Vodafone are not going to charge customers in the UK today for any mobile Internet usage that they make today.
The promotion is running a “Free Mobile Internet Friday” offer which is available to both pay monthly customers and those on Pay-As-You-Go Customers.
For those who pay to have mobile Internet included in their tariff will not have any data transfer they use on the Internet taken off their monthly allowance.
This is a one day promotion so any Vodafone customers should make the most of it while it is available.
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A study into mobile broadband speeds has found that on average that mobile broadband users are receiving just 24% of the advertised headline speeds.
The study done by “Broadband Expert” a broadband comparison site tested 3,342 mobile broadband connections between 1st March 2009 and 31st August 2009 with the average download speed coming in at 1.1Mb which is way below the advertised maximum of 4.5Mb.
Vodafone offered the fastest mobile broadband speeds at 1.3Mb, although they also advertised their mobile broadband at speeds up to 7.2Mb and so in effect only delivered speeds at 18% of what they were advertising.
The actual average broadband speeds between the mobile broadband providers was very close, although T-Mobile offered the slowest speed of 0.9Mb.
Vodafone will have a lot of work to do as they have recently started deploying technology that they say will be able to provide mobile broadband speeds up to 14.4Mb. If they continue on with how they have performed in this test then the average speed that users will receive is 2.6Mb.
Also, with MiFi (Mobile WiFi) being introduced there is even more need for the mobile broadband providers to get their broadband speeds faster to make the use of MiFi more usable.
You can test your broadband speed by using a speed test.
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Vodafone have followed Threes lead and launched their own mobile WiFi (MiFi) router.
The mobile WiFi router will allow up to 5 WiFi enabled devices to connect to it giving them access to the Internet via the Vodafone mobile broadband network.
To be able to use the WiFi hotspot the devices need to be within 10 meters of the router to be able to connect to the Internet through it.
The device has an internal battery that offers up to 4 hours of active use from a single charge and is able to offer broadband speeds of up to 7.2Mb and upload speeds of 5.7Mb via the mobile broadband network. Users need not worry about the size either, it is a credit card sized device and so makes it small enough to fit into your pocket.
The device is also able to accommodate 16Gb of storage via it’s expandable micro-SD slot which makes sharing documents, music, video and pictures via WiFi easily done.
The Mobile WiFi device is supplied by Novatel Wireless. Rob Hadley the chief marketing officer for Novatel Wireless said:
“With its leading mobile broadband services and a wide global presence, combined with Novatel’s MiFi portfolio of intelligent mobile hotspots, Vodafone customers will have unprecedented opportunities to access the Internet with all their WiFi devices virtually anywhere and anytime they want. We are very excited to work with Vodafone to provide the most advanced wireless data ecosystem available for customers.”
Mobile broadband users in the UK will have to wait to get their hands on the device as initially it is being made available in Germany, Romania and Spain.
These type of devices are likely to help expand the use of mobile broadband further, so devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players and gaming consoles will be able to connect to the Internet while out and about.
Visit www.vodafone.co.uk/mobile-broadband
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Vodafone have doubled their mobile broadband speed up to a theoretical maximum of 14.4 MB and makes Vodafone the first of the mobile broadband operators in the UK to offer the these speeds.
Although the maximum of 14.4 Mb is highly unlikely that users will be able to achieve these speeds Vodafone say that the maximum users are likely to receive is around 10.8 Mb with the typical mobile broadband speeds customers receive to be between 1-4 Mb.
The areas that will benefit from the speed increases are where there is the highest demand, so parts of London, Birmingham and Liverpool already have it available with other parts of the UK getting it on an ongoing basis.
Jeni Mundy, the Chief Technology Officer for Vodafone UK said:
“Customers trust us to deliver a mobile network that they can rely on – wherever they are and whether they are individuals, or a small, medium or large business. Today’s network upgrade means customers can be reassured we’re consistently enhancing the quality of our network in response to demand.”
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Vodafone are going to offer it’s mobile phone and Vodafone mobile broadband customers free access to Facebook for a week starting tomorrow, 24th July. It is part of their Free Friday promotion that they are running.
Mobile broadband users will see that their data counters pause when they go onto the Facebook website and mobile phone users won’t incur charges when they go on it with their mobile phone handset.
Mobile phone users will also be able to sign up for Facebook alerts which will give the option of receiving a text message when someone sends you a message, pokes you, adds you as a friend or something on Facebook.
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Vodafone are to launch a new six month mobile broadband contract which will likely be popular with those who don’t want to be tied to any contracts such as the 12, 18 or 24 month contracts like many deals require users to sign up to.
The 6 month contract will cost mobile broadband users £15 per month and they will receive 3Gb data transfer, for each additional Gb of data required they will be charged at £15.
The USB mobile broadband dongle will cost £29 which on the 12 month or longer deals is free. The advertised maximum speed that the Vodafone mobile broadband dongle can achieve is a reported 7.2Mb, although the actual speed is likely going to be not that close to this speed and more likely to be up to around 2Mb.
The dongle is also going to have an expansion slot for Micro SD cards so that it can double as a memory stick to store up to 4Gb of data.
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