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Broadband - are you mobile or fixed?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 15 Aug 08, 11:01 GMT

My first task on my return from holiday was to plough my way through a 365 page document. Actually, Ofcom's UK Communications Market report is a fascinating document, with all sorts of insights into what is changing and what isn't in the way we run our media lives. So, we may be spending 24 minutes a day with computers - but we're spending 3 hours and 38 minutes watching the television.

But what really excited the Ofcom researchers was something that we've been tracking here - the extraordinary take-off of mobile bradband in the UK.

Two million people have gone online using a "dongle" or similar device and they're signing up at the rate of 133,000 a month. And these new mobile broadband consumers aren't just using the product on the move - three quarters of them are using it to go online from home, even if they've already got fixed-line broadband. That appears to show that the 3g mobile networks now pose a real threat to fixed-line companies in what is already a very competitive UK broadband market.

This set me thinking about my own experiences, because I've done a bit of what marketing types call "mystery shopping" with both fixed and mobile broadband providers over the last month. First, I switched my fixed broadband supplier after getting tired of slow speeds and poor service. My new provider made no big claims about faster speeds - and was even more expensive than my old ISP - but it did promise better service.

I then went hunting for a mobile broadband contract. Dropping into a mobile phone shop, I was promised what sounded an amazing deal. The salesman wrote down for me what one of his firm's dongles would give me - 7.2Mbps for just £15 a month, if I signed up to an 18 months contract. No "up to " - just the full 7.2Mbps.

Naturally, I questioned the salesman a little more closely. Just how good was their 3g network in my area? "Very good", he claimed - amongst the best areas in the country. Seeing as the deal was nine pounds a month cheaper than the fixed line contract I had just signed, I agreed to take the dongle.

So what were the results? Well both the fixed and the mobile broadband services are now performing pretty well. But the one which promised little in terms of speed - the fixed line - is actually delivering up to 5 or 6Mbps, almost three times as fast as my previous ISP.

As for the mobile broadband dongle, that is going at a greater speed than I've achieved with other similar devices - and the 1Mbps it delivers is perfectly acceptable when I'm out and about. But it's a long way from the 7.2Mbps that was promised.

Ofcom's new code of conduct on broadband speeds, which lays down pretty strict rules about what is promised at point of sale, does not yet apply to mobile broadband. If it did, I would be well placed to throw away the contract I've signed for my dongle.

So what have I learned? With fixed line broadband, it can be worth paying a bit more for good service - and you may even find you can get a faster line than you expect. As for the mobile product, it is now delivering the web on the move for millions of users - but take the speed promises with a pinch of salt.

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