Mobiles2day - Mobile Industry News

Nowadays every operator is offering mobile broadband packages. If you thinking about getting one, I have compiled data from all operators for you to have an overview and comparison. You can see what different options available and decide which one suits you best.

Vodafone

Vodafone offers range of devices for mobile broadband: USB Modem, USB Modem 7.2, USB Modem Stick and ExpressCard. See table below for quick overview.

Device	Device Cost(12months/18months)	Cost Per Month	Speed	Comments
USB Modem	£99	£30	up to 3.6Mbps	No long term commitments, you can cancel anytime with 30 day notice. Plug and play on desktops or laptops and Macs.
USB 7.2	£57.58/FREE	£30	up to 7.2Mbps	Speeds of up to 7.2Mbps. Plug and play on desktops or laptops and Macs.
USB Stick	£116.33/£57.58	£30	up to 7.2Mbps	Small, slim and fast, only on Vodafone
ExpressCard	£57.58/FREE	£30	up to 7.2Mbps	Advanced receiver, ideal for laptops, adaptor for PC card slots supplied

USB Modem 7.2, USB Modem Stick and ExpressCard can also be purchased on Mobile Broadband 24, any of the listed devices will cost £199.75 and 24 hour access will cost you £9.99. This is ideal for occasional users who do not go online everyday.

Also you can purchase Mobile Broadband Travel price plan, which will cost you £111.63 per month but gives you 200MB per month included on any network abroad and £4.99 per MB after that. This is ideal for people who travel abroad regularly and have to be connected all the time.

All broadband tariffs are subject to fair usage policy, 3GB download limit applies to monthly plan, 500MB limit to 24 hour access. If you do not use your monthly or daily allowance, it is not rolled over to next month/day. So you either use it or loose it.

Vodafone’s terms and conditions say that if your usage is continually excessive, Vodafone will warn you and charge you, may limit the speed of your service or ultimately terminate contract.

3

3 offers only USB modem with it’s broadband packages but have bigger range of price plans. See table below for available options.

Price Plan	Device Cost (12 months/18 months/24 month)	Cost Per Month	Speed	Comments
Broadband Lite (1GB)	£99.99/79.99/FREE	£10	up to 2.8Mbps	Out of plan data is charged at £0.10 per 1MB and £0.10 per message. Compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista operating systems and Mac OS. Desktops or laptops.
Broadband Plus (3GB)	£69.99/FREE/FREE	£15	up to 2.8Mbps	Out of plan data is charged at £0.10 per 1MB and £0.10 per message. Compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista operating systems and Mac OS. Desktops or laptops.
Broadband Max (7GB)	FREE/FREE/FREE	£25	up to 2.8Mbps	Out of plan data is charged at £0.10 per 1MB and £0.10 per message. Compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista operating systems and Mac OS. Desktops or laptops.

All of the above packages are available as Pay As You Go options with same allowances and cost but you will have to pay £99.99 for USB modem (available in various colours), you will have 1 month to finish allowance and every 1MB over allowance will be charged at £1.00.

Available colors:

T-Mobile

T-Mobile gives you a choice between USB Modem or Data Card. See table below for price plan options for USB modem:

Price Plan	USB Modem Cost(12 months/24 months)	Cost Per Month(12 months/24 months)	Speed	Comments
Web’n'Walk Plus	FREE	£29/£20	up to 1.8Mbps	3GB monthly usage limit, compatible with PCs or Macs, free Wi-Fi access
Web’n'Walk Max	FREE	£44/£34	up to 1.8Mbps	10GB monthly limit, internet calling like Skype is allowed, free Wi-Fi access

Data card options:

Price Plan	Datacard Cost(12 months/24 months)	Cost Per Month(12 months/18 months)	Speed	Comments
Web’n'Walk Plus	£39.99/FREE	£29/£29	up to 1.8Mbps	3GB monthly usage limit, ideal for laptops, free Wi-Fi access
Web’n'Walk Max	£19.99/FREE	£44/£44	up to 1.8Mbps	10GB monthly limit, internet calling like Skype is allowed, free Wi-Fi access. Ideal for laptops

T-Mobile also gives you access to Wi-Fi hotspots for free if you are new customer. This can be handy if you like to surf web while sipping coffee in Starbucks or travel often and need access at airport.
Prepay option also available, you will have to buy USB Modem for £99.99 and 24 hour access will cost you £4. It makes sense to buy a contract if you will be connecting more than 5 times a month.

So how do they compare?
If you travel abroad a lot and you need constant access to internet, Vodafone is best option. Other carriers do not give you bundles with international allowance, but at the same time Vodafone is the most expensive. Vodafone also claims that speeds can be up to 7.2Mbps, which is the fastest but I am not sure what speeds you actually get when using it.

If we compare 12 months contract with 3GB allowance and USB Modem, 3 comes cheapest at £20.83 per month (including £69.99 for modem), followed by T-Mobile at £29 (you get free Wi-Fi connection) and then Vodafone at £38.25 (including £99 for modem). Good thing with Vodafone’s package is that you can cancel contract with 30 day notice, so no long-term commitments!

Comparing to basic BT broadband package, you will have to pay £11 phone line rental and £17.99 per month for 5GB package. In total you pay £28.99 per month, you get speeds of up to 8Mbps but you are not mobile. So as we can see, there are now mobile packages which are even cheaper than this and you have advantage of taking it with you whereever you go!

I personally tried T-Mobile’s USB Modem as well as Datacard. USB Modem is much more easier to install and use, it is really plug and play as they say. Datacard is compact and can sit inside your laptop, but there are problems if you remove it and then insert again. Drivers may need to be re-installed and your datacard will not be recognized. I would say USB Modem is much morefriendlier option and gives you flexibility to use it with laptop or PC. I found that daytime there could be times that you may not get decent connection speeds, eventhough you have full 3G reception signal. Night time connection is pretty reliable and you get decent speeds as well.

So decision is yours, it all depends on your choice of what you need and what you going to use it for!

If you have any comments or experience with mobile broadband, leave a comment!

T-Mobile is offering prepay customers reduced call rates to Eastern Europe:

Country	Landlines	Mobile
Croatia	5p per minute	15p per minute
Czech Republic	5p per minute	15p per minute
Hungary	5p per minute	15p per minute
Latvia	5p per minute	15p per minute
Lithuania	5p per minute	15p per minute
Poland	5p per minute	15p per minute
Slovakia	5p per minute	15p per minute
Romania	5p per minute	15p per minute
Russia	5p per minute	15p per minute

Prices are very cheap, and with number of people from Eastern Europe increasing in UK, I think this is a good move from T-Mobile!To opt in for this option, you need to send text INT to number 441.

Minimum call charge applies, which is 10p, so if you decide to call, talk at least 2 minutes, otherwise your money will be wasted!

I wish T-Mobile offer something similar to pay monthly customers, I am sure there are many pay monthly customers who would subscribe to similar service.

Source: T-Mobile

Long awaited and much-hyped Apple iPhone goes on sale on Friday 9th November in all O2 stores exactly at 6.02PM. I think there will be less excitement about this phone than there was in US, but still you expect to see crowds in O2 shops throughout the country.

iPhone will be available on following pay monthly tariffs:

	Available Tariffs
Monthly Charge	£35	£45	£55
Inclusive minutes	200	600	1200
Inclusive SMS	200	500	500
Unlimited Data*	Yes	Yes	Yes
7500 WI-FI Hotspots**	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Voicemail	Yes	Yes	Yes

* Fair usage policy applies. ** Unlimited access to any of The Cloud’s 7,500 hot spots. Subject to fair usage policy

iPhone will be sold for £269, making it most expensive handset today. Current version runs on 2.5G mobile network, 3G version of the iPhone is expected in second half of next year.

If you would like to check iPhone deals from O2, please visit their website:

Great tariffs with O2

Following T-Mobile’s MyFaves proposition, O2 has launched similar tariff but for prepay customers: “Your O2 numbers”.

For £5 top up, you get 1000 minutes or texts to your chosen ten O2 numbers (it means that you get 1000 units where one unit equals one text or one minute). Just like T-Mobile, you can change your chosen numbers once a month.

To sign up, text TEN to 21300 and follow the instructions, or call 2425 free from your O2 mobile. To opt out text TEN OFF to 21300, or call 2425. Currently terms and conditions say that you are able to opt in to this service until 31 January 2008.

Eventhough both offers are similar, here are differences:

• T-Mobile’s MyFaves displays images of your nominated 5 people on a handset
• T-Mobile allows you nominate numbers from another network or fixed line, while O2 proposition is only between O2 numbers.
• O2 offer is for prepay and T-Mobile is postpay contract
• O2 charges £5 a month for service, T-Mobile at least £25

Check other details on O2 website:

http://www.o2-yournumbers.co.uk/010?cm_re=ConsumerArea-_-rightbox-_-YourO2Numbers

T-Mobile is launching new proposition today - MyFaves. What you get is unlimited calls, text or MMS to 5 people. Moreover, your MyFaves enabled handset will display pictures of those 5 people on screen and you can speed-dial by either selecting or touching the face (handset must be touch screen)

Dedicated website has been setup but it is not working at the moment:

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/myfaves

As of 13:55, site is operational

T-Mobile launched this in US initally, now following success of this launch they are launching it in UK.

You will be able to use this on a tariff from 25£, you can change favorites once a month and handset will be able to keep log of conversations and birthday reminders.

For a full list of MyFaves priceplans click here.