Mobile broadband growth
July 3, 2008 by go broadband
Sales of mobile broadband dongles are soaring. All the major mobile broadband providers in the UK are now offering broadband on the go. Because the costs of mobile broadband are much cheaper, UK customers are leaving their landline based broadband providers in droves.
The estimated migration rate of customers joining the mobile broadband revolution has been put as high as 50,000 new UK mobile broadband users per month. Now that sounds like an over-estimation to us at Go Broadband, but, the mobile broadband providers must be doing something right!
Why choose mobile broadband
The reason so many UK internet users are choosing to use mobile broadband over traditional, landine connection appears to be:
The price – mobile broadband contracts are significantly cheaper than landline connection. Mobile broadband prices start from as liitle as £10 per month (3 broadband’s pay-as-you-go service called “broadband on the go”).
The flexibility - most mobile broadband providers offer pay-as-you-go services and billing. This is great for users that don’t want to budget for a 12 month contract.
Mobile broadband - you can use a mobile broadband dongle anywhere you can receive a mobile phone reception. This means you can use the broadband service while you are on the move (even on a train or bus – think how your mobile phone normally remains connected if you are not moving too quickly).
Rural Broadband – Not everyone has the privalege of super-fast urban broadbnd speeds. Those that live out in rural areas or the the wilds of the UK, are often located too far from a BT exchange to get fast broadband connections. Often mobile broadband is the solution.
What is a Mobile dongle?
Very simple. It is a USB dongle that plugs into your computer – just like a USB pen. The broadband dongle has a mobile phone SIM card in it. The dongle allows you to connect to the mobile internet from anywhere you can receive a mobile phone reception.
Broadband survey results – BBC Watchdog
March 21, 2007 by go broadband
BBC Watchdog this evening published the results of its Broadband survey.
It ran the survey following complaints from the public surrounding poor customer service, reliability, and value for money. Interesting to note that the biggest player of them all – BT – ranked so well. They might be damned expensive but they do offer a easy to use service with great customer service and ease of broadand cancellation or migration.
The results of the survey are as follows:
THE BEST BROADBAND PROVIDERS (by number of votes *)
* There is a huge scew towards the big players in both the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ tables and the same broadband providers will appear in both lists.
[This table lists - in order of the total number of votes cast - the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were most happy with. It was calculated by adding together the 'satisfied' and 'extremely satisfied' ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company's name.]
| Based on sum of 3s & 4s (satisfied, extremely satisfied) |
| 1. BT – 18,862 |
| 2. Virgin – 17,881 |
| 3. AOL Europe -16,977 |
| 4. Tiscali – 11,973 |
| 5. TalkTalk -10,802 |
| 6. NTL – 10,399 |
| 7. Orange – 9,036 |
| 8. Telewest – 8,062 |
| 9. Sky – 6,202 |
| 10. Pipex – 5,772 |
| 11. Plusnet – 5,014 |
| 12. Zen – 4,742 |
| 13. Eclipse – 2,781 |
| 14. Demon – 2,515 |
| 15. Tesco – 2,216 |
| 16. Freedom2Surf – 2,160 |
| 17. Madasafish – 2,031 |
| 18. Nildram – 1,619 |
| 19. Waitrose – 1,308 |
| 20. Bulldog – 1,162 |
| 21. Supanet – 1,131 |
| 22. UK_Online – 987 |
| 23. ToucanSurf – 895 |
| 24. One.Tel – 585 |
| 25. Homecall – 528 |
| 26. Force 9 – 518 |
| 27. Metronet – 426 |
| 28. Biscit – 258 |
| 29. Global – 166 |
THE WORST BROADBAND PROVIDERS (by number of votes
This table lists – in order of the total number of votes cast – the companies that, overall, viewers who took part in the survey were least happy with. It was calculated by adding together the ‘extremely dissatisfied’ and ‘dissatisfied’ ratings in each of the five categories. This total is the number listed after each company’s name.
| Based on sum of 1s & 2s (extremely dissatisfied, dissatisfied) |
| 1. Orange – 12,313 |
| 2. TalkTalk – 11,944 |
| 3. BT – 10,669 |
| 4. Tiscali – 10,412 |
| 5. AOL Europe – 7,500 |
| 6. Sky – 6,525 |
| 7. Virgin – 6,306 |
| 8. Pipex – 4,083 |
| 9. NTL – 3,753 |
| 10. Plusnet – 2,109 |
| 11. Bulldog – 1985 |
| 12. Telewest – 1373 |
| 13. Biscit – 883 |
| 14. Eclipse – 869 |
| 15. ToucanSurf – 811 |
| 16. Demon – 738 |
| 17. Tesco – 555 |
| 18. Freedom2Surf – 469 |
| 19. UK_Online – 432 |
| 20. Supanet – 431 |
| 21. Zen – 371 |
| 22. Homecall – 326 |
| 23. One.Tel – 305 |
| 24. Force 9 – 229 |
| 25. Nildram – 256 |
| 26. Madasafish – 190 |
| 27. Waitrose – 80 |
| 28. Metronet – 47 |
| 29. Global – 8 |