I've been thinking about mobile broadband recently. In fact, I've spent time thinking about it since I was at a conference and had a very stressful time trying to connect to their network only to find they had filtered internet access and almost caused me to abandon my web based presentation!
I recently managed to get hold of a mobile broadband dongle from 3 for free. It should have cost me £30, but through the offer it was absolutely free (except for the p&p) to get it delivered. I was quite impressed with the curved look of it when it arrived, but then found out that I could only buy online access in 30 day packages, and once activated the 30 days ran down whether they were used surfing or not. In addition, that access had to be bought in advanced. It was not possible to plug in the dongle and buy access directly. That dongle now sits idle on my desk, resigned to never being used.
What I did like though, was O2's mobile broadband solution. Using their dongle, you quite literally "plug and pay". Insert the dongle, and the sofware included goes online, asks you how much time you want to spend online (24hrs / 7 days / 30 days). You chose, pay directly and that's it - instant surfing. Brilliant stuff. The downside to the O2 dongle though is the price. £30 for the dongle itself. Fortunately I was able to use an online website promotion to find that Littlewoods Direct were selling them for 1/2 price, and giving away a £10 off voucher too. In the end, the dongle cost me just £4.68 (plus p&p).
The O2 dongle is ideal for any future conferences / events. If there is no local wifi available, then the dongle software will look for the nearest BTOpenzone / Cloud wifi hotspot and connect for absolutely nothing (you don't need the dongle plugged in for this). If there is no wifi at all, then it's plug in the dongle, a quick 24hr payment (£2), and surf away.
