Mobile Broadband

Mobile Broadband

Broadband Speeds

Speed is a serious issue where your broadband's concerned. And with most broadband providers basing their promotions on a certain speed and price, it pays to be in the know.
If you look closely you'll see that speeds are advertised at Mb (MegaBits) which is not at all the same as MB (MegaBytes) MB with a capital 'B' are bigger units - 8 times bigger. So if an advertiser promotes a speed in Mb, you need to divide it by 8 to get an accurate idea of how fast you'll be able to download things.

Speed is of course another area of concern for customers. Although some providers advertise a rate of 7.2 megabits per second (mps), this usually only works in central London, where companies feel the need to keep their corporate clients happy. The rest of the country has to make do with just one mps. At this slower rate, users are able to download a 20 minute video in 15 minutes, and a large photograph in 12 seconds.

The slower rate should be enough for most users, says Bryony Clow, a spokesperson for Vodafone: "If you're not working from home and don't need extra bandwidth it should be more than sufficient. Often people just want to get email and feel attached to their social and work lives."


You can check the speed of your broadband connection by using our free, and concise,
broadband speed test. It only takes a few moments and it's a completely automated way of finding out just how fast your broadband connection is.


The speed of your connection depends on where you are and how many other users are online, but the major hindrance at the moment is a surprisingly low-tech obstacle: walls. 3G networks operate on a high frequency, which cannot easily penetrate into buildings. Therefore customers using their internet indoors will often find connection is slower.

This is obviously a major problem remaining with dongles, but fortunately the world's technogeeks are busy working on the next generation of internet connection, which has the decidedly un-sexy name of the femtocell.

Femtocells can be plugged into a landline to connect all devices in one house to the internet via the 3G network. They enable perfect connection, without outer walls blocking the signal and can be provided via your regular mobile phone provider.

This will let mobile companies offer further discounts to customers who remain with them for all their communication needs. And it might also just save the otherwise doomed landline.

Case study: Fran Rich and her father, Charles Rich, a property consultant

When Fran Rich, a 21-year-old office manager from West London, moved into a new flat, she found herself having to go through the irritating process of setting up a landline for her internet connection. Then her father showed her how easy it was to use a USB modem, and she quickly decided to by one for herself.

"He came round to my flat, plugged it into my laptop and we started searching almost immediately," she says. "He'd been using one for a while for his work, as he has to travel abroad a lot."

She insists the dongle has provided connection as fast and reliable as her normal landline-based connection: "The speed is better as well as it being hassle free. I download music and pictures, but my partner tends to download more than I do. Neither of us have had any complaints about how long it takes."

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