Blogs - 3

Monday, August 16th 2010

It's not often that we get to hear about consumers in the UK getting great value for money.

Train fares, petrol prices and the cost of a pint seem to be increasing all the time, so it was reassuring to learn last week that at least our mobile broadband is competitive.

ABI Research rates Britain as offering some of the cheapest mobile broadband deals in the world, alongside Indonesia and France, and it's easy to see why when you look at some of the packages that are currently available.

For instance, you can get your hands on mobile broadband from Orange for as little as £10 per month, giving you download speeds of up to 3.6Mb/s and a monthly allowance of 1.5GB.

Monday, August 2nd 2010

Mobile broadband has seen huge growth since it first launched, with consumers drawn by the ease of being able to connect to the internet without the need for a landline.

Experts think there's little chance of this popularity coming to an end any time soon - last week, Ovum claimed global mobile broadband will be over 300 per cent more prevalent than fixed-line connections by the end of 2015.

With that in mind, we thought we'd cast our eyes over a selection of the best deals currently on the market from the likes of 3 Mobile, O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Virgin Media.

As far as we're concerned, the tariff which currently provides the most value for money is 3 Mobile's 15GB of usage per month package.

Wednesday, November 11th 2009

For a while now it has seemed that the likes of BT, Virgin Media and Sky have a monopoly on arguments over advertising claims, what with their recent quarrels over marketing.

However, another two broadband providers have now decided to square up to each other in relation to the issue.

This time it is 3 and Orange, with the former choosing to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority over the latter's suggestion that it owns the UK's biggest mobile broadband network.

According to the Times, 3 believes it has the largest and has stated the claims in Orange's promotions could potentially mislead customers.

Friday, October 23rd 2009

When Spotify announced it had agreed a deal with Swedish broadband provider Telia to offer premium access to its services via the latter's web contracts, it seemed inevitable that similar deals would be struck elsewhere.

Now, it seems that such a plan is already emerging in the UK broadband market, after the company confirmed it is working with 3 to offer its music streaming platform to customers who sign up to a contract for the HTC Hero mobile handset.

In addition to this, 3 revealed that the businesses are also looking to collaborate on a plan that will give its broadband customers the same benefit.

Thursday, June 11th 2009

Do the UK's mobile broadband providers need to up their game in terms of connection speed? New research has suggested that could well be the case.

The study by Epitiro saw services from leading operators including 3, O2, Orange and T-Mobile tested on a range of activities that web users get up to, including downloading music, general surfing and internet gaming.

It found that consumers with dongles only receive 24 per cent of the advertised download speed from many providers, with the average rate not even reaching 1Mbps.

The research also revealed that web browsing was 34 per cent slower than on equivalent fixed line services.

Thursday, May 28th 2009

Mobile broadband connections are becoming increasingly popular with consumers in the UK, but new research has attempted to highlight the best connections available to those who are regularly on the move.

In the test, Broadband Genie used USB dongles from six of the leading mobile web providers and travelled on trains between Cambridge and Bournemouth to see how connections held up.

The providers that offered both the best coverage and were top for downloading content were Virgin Media and Vodafone, while the latter was also one of the most suited to uploading alongside O2.

Thursday, May 21st 2009

It is not very often that you see two competitors join forces to fight for a common cause, but BT and 3 have revealed they are doing just that in an effort to cut the cost of calling mobile phones.

The telecoms and broadband providers are calling for high mobile termination rates (MTRs), which can account for up to 80 per cent of the price per minute of calling a mobile from a home phone, to be scrapped.

Figures compiled as part of the Terminate the Rate campaign claimed that UK mobile operators were charged up to £750 million in the payments for allowing fixed-line customers to call their mobile counterparts.