If you're using a mobile broadband 'dongle' to connect your laptop to the Internet, you should consider using the Internet connectivity of your 3G mobile phone instead, and link it to your computer by Bluetooth wireless connection.

That's the message behind a 'Ditch the Dongle' campaign by – you've guessed it – the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. It argues that using the mobile connection saves customers money, and is also more convenient.

It has some figures to back up the message. It says that in a survey conducted in Sweden, consumers using a 3G phone connection with their laptop saved up to 40 per cent of the costs of using a separate plug-in 3G SIM card with its own subscription fee. It argues that combining the two also saves users from having to commit to a broadband contract of a year to two years.

You'll find some technical details about how to use a phone connection on the Bluetooth SIG Web site. Typically you make Bluetooth discoverable (visible) in the mobile phone, and then create a PAN (personal area network) connection from the computer by accessing the Bluetooth functionality from the control panel.

 

If you need to be online the move for long periods, there could of course be an issue with the mobile phone battery charge, since unlike dongles, phones don't usually take their charge from the laptop. But for casual browsing or email downloading, presumably this shouldn't be a problem.