Choosing the best UK mobile broadband
Written by Karen Bryan
In September 2009 I finally took the plunge and purchased UK mobile broadband to use on my netbook. In theory this means that when you insert the mobile broadband modem or dongle (a sim card enclosed in a plastic sheath with a USB plug which you insert into a USB port in your laptop) you can connect to the internet.
02 mobile broadband modem or dongle
I travel quite a bit within the UK. It’s a bit pointless having a netbook unless you have a cost effective, decent strength signal to get online. While some hotels offer free wifi to their guests many still charge for the service e.g. Travelodge UK in room wifi costs £5 for one hour or £10 for 24 hours, which is around the average price charged by hotels.
I bought my netbook in February 2009 and initially tried the free FON wifi network but hardly ever managed to find a signal at the hotspots indicated on their map. I wanted to avoid hotel wifi charges, so my alternative was to use a UK mobile internet service. However I wasn’t sure exactly how often I would require the service, given that some UK hotels offer free wifi and many of my trips are outwith the UK. My other concerns were service availability given that I’d be in a variety of geographical locations within the UK and also how much it would cost.
Although mobile broadband costs less on a monthly contract, the cheapest contracts run for 18 or 24 months and I didn’t want to be tied into a contact for so long. I also reckoned that there would be some months when I wouldn’t require any mobile broadband. Therefore I decided to opt for the Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband (PAYG) option. With PAYG you generally have to pay for the dongle which is usually free on mobile broadband contracts.
My netbook with the dongle in a USB port on the left
UK mobile broadband PAYG options
Package details and prices on 10 December 2009
A one off cost of £10 for the dongle and £15 a month for mobile broadband with a 5GB download limit allowance, no wifi included.
A one off cost of £20 for the dongle and PAYG subscription priced at £15 for one month (3GB), £7.50 for one week (1GB) and £2 for one day (0.5GB) including unlimited wifi at specified UK hotspots e.g. The Cloud.
A one off cost of £20 for the dongle and PAYG subscription priced at £15 for one month (2GB limit), £7.50 for one week (1GB) and £2 for a day (0.5GB), no wifi included.
A one off cost of £28.49 for the dongle which includes 1GB with no expiry on usage. You pay another £15 for each 1GB you require, no wifi included.
My decision
Although I was tempted by 3‘s low price, I live in North East England and I’d read that 3′s coverage isn’t always great outside major urban areas. However you should check coverage for the areas you’ll be in as I’ve been told 3′s coverage is good in cities such as London, Leeds and Birmingham. I reckoned that I’d only need to use mobile internet for 2 to 3 days some months, but would have to pay £10 for the whole month. Also there’s no wifi included in 3′s mobile broadband.
I discounted Vodafone as being quite expensive at £15 for 1GB, although this package may suit very infrequent users due to the non-expiry of the allowance.
It was then fairly easy for me to make my decision to purchase the 02 as opposed to T mobile PAYG mobile internet package, due to the fact that o2 included unlimited wifi.
Conclusion (December 09)
I’ve now had my 02 PAYG mobile broadband for almost three months. I was fully aware that mobile broadand outside 3G areas was going to be much slower than my wired office broadband. The one occasion when I connected to 3G in a London bar was wonderful.
There’s only been one location, the Excel exhibition centre in London, where I couldn’t connect either by mobile internet or wifi, my other experiences have been variable. Overall I’m happy with my o2 PAYG mobile broadband because of the flexibility to only pay when I need to use the service, the fact that I have been able to connect in almost every location and the free wifi.
Having mobile broadband has saved me money e.g. it would have cost me £40 to use Travelodge wifi during my 3 night (4 day) stay at London Tower Bridge Travelodge as opposed to £7.50 for o2 mobile internet. When my wired office broadband was down I was able to get online to do some work, albeit at a much slower pace. It’s difficult to put a price on such a backup option.
I’m also really glad I went for the o2 package as I’ve used the free wifi several times at UK airports. Below I’ve listed all the UK locations where Ive used 02 mobile broadband and wifi:
Cumberland Hotel, Bournemouth – 02 mobile broadband: fair signal
Bourmemouth airport – 02 mobile broadband: very good signal
Edinburgh airport – BT Openzone wifi – poor to very good signal
Perth, Scotland Travelodge – fair signal
Excel Exhibition Centre, London – 02 mobile broadband: no signal. BT OpenZone: very poor signal
Travelodge Tower Bridge London – 02 mobile broadband: variable signal from poor to very good
Dogget’s Riverside Bar, Blackfriars Bridge, London – 02 mobile broadband: excellent 3G signal
At home in Berwick upon Tweed – 02 mobile broadband: fair signal
Your experience of UK mobile broadband
So that’s my experience of PAYG UK mobile broadband. You have decide which provider and which type of package suits your usage. You can take a look here for netbook deals with mobile broadband.
[...] mobile broadband modem in September 2009 for use in the UK after doing a lot of research in to the best UK mobile broadband provider. This is useful to me when I stay in UK Travelodges as their wifi costs £10 for 24 hours whereas [...]
I was with Three (3) and to be honest, their very hard to be beaten on price, but as you said, the coverage is too poor. They claim to have one of the best 3G coverages out of all the providers but I was in not-spots far more than hot-spots so even though it was cheap, it was hard to ever use because the signal was non-existent or too poor to use. Changed to Orange now and so far, it seems much better.
Parky – I thought I would encounter a lot of not-spots with 3 mobile broadband in the areas I visit, although as I said in the post, I do know people who are very happy with 3 but they generally live in large urban areas.
Worrying about the Excel centre as we are planning to have stands at 2 shows there next year – is this because they want to sell access to their own wifi network at an exorbitant price I wonder?
Vodaphone PAYG mobile broadband is now £15 for 3GB of data/month and also, as you mentioned, the data allowance does not expire but rolls over to the next month. The dongle is now £25 but includes £15 of data (3GB). So in effect the dongle is £10. Good value I think.
But at the end of the day mobile broadband is expensive compared to home broadband and to use it abroad would be reckless. Vodaphone charge £1 for 1MB in Europe and £3 for 1MB in the rest of the World!
Hopefully more free wifi spots will grow around the world but on long, non-UK, trips consider purchasing PAYG mobile broadband abroad to avoid the horrendous roaming charges. Same applies for mobile phones.
Mark – thanks for update. I was in Malaga, Spain last week and was so glad I had a loan of Spanish Orange PAYG dongle which cost 3 Euro a day for up to 250mb. One day I used 138MB which would have cost me £138 with Vodafone roaming. The overseas charges are totally unjustifiable.
I tried to buy an Orange PAYG dongle in Malaga which cost 29 Euro plus 3.5 Euro a day but I was told that if I wanted to top up online I needed to have Spanish debit or credit card. I didn’t want to risk it, as I was planning to top up online whenever I was in Spain.
As every I am mainly reliant on hotel wifi when abroad, which is of variable quality.