The new price offered by mobile broadband service provider, as of today for its pre-pay mobile broadband internet dongle is just GBP 14.67. The buyers of this offer connection are at the liberty to add usage on a monthly, weekly or daily basis. The connection speeds offered by this mobile broadband package is up to 3.6 Mbps.

The daily tariff fixed by the prominent mobile operator in the country for a usage of 500MB is GBP2, while the monthly and weekly options come with price tags of GBP 15 for 3GB usage and GBP 7.50 for 1GB, respectively. All the three mobile broadband packages provide the customers with an unlimited Wi-Fi use.

The mobile broadband dongle offered by O2 is compatible with PC and MAC. This is very much left to the buyers to check out, since it has been big news recently that many dongles failed to get along with the Snow Leopard OS of Apple. Meanwhile, the company also promises that if the customers were unhappy with the service, they were eligible for a full refund on a stipulated condition that the purchased product should be returned with in thirty days of purchase.

O2 had only recently confirmed its offering a home broadband package for free to all its Apple iPhone customers that sign up for its fresh deal highlighted by tethering add-ons. This move from the UK ISP apparently points to diverting their customers’ attention from colourful iPhone offers launched by new carrier Orange.

According to the mobile broadband dongle offer of BT, the owners of the pre-pay mobile broadband dongles were provided with free usage of up to GBP 180. All consumers who signed up with BT for a BT Home and Away or BT Total Broadband contract for a term of 18 months were eligible for the offer.

Another customer group of BT that is eligible for this offer is the group consisting of those who purchase a pre-paid standalone mobile broadband dongle of its for a price of GBP 129.99. According to BT, its offer of 1GB download allowance for a month throughout the duration of the deal to the users who signed up to the offer, in fact worked out equivalent to the download allowance of GBP 180.

As a matter of fact, it was the 3G network of the broadband supplier that covers around 80 percent of the UK, which enabled the ISP to provide mobile broadband access of up to 7.2Mbps through its dongle.

The Broadband Option One of BT Total that has been priced at GBP 7.78 per month is available to new buyers for the three preliminary months, only to be reverted to GBP 15.65 for the remaining 15 months, of the 18 months contract. Apart from this, there is also a one time dongle charge of GBP 49.99.

O2’s short cut software addition makes it possible for iPhone owners to use their handsets as a wireless modem on their computer at an extra cost of GBP 14.68 per month for up to 3GB of download data. This comes additionally to the existing iPhone monthly contract that allows unlimited data downloads. This move invited widespread protests from the iPhone owners in the country as they expected that their unlimited contracts would be treated with an extension to accommodate the usage of the handset as a mobile broadband dongle, particularly for Apple enabling its iPhone with the iphone 3.0 software.

A report from a journalist close to the Guardian, claimed that with a 3G iPhone it took only seconds to download and install the profiles without any delay as well as start working flawlessly. Apple’s latest iPhone 3GS, as an attached modem connected to the PC delivers the speed of a typical mobile broadband connection boasting of up to 1.4Mbps.

In the UK, iPhone is only available with O2. A spokeperson of O2 warned that the use of this feature without the purchasing of bolt-on software was subjected to a prohibition that was specific under their terms of service. He claimed that they had the right to take action against the failing cutomers under this term, which may extend to charge them as well as disconnecting their service. He added that the company however, would only making the decisions on a case by case basis.

BenM website had created an XML file based on Apple’s iPhone configuration utility and had it pushed into the iPhone users’ handsets. The iPhone users could download the profile from the website of BenM to engage the dongle facility. This configuration is available as free download from Apple website with an APN and a password that are published online. With sufficient technical knowledge, one can create and attach the tethering profile and employ it on their iPhone to convert it into a dongle.

The USB modems, or dongles as they are known better, put to test were; three Huawei E160 devices for Orange, O2 and Vodafone, Huawei E172 for Virgin Media, Huawei E169G for 3 Mobile and Huawei E170 for T-Mobile. At different points of the trip, the website carried out above ten speed tests for each dongle. The points included Bournemouth and King,s Cross.

The essence of the test was that the mo0st part of it was undertaken in a mixture of urban and rural areas. The only dongle that completed all the tests was of Vodafone. In this aspect, Virgin Media, 3 Broadband and Orange UK came in the second place jointly, as O2 and T-Mobile failed three tests. The word failed refers to the instance when signal was not found.

In the five categories, Virgin Media came first with Vodafone second in the 2009 Road Trip Downloader category, Vodafone emerged the winner with O2, the runner up in the 2009 Road Trip Uploader category, O2 came up winning the 2009 Road Trip’s Most Stable accolade, followed by Orange, and Vodafone and Virgin Media emerged winner and runner up respectively in the 2009 Road Trip Coverage category.

Finally, in a special category called 2009 Best Dongle Software, Vodafone and Virgin Media were declared the joint winners. However, if something that posed some sort of obscurity, it was the best Dongle Software award, as it was not clear how it was judged, although the tests overall did stand to offer a refreshing insight into the defacto mobile broadband performance.

T-Mobile felt it was the right time to launch its fresh USB mobile broadband dongle; the WebConnect USB Laptop Stick, as its 3G network rollout is fast emerging a success and the nation is getting blanketed by numerous WiFi hotspots. This portable modem launched by T-Mobile was manufactured by Huawei Technologies Co. It connects to a laptop using its USB connector and help the device access internet using the 3G network of T-Mobile or WiFI.

This mobile broadband dongle highlights an integrated software called T-Mobile Connection Manager that detects the optimal internet connection available, automatically. This comes in addition to the tri-band 3G connectivity offered by the dongle, which allows the user to use it overseas as well on compatible networks. It can also function teaming up with GPRS/EDGE networks, when 3G coverage is hardly available.

Another advantage of the WebConnect laptop stick of T-Mobile is that apart from being a mobile broadband modem, it can also assume the role of a data storage device of the portable kind. This is made possible by equipping the dongle with a SDHC/MicroSD expansion slot, which can accommodate cards of up to 8GB memory. This dongle measures 3.5 inches in length, 1.1 inches in width and 0.4 inch in thickness. It weighs 1.5 ounces.

This Laptop Stick of T-Mobile would be available from March 25, in selected retail stores of T-Mobile. It is also expected to be availed online consequently. The price is also subject to vary according to different contracts.