High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Broadband

To use mobile broadband you need a modem to connect to the network. The most common connection device is a USB modem which plugs into your laptop and is easy to set up with a few keystrokes.

There are other modem options available and 3 Mobile Broadband for example offer a choice of different device types for their mobile broadband plans. So how do you choose and which one is best?

USB modem or dongle
These small modems plug into a USB port on your laptop via a short cable. They are convenient and performance is good. They downside is having something that dangles from your laptop.

Mobile Broadband Key (later versions of USB modems)
3 Mobile have introduced a later version of the USB modem design. It’s smaller and lighter with no wires and looks like a long flash drive. It’s also capable of receiving data at 7.2Mbps instead of the 3.6Mbps which is the maximum for the older USB modem. At this point it doesn’t actually make any difference as the network is only capable of transmitting data at the slower speed. However a network upgrade is planned for the end of 2008 so it makes sense to get the newer version in preparation for being able to get faster speeds.

Mobile broadband card
The card fits into the computer’s PC card slot.

Fully integrated chip in a notebook computer
This is probably the most convenient but the downsides are the initial outlay for the laptop plus the speed at which device technology is moving could mean that a laptop with embedded 3G could be out of date within a relatively short period of time.