure you comply with all the Terms and Conditions and if unsatisfied return the modem in good time, as there are reports that the networks can refuse a return if their T&C’s haven’t been strictly complied with.
3) If you have a fairly new mobile phone, this will be able to indicate whether you are in a 3G area for the phone network you are using. This might be of some use if you are thinking of getting a USB modem from the same network, but actually trying a USB modem is still a better option.
4) Read some real user reviews of mobile broadband services. You can find plenty of these at our mobile broadband reviews site, good and bad, and they give you a real insight into how well the networks perform, and how well they treat you if you run into problems. From these reviews it is clear that network performance and customer service experience do vary greatly from network to network. It seems to us that Vodafone and T-Mobile are currently leading the market.
5) Look for industry awards. In 2008, Vodafone won Best Wireless ISP at the Internet Service Providers Awards, an accolade which is voted on by industry peers, and in 2009 there will be a new Best Consumer Mobile Broadband category. T-Mobile came first in the Jan 2009 YouGov DongleTrack mobile broadband survey, which took account of download and upload speeds, customer service, usabilty and value in declaring T-Mobile to be the best mobile broadband service.
For our own usage, we opted for Vodafone mobile broadband, and we have been more than satisfied with the service so far. Whilst in a 3G area, the service has always been fast enough to get on with standard internet browsing without noticing much of a difference from home broadband, and often it has been fast enough to stream radio and video. It would be true to say that 3G coverage in the UK is still mainly limited to cities and larger towns, but coverage is set to improve greatly as all the networks are striving to increase their 3G coverage. Industry experts predict that mobile broadband will soon become the most common way to access the internet, perhaps as early as 2010. There are certainly many other satisfied mobile broadband users out there, so if you are thinking of joining them, follow the above tips to find the best provider and we hope that you too will find mobile broadband to be a useful and rewarding advance in communications technology.
For more information about UK mobile broadband, please visit our partner site Best Mobile Broadband.
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