April/May 2008

As free or low-cost Wi-Fi becomes more widely available, the mobile phone networks are fighting back in the battle for the hearts and minds of mobile Internet customers.

Vodafone UK has been running a high-profile campaign to promote its latest mobile broadband offer, and now O2 has launched a similar mobile broadband service in this country.

O2 is offering a 'plug-and-go' USB modem similar to Vodafone's, and applying the same basic 3GB per month download limit, with extra data charged per gigabyte. Its download speed is initially 1.8Mbps, which it points out is still faster than typical fixed broadband speeds. It aims to double this to 3.6Mbps in the summer.

O2's flat rate is £20 compared with Vodafone's starter level of £15, but it throws in some interesting add-ons for that price. For instance, users get unlimited Wi-Fi access through the 7,500 hotspots operated by The Cloud. The underlying technology aims to connect mobiles automatically to the fastest available network, which might be GPRS, EDGE, 3G or HSDPA.

There is a pay-as-you-go option, but with an 18-month contract the modem comes free.

Vodafone's basic price is £15 a month, and for £25 you get an allowance of 5GB of data traffic a month instead of 3GB.