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The various mobile broadband providers all have a pay as you go package which doesn’t tie you into a lengthy contract. Each company offers a slightly different tariff, connection speed and initial start-up cost, so there are several things to think about before you compare mobile broadband tariffs.
The tariff is the amount you pay for a certain amount of data transfer allowance download, over a certain amount of time, this is known as your “download allowance” or “data allowance”. Data is used up when you surf the web looking at different websites, when you check your email and when you download songs or movies. So when you have used up your allowance on the internet it’s time to top up. It works in the same way as putting credit on a pay as you go mobile phone.
When you buy a pay as you go mobile broadband deal you get a Dongle, or USB Modem as they are also known, which is basically a small piece of hardware that plugs into the side of your laptop and allows you to access the internet. They look very similar to USB memory sticks.
3 Mobile currently offer a good range of options, with top-up costs varying according to the amount of credit that you buy at a time. 10 will buy you 1GB of data credit, whilst 15 and 25 will buy 3GB and 7GB respectively They also offer the cheapest set-up cost at 19.99 for the USB dongle.
There are also prepaid mobile broadband packages form 3 Mobile, which offer the USB dongle along with a certain amount of start-up credit for a set cost. The cheaper of their starter kits is a little more expensive than buying the dongle and credit separately, which may seem surprising, but the benefit is that the credit lasts for 3 months instead of just one. This may make it more suitable as a gift, for example.
The other “starter kit” deal from 3, offers 12GB of start-up data credit along with the USB dongle for 97.86. The data allowance for this package will last a full 12 months, which makes this package a good option as a starter for students heading off to live in halls.
A good company to consider when comparing mobile broadband tariffs is T-Mobile because they offer a deal where you pay by the day, week or month – it is either 2 a day, 7 a week or 15 a month and you can use up to 3GB per month, which is a great option if you only want to use your mobile broadband for short spells of a day or week and is just as cheap as the other providers for 3 GB per month. You will have to pay 24.46 for your Dongle which is slightly more than some of the other providers.
Vodafone is a little more expensive at 15 per GB but the great thing about Vodafone is that there is no expiry limit on the download allowance so you can use your time on the internet as slowly as you like. The kind of people who only use the internet occasionally should consider Vodafone when they compare mobile broadband tariffs, as you can use the internet whenever you like without having to buy new download credit each month.