I’ve been staying over at my girlfriends house a lot recently and she doesn’t have regular broadband yet. So, I use her Vodafone USB Mobile Broadband dongle to connect to the internet. I already have an O2 Mobile Broadband Dongle, which I’m very happy with, but I thought I’d give you my thoughts on the Vodafone USB Mobile Broadband Dongle and how it performs.

The dongle uses the Vodafone Mobile Network to connect you to the internet over the 3G network (if it’s available, or 2G if it isn’t) which carries data at up to 7.2 Mbit/s. This is great if you live in an area that’s been upgraded by Vodafone to 3G, but not so good if you live in a rural area like I do. We’ve started a campaign over on another website I contribute to, to try and get better 3G coverage for Wales. We’ll see what comes from that.

The Dongle comes with all the required software already on it, so there’s no need to carry around a seperate CD-ROM too. Having said that, if you own a Mac as I do then you’ll need a CD-ROM to install the software.

Once online the Vodafone USB Mobile Broadband Dongle works really well. From my experience it didn’t drop the signal once and I’m able to do all my writing work with it. Doing anything more than that seems to be a struggle. Obviously this is because I’m using the 2G network to do things rather than 3G.

I’m liking using the Dongle to be honest, but I would prefer landline based Broadband. Which is why, on the 30th of this month there’s going to be a BT line installed. Then it’s a case of choosing a provider for getting Broadband put on the line.