Who should consider a no-contract mobile broadband plan like the one offered by Virgin Mobile?
This type of service, which allows you to turn the data one and off as needed, is perfect for anyone who needs a small amount of mobile data each month or travels just enough that they want a dedicated mobile broadband service, but not often enough to justify a contract. Pre-paid mobile broadband should be a consideration for small business owners, traveling college students and anyone else who wants an affordable mobile broadband solution that they can control. Speed and Coverage: Perhaps the two most important factors in mobile broadband are speed and coverage. In this case Virgin Mobile excels, but isn’t the top of the line. Virgin Mobile does offer Nationwide 3G wireless access, but it’s network is powered by Sprint which means in some areas including Northwest Ohio where we tested it we saw slower download speeds than using a tethered Verizon Wireless phone. Still, the national network covers many areas and for the use that we wanted; checking email, blogging and downloading the o
Ease of Use: How easy a gadget or service is to use is right there behind coverage and speed. If a service is blazing fast but needs a support call to work every time then it’s worthless. If a product achieves OK speeds but is dead simple to use on the other hand it can rise from average to very good. That’s the case with the BroadBand2Go USB adapter. All of the data needed is built right into the USB modem so that when you plug it into a computer you can install the software and be connected in 3-5 minutes. Over the course of our review I tried the adapter in 3 notebooks and 2 netbooks and found that setting up and using the device was so simple that you could hand this device to anyone who can plug in a USB drive and they would be online in a matter of minutes. When you compare this to the many tethering solutions, like WirelessTether for Root users that we used in the speed comparison the difference is huge. While testing this out I was in the passenger seat trying to hit a deadline
