The mobile operators, 3 and T-Mobile, have recently entered a 5-year backhaul agreement with BT Wholesale. The agreement was entered through the two mobile operators’ joint-venture company (MBNL – Mobile Broadband Network Ltd).

MBNL was formed so that both mobile companies could merge, streamline and strengthen their base stations, and thereby increase their UK reach (strength in numbers, so to speak).

The 5-year deal with BT Wholesale stipulates that BT will connect 7,500 of MBNL’s base stations to BT’s broadband network (called 21CN – 21st Century Network). The plan and the hope is that by entering this deal, it will extend MBNL’s capacity to handle the ever-increasing consumer demand for mobile broadband (and achieve this in as cost-efficient and environmentally-beneficial a way as possible).

With the agreement, MBNL envision that by 2010, it will have the most extensive third-generation network in the UK.

Let’s watch this space, shall we?

T-Mobile Steps Into Pre-pay Mobile Broadband Market

With Christmas not too far off, T-Mobile is set to go head-to-head with 3 (Three) for a piece of the pay-as-you-go mobile broadband pie.

It will be a lonely race to the top as other mobile companies apparently do not intend on partaking in the scramble for a share (not for now, anyway).

T-Mobile has three tariffs that customers can subscribe to: £2 a day, £10 a week or £20 for 30 days. Compared with 3 (which only offers one tariff - £15 for 30 days), T-Mobile’s deal is more flexible, however slightly more expensive for the 30 day package.

Both companies charge the same price for the dongle (£49.99) as well as offering the same download speeds (up to 3.6Mbps).


It’ll be interesting to see if either one of the companies intend to compete on dongle price as £49.99 is quite a bit of money.

Well, well, well…it would appear that some internet users prefer to use mobile broadband when they’re out and about rather than making use of Wi-Fi hotspots.

A survey by Point Topic revealed that mobile broadband has gained ground over Wi-Fi with a 47% share of the market whilst the latter has 42%.


Last year was quite different with Wi-Fi ahead at 40% and mobile broadband lagging behind at 30%.

Out of the total number of consumers who access mobile broadband using their networks, the company 02 comes out tops with a 26% cut, followed by Orange and Vodafone (then T-Mobile and 3). (Vodafone’s at the top for users of data cards and dongles).

One of the reasons for the growth is because, compared to being tied down to a Wi-Fi hotspot (though there are many hotspots available), mobile broadband offers more mobility and flexibility.

The survey also revealed that only 10% of mobile broadband users were thinking of switching to another provider (which isn’t great news for Wi-Fi).

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The GSM Association, along with industry heads such as T-Mobile, Orange and Dell, have come up with a new service mark for laptops, phones and other mobile devices equipped with HSPA technology.

The logo’s been created to inform consumers that the device they’re looking at is ‘good to go’ for mobile broadband. No need for a dongle. Everything’s pre-enabled with a built-in 3G wireless broadband chip.


Looking at the logo, there’s some speculation flying around over exactly what the logo is meant to be. It does look like a couple of seagulls flying off into the distance. But then it might be clouds happily floating away in the midday sun. Or maybe it has a double meaning – clouds AND seagulls. After all, both represent air, movement, flight, mobility, don’t they?

In any case, as long as the product does what it says on the tin, what does it matter?

Expect to see the mobile-broadband logo in stores by Christmas. (well, in 91 countries anyway).

The buck doesn’t stop there though – oh, no. The plan is to embed 3G wireless broadband into devices such as fridges, MP3 players and cameras, so those will be bearing the ‘mobile broadband’ logo some time in the future.

Yes, Father Christmas will have a whole lot more to carry in his sack this year. Expect laptops with embedded mobile broadband technology to hit the stores (in 91 countries) by this Christmas.

And who do we have to thank for this latest initiative? No other than a group of top companies in the IT and telecoms market who decided to put their heads together to ensure the continued growth of mobile broadband technology way into the future. Spearheaded by the GSM Association, 16 companies - including Orange, Microsoft, Dell, Asus and Vodafone - have their hands in the alliance.

The ingredients are simple: take a wireless chip, stick it into a laptop, laptop becomes wireless-enabled, laptop is stamped with seal of approval (a ‘Mobile Broadband’ logo) to signify that it’ll work with 3rd and 4th generation wireless technologies — and there you have it.

The alliance has also pledged to pump £554m ($1bn) into promoting the logo as well as educating customers on the benefits of the laptops.

The GSM Association has spearheaded an initiative to integrate mobile broadband technology into non-cellular equipment such as cameras, laptops, notebooks, MP3 players, cars and even fridges (yes, fridges - they’re experimental like that! I can’t wait for wheelie bins!)

The initiative comes with the full backing of 16 giants from the IT and telecoms arena - including T-Mobile, Asus, Vodafone, Microsoft, Telefonica Europe, 3 Group and Dell.


The first phase of the initiative is more of an anticipatory move – that is to better equip laptops so that they’re able to run seamlessly with future (more advanced) generations of wireless technology. This will be achieved by embedding wireless chips into laptops. At its most remarkable, the combination of all these technologies will (apparently) enable browsing capabilities of up to 7Mbps.

If some people have trouble finding their ultra-slim mobile phones, it must be an absolute nightmare looking for a misplaced dongle. One clear advantage with these new laptops and their in-built modems is that such a problem would be nipped in the bud.

The alliance is also hoping to give Wi-Fi hotspots a run for their money in terms of pricing and convenience.

All laptops with the new 3G HSDPA wireless broadband chips will be marked with a logo to indicate that they’re compatible with 3rd and 4th generation wireless technologies.

It’s anticipated that the new spruced up laptops should be whizzing their merry way round stores (in 91 countries) by Christmas.

The alliance isn’t mucking around either. Putting their money where their mouths are, they’re planning to pump $1bn into promoting the logo and educating consumers about the laptop’s new in-built technology.

It’s also hoping that the new logo will play a significant role in gathering all the different terms and acronyms often used by the industry (e.g., HSPA, 3G, WCDMA) and simplifying it somewhat to make it less confusing for customers.

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T-Mobile Releases New Mobile Broadband Docking Station Router

T-Mobile has recently launched its latest baby, a spanking new mobile-broadband docking station for its dongles. With it, up to 3 people can hop on one wireless connection at the same time.

The slick looking Mobile Broadband Share Dock 100 is disc shaped with a slot for your 3G dongle at the top. The idea is that you can share your mobile broadband connection wirelessly with other users via it’s Wifi antennae, saving you the hassle of configuring each machine for HSDPA connectivity.

The word out there (though it’s yet to be confirmed) is that it’ll work out at £20 a month under an 18-month contract for new subscribers. A USB modem is also included in the price.

For customers who are already on T-Mobile’s books, they’ll be able to buy the device at varying prices depending on their existing contract.

Unlike the way mobile broadband works on a laptop, the docking station needs to be plugged into a power source for it to work.

The device is only available in the UK – for the time being.

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Virgin Mobile Broadband…At Last

It’s been a long time coming, but yes, Virgin Mobile has finally launched its own version of mobile broadband. In terms of mobile phone companies, Virgin is the last of the Big Six to jump on the bandwagon. It’s quite uncharacteristic of Virgin to be the last to try anything.

Launched earlier this month, the company is offering the service at £15 a month. For that amount, subscribers get a free dongle to plug into their laptop and up to 3GB to download each month (which translates to roughly 100 hours of surf time, 2000 emails or 200 music downloads).


There are two things to bear in mind, though, if you’re planning on signing up to this. First: anything that goes over the 15GB limit is charged at £15 per extra gigabyte (which seems a bit steep). Second: the package on offer is based on an 18-month contract. There doesn’t seem to be a 12-month contract at the moment.
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The company, Freedom4 (previously Pipex), has recently launched a service that offers a combination of 3G and WiFi to its customers. The service - called ‘Mobile Broadband 1000’ - starts at £25 a month and includes a free dongle as well as a choice of any mix of 3G megabytes or WiFi minutes (capped at 1GB or 1000 minutes respectively).

When in use, Mobile Broadband 1000 enables the network to alternate between 3G and WiFi, automatically choosing the best connection at the time. It also has a useful inbuilt facility which informs the user of the Wi-Fi hotspot connections closest to them when they’re out and about.

The company does appear to be pretty confident in its abilities as it has boasted that with its new service, it can attain near-enough 99% coverage of the UK population, achieving speeds of 2.8 Mbps on average.

Of those that were studied, it was found that over the course of 3 months, 45% of high-street shoppers had used their smartphones to search for products and services while they were out. A third of them had browsed for product prices or product reviews and then made up their minds based on their findings, while a fifth of consumers actually purchased something while they were there.


Ian Neil, a BT Futurologist, commented on the convenience of using broadband devices on the move as it meant that consumers were now able to do on the move what they could previously only do at home (i.e., rooted to one spot).
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