Virgin Media has released a new mobile broadband service which should allow customers to connect to the internet at speeds of up to 7.2Mbps.

It appears that this is made possible thanks to a brand new USB mobile broadband dongle being included as part of Virgin Media’s various pay monthly contracts, which should help it to compete with the new Orange mobile broadband free laptop deals and regain some lost customers.

Virgin Media does not operate its own networks, but utilises the T-Mobile 3G cellular infrastructure to provide mobile broadband to customers around the UK.

The Head of mobile technology at Virgin Media said in a statement that he hoped the new service would allow even more people to get online when they were away from their homes or out of range of any Wi-Fi hotspots. He also said that the improved capabilities of the new dongle would hopefully make the mobile broadband experience more enjoyable for all customers.

Critics have pointed out that although Virgin Media are advertising the new service as capable of up to 7.2Mbps download speeds, the T-Mobile website states that their networks can provide a maximum speed of 4.5Mbps. It seems that Virgin Media could be falling foul of the same zealous and misleading advertising schemes for which most other mobile broadband providers have been criticised in the recent past.

For the time being the new USB modem is more expensive than its slower counterpart and since the speed gains in the real world could be negligible it is not necessarily going to be the speed that helps the service to sell. It is the Orange mobile broadband free laptop deals rather than the performance of its networks that have allowed it to make significant gains in the market and other providers would do well to follow Orange’s example.