Mobile broadband provider Orange has given names to its three major mobile broadband price plans in order to bring them in line with the animal-inspired brands of its mobile phone tariffs.

The three new plans have been dubbed Panther, Dolphin and Raccoon, with the intention being that mobile phone customers currently on Orange will have a better idea as to what each package will offer and the wireless broadband prices will echo the mobile tariffs after which they are named.

The cheapest of these new deals is Raccoon, which will cost you £5 a month for a fixed 18 month minimum contract. For your money you will have a 500MB data allowance, which is adequate for modest surfing needs and should be suitable for anyone who requires only sporadic internet access.

The mid-range Panther mobile broadband tariff is also tied to an 18 month minimum contract and it gives you 10GB of data allowance per month for £25 each month. This is for heavier users who might need to send and receive lots of emails, download files and even stream video.

The most comprehensive new tariff from Orange is called Dolphin and with it comes an unlimited data allowance for £35 each month. As with all unlimited plans, there is a fair use policy to adhere to, which ultimately means that you will have over 20GB of data each month and for all intents and purposes is more than enough to meet the needs of the heaviest of single users.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “Orange has always been a leader when it comes to wireless broadband prices and mobile broadband innovation and it is now renaming its key tariffs to make the choice even easier. Users who have enjoyed its mobile phone packages should know roughly what to expect and Orange’s unrivalled 3G coverage levels are also an important asset to consider.”

The future of mobile broadband is currently being decided for German consumers as four leading mobile network providers have begun the process of bidding for the 4G spectrum.

Ten years ago the German government was able to generate about £44 billion from the sale of the 3G spectrum and this has been key to the growth of mobile broadband for a decade. Now it expects that the 4G auction will also bring in billions, but the final figure could fall short of that achieved by 3G in the year 2000.

Analysts believe that networks will collectively pay up to £10 billion for the rights to own a slice of the 4G spectrum, which will bring mobile broadband speeds ten times faster than the current maximum afforded by 3G.

The German equivalents of O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile will all be playing their part in the 4G spectrum auction. To be pedantic the correct term for this initial spectrum is LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is seen by many as a gateway towards even faster 4G mobile broadband in the future.

Analysts will be using the German auction as an indicator as to how other markets, including the UK, will respond to the 4G revolution and the future of mobile broadband. It is believed that some networks will be more willing to commit to 4G than others and when the spectrum is allocated in the UK, the industry will watch closely to see who comes out on top.

Many observers are predicting that BT could enter the 4G auction in the UK, making it one of the few landline providers to jump on the next-generation mobile broadband wagon.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard commented “The current broadband speeds and deals, including the Orange mobile broadband free laptop offers, will be further improved once 4G and LTE technology comes along, although the providers have a lot to sort out before then.”

Mobile broadband provider Orange has recently announced a new set of packages aimed at business users, with the promise of making work far more flexible in the future.

Orange hopes that organisations and individuals will be better able to cope with a diverse and changing set of business requirements when they pick up a mobile broadband package which has been designed with the needs of an enterprise user in mind.

Orange says that the traditional hours of work are no longer as rigid as they were in the past and it believes that with a business mobile broadband package, staff will be able to adjust their own schedules without having to remain stuck in the office to get the job done.

Orange’s small business director Martin Lyne said that its aim was to reflect the working lives of its customers with the malleability of its business mobile broadband packages.

The new Orange packages offer unlimited use to business customers with a moderate fair use policy to govern the monthly data allocation. It also says that it has made the pricing of its business tariffs clearer.

Mr Lyne said that UK businesses would be presented with a range of mobile broadband options and would have the freedom to choose the package most appropriate to their specific needs.

Orange has been promoting its mobile broadband as a means of allowing workers to make the most out of the good weather when the summer rolls around. It says that using mobile broadband will allow business customers to work from home, or from the local park, rather than having to commute into the office, consequently reducing their carbon footprint.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added “Orange tells us that 90 per cent of workers commute for more than an hour a day, so with Orange and BT business broadband packages evolving, many of us should be able to benefit from more time working at home”.

People looking for shorter minimum contract periods in the mobile broadband market will be able to take advantage of a new pay monthly package from Vodafone.

For £15 a month you will get a 3GB data cap and there is a 12 month minimum contract to cover. However, your money also bags you a free USB dongle to help you get online.

Vodafone offers a similar package for people who want a rolling contract similar to a pay-as-you-go scheme. The monthly price and data cap are identical, but with a one month minimum contract you will need to pay £19 for the dongle.

Whether you like the sound of this Vodafone package will depend on how you respond to wireless broadband prices. If you know that you will need the service consistently for at least 12 months, then it is a good deal as you will save the £19 fee for the dongle.

Vodafone has undercut its closest 12 month-offering rival Orange, which has the same data cap and free dongle deal costing £18 monthly. Orange gives you the option to upgrade the USB dongle to a premium edition that comes with a free microSD memory card and the claim of offering a better connection, but you will have to pay £20 for the privilege.

By looking at these latest deals it is easy to see how much mobile broadband prices have fallen over the last year. Data caps have virtually trebled in this lower price bracket and a pay-as-you-go mobile broadband contract is nearly as attractive from a financial point of view as a fixed term option.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added “Vodafone now offers its users some of the most competitive mobile broadband packages out there, along with fast download speeds.”

The legal wrangling that has afflicted the sale and allocation of the digital spectrum may soon come to an end, with the UK government planning on holding auctions before 2010 is over.

The spectrum that is currently being disputed will eventually provide better mobile broadband availability and speeds for UK customers and it is hoped that the first services using it will be in operation by 2012.

Industry regulator Ofcom and the Department of Business Innovation and Skills ratified plans to sell the spectrum last week, signalling the conclusion of a long period of consultation that began in mid 2009.

Minister Stephen Timms said that the government had ensured that public interests were being protected under the new plans, but also confirmed that the business benefits would be considerable if the plans for the mobile broadband spectrum were instigated.

Mr Timms also said that high speed mobile broadband access would be available to a large proportion of the population as a result of the new plans.

The plans had to undergo some revisions after Orange and T-Mobile finalised a merger deal that was subsequently approved by the EU. The most important change for the networks and the public is the obligatory roll-out of near universal mobile broadband coverage falling at the feet of whichever organisation buys the 800MHz spectrum.

The range that is currently utilised by ageing 2G networking technology will be replaced with 3G and eventually 4G under the new plans and most mobile broadband providers will be able to make substantial improvements to their services as a result.

Experts believe that the auction will take place in early 2011. Simple Broadband’s Simon Gerrard said “The improvements that must now be made to the speed and availability of mobile broadband are exciting for all and incentives such as the Orange mobile broadband free laptop deal could soon be accompanied by tempting 4G options.”

Apple’s iPad is making a big impact in the world of mobile broadband and with its April launch date set, many UK customers will be interested to see whether the new tablet computer will make a difference to the way in which we use the internet whilst we are at home and on the move.

The iPad will initially be available with built in Wi-Fi connectivity, although the major networks are more interested in how it will fare when 3G compatibility arrives with a subsequent release.

With 3G on board, mobile broadband providers will be able to ship the iPad to consumers without the need for a dongle and allow them to connect anywhere that their 3G networks are available.

Apple executives are arriving in the UK to meet with the management teams behind the mobile broadband networks and lengthy talks followed by the possibility of a bidding war for the mobile broadband enabled version are likely to ensue.

There is a chance that wireless broadband prices for the iPad will be a little different than for other mobile broadband offerings.

Firstly it will have to be offered as part of a long term deal in the same way that free laptops are currently bundled with mobile broadband. Secondly, Apple may well demand up to 30 per cent of the revenue that the networks derive from data usage charges, as it currently does this with its iPhone handset.

At the moment there is no news in regard to which mobile broadband providers will actually offer the iPad when it arrives, but all of the major UK networks have expressed interest in the technology.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “The iPad will make an interesting alternative to mobile broadband deals which include free laptops, but its impact on wireless broadband prices remains to be seen.”

A deal has been struck between mobile broadband network provider O2 and telecoms giant BT which will see the maintenance and development of O2’s networks placed in the hands of its former owners.

You will have to cast your mind back nearly a decade to when O2 was known as BT Cellnet in order to see the links between the two firms in their entirety. It was in 2001 that O2 was born from a variety of subsidiaries of BT and later bought out by Spanish firm Telefonica in 2006.

Mobile phone and mobile broadband packages have always been O2’s main products, but after first offering home broadband and then proposing home telephone deals, O2 looked as though it would be competing directly with BT for the same audiences.

But relations between O2 and BT are clearly healthy, as the pair have just signed a five year contract that will be worth millions of pounds and will commit the BT Wholesale division to overhauling O2’s mobile broadband network.

Well publicised performance hitches with the current 3G network operated by O2 are likely to have prompted the inception of the partnership and the large volume of mobile data traffic that O2 has had to handle as a result of its growing iPhone user base is also a contributing factor.

O2’s Nigel Purdy said that the deal was indicative of O2’s desire to keep its networks and products relevant well into the future.

Simple Broadband’s Simon Gerrard added “O2 is clearly taking on board any criticisms that have been levelled at its mobile broadband service in recent times. With Orange mobile broadband free laptop deals making headlines and its rivals offering wider network coverage, O2 will really be looking to maximise its network capabilities in the future and BT will help to make that a reality.”

Mobile broadband provider Orange has come out on top once more in a recent survey carried out by YouGov which compared all of the mobile broadband operators in the UK based on real user experiences.

YouGov, which is an independent organisation, compiled data relating to various key areas in mobile broadband and Orange came out at the top of 9 of these lists.

The survey revealed that customer satisfaction is one of Orange’s many strong points, along with the reliability of its mobile broadband connections. Orange was also top dog when it came to upload speeds, which few consider when comparing wireless broadband prices and its mobile broadband products are also deemed to be easier to use than some other providers.

The last YouGov survey of mobile broadband providers was published back in October 2009 and it also found that Orange was generally considered to be one of the best mobile broadband operators in the UK at the time.

Orange’s broadband’s Asif Aziz said that he and his firm were glad to have been voted to the top of the mobile broadband charts once more and that it was representative of the hard work that had been put into their products and deals.

Mr Aziz also said that Orange put its popularity down to the quality of its mobile broadband networks in combination with the high levels of customer service that it attempted to offer to all of its mobile broadband users.

Simple Broadband’s Simon Gerrard commented “Orange is leading the way in terms of customer service, spreading the good word about mobile broadband. Other providers may offer faster download speeds, but it is clear from this new survey that a significant proportion of customers are interested in quality and not quantity when comparing wireless broadband prices.”

All 3 Mobile Broadband contracts have had a dongle upgrade! They have replaced the ZTE dongle with the new, sleeker Huawei E1750. The E1750 is no available, free of charge, on all contract tariffs, although pay as you go mobile broadband packages will still include the ZTE MF627 dongle.

The Huawei E1750 is a “next generation” dongle, and is typically twice as fast when uploading files such as photos and large email attachments. It is also 50% faster for general website browsing. It is compatible with both PC’s and Mac’s and has a plug & play design, making it incredibly easy to use.

If you are due an upgrade now or are looking to make a purchase, it is worth bearing in mind that another new dongle is due to be released in March, the Huaweu E122. This promises to offer even fast speeds, so is definitely worth keeping an eye out for in the coming months.

A new survey by a leading UK broadband website has found that a significant number of consumers choose their mobile broadband deals based upon the added extras that are included. This means that less emphasis is being placed on the speed or the data allowance of a given package.

30 per cent of respondents to a survey said that inclusions such as free laptops or USB dongles were the most important factor that would help in determining which mobile broadband package was right for them.

More than 1000 people participated in the survey and it emerged that 25 per cent privileged the download speeds of a mobile broadband package above all else, whilst only 20 per cent were actually looking for the cheapest mobile broadband in UK networks’ line ups.

This survey shows that the free laptop deals are performing particularly strongly in the current market and for consumers this means that they are getting good prices as well as excellent added extras with the average package.

However, some experts believe that the news will vex mobile broadband providers in the UK, as competition in the domestic market has already resulted in the UK having cheaper mobile broadband tariffs than anywhere else in the EU. Consumers are used to getting freebies with their mobile contracts and the same expectation has been carried across to the mobile broadband industry.

Some providers have not taken to offering free laptops as keenly as others, but the growth in demand for such deals is clearly not going to slow down in the near future.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added that “This survey shows that consumers in the UK are always on the hunt for a bargain and they realise that there are some great deals to be had on the mobile broadband market at the moment. We can only hope that this trend continues.”