Vodafone Mobile Broadband TopUp and Go
By Diane Ray. Published on December 9, 2008 This post currently has 3 comments.
Vodafone has a new TopUp and Go Mobile broadband offering. It gives internet access when you need it but does not tie you to a monthly contract. There’s no fuss, no monthly bill, just flexible mobile broadband when you need it.
Vodafone state that the download speeds are faster than 3G with speeds of up to 3.6Mbps and their coverage reaches 80% of the UK.
The TopUp and Go USB modem stick is currently being offered at the special price of £39, reduced from £49. Included within this price is 1GB of data. This compares favourably against offerings from Three who don’t include any data with their USB dongle purchase.
A big plus is that the data purchased doesn’t expire after a certain time. Basically it’s there until you use it up. According to Vodafone this is what most customers want. They want to be able to use their mobile broadband regularly but don’t want to be tied to any specific time periods in which they have to use the data or find that they’ve lost any that was remaining at the end of the period.
This loss of remaining data at the end of a period is exactly what happens with the mobile broadband pay as you go top up deals from T-Mobile, O2 and Three.
The point about loss of data after a certain period is an important factor to take into consideration when looking at the solutions from each of the providers. On the face of it, for example, at £39 the Vodafone modem may appear expensive compared to the £29.35 charged by O2 or indeed the £7.50 they charge for 1GB of data compared to the £15 charge from Vodafone.
But considering data requirements alongside the time periods set for using it gives an interesting result. For example, assuming the data required is 1GB per 6 weeks then on Vodafone the data costs would be £15 after 3 months. On O2, the costs would be £90 on their 7 day tariff or £45 on their 30 day tariff.
So all in all, if you want to have flexible mobile broadband access then the offering from Vodafone really does seem worth considering.
Finally it is important to remember that as we covered in our Vodafone mobile broadband review earlier this year they do offer a number of plans based on longer term commitments and monthly payments. If you do not need the flexibility of a topup and go solution then you may benefit from pay monthly mobile broadband.
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3 Responses to “Vodafone Mobile Broadband TopUp and Go”
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I purchased the K3565 USB Stick from Vodafone for thirty nine sterling and I got the box home and the sim card was not registered, I returned the item for one with a working sim and then installed the USB Stick on a Acer Aspire One Netbook. I could not get the VMC LIte software to get me connected via the system software from the USB Stick, but happily it also installs a PPP DialUP in the network connections section of the Windows XP Professional, Just click on Network Connections in Control Panel and you should see a Vodafone Dialup for the Huawei E160X and double click the iconc or right click over the icon and click connect. Then if you still have problems getting the device to connect to a Vodafone 3G Network then try changing the Network tab in the Dial UP Settings on the PPP Dial UP in the Network Connection from Control Panel. Anyway the connection is fast and is reliable and I am very fond of this Item and for a low casual usage or for emergency backup connection when you need to send email then this has 80% UK Coverage and the device has a GPRS and 3G Modem connection facility in the VMC LIte software via Manage Devices.
BUT BEWARE THAT GETTING OVER THE INITIAL LEARNING CURVE TO GET THE DEVICE WORKING MAY FRUSTRATE SOME. BUT FIDDLE WITH THE PPP DIALUP IN THE NETWORK CONNECTION AND YOU WILL BE FINE ONCE YOU HAVE DONE SOME READING ON THE NET ABOUT WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL AND NETWORK PPP DIAL UP.
It’s not quite true to say ‘…the data purchased doesn’t expire after a certain time.’ If you make no use of the network in a period of about 6 months (I think the figure is 180 days) you lose evrything - your £15 and the use of Topup and Go.
[...] also the Vodafone TopUp and Go service if you’re not wanting to get tied into any lengthy [...]