Please note, since this test was originally done in June 2010, we have also done some more testing of mobile broadband speed in March/April 2011. We have updated the speed test results in this review accordingly.

The testing showed that T-Mobile provides a consistent mobile broadband service, and the connection was always good enough to allow video streaming from YouTube. T-Mobile is certainly worthy of consideration as your mobile broadband provider, but the average broadband speed it provides still trails other networks. T-Mobile Broadband Modem USB Stick 120

T-Mobile Broadband Ease of Ordering: 6/10

USB Modem Ordered: USB Stick 120 in Black
Date of Order: Friday 14 May 2010
Total Cost: £29.99 (£19.99 for the modem, plus I was required to buy a £10 Top Up)

Two Mobile Broadband USB sticks are available, the 150 and the 120. The website didn't really convey the benefits of buying the more expensive stick, e.g. does it have better reception, so I bought the cheapest.

I didn't find the Daily plan that well explained. Initially you wonder how you are supposed to select Daily, Weekly or Monthly. The website has little i symbols (see below) which you have to mouse over to get more info. I feel they make the info difficult to find and are not ideal in terms of usability. The pop-up tells you that the modem will be set up to the Daily charging process when it arrives, but that you can change it to Weekly or Monthly if you want by using My T-Mobile.

Another aspect of the checkout that I found confusing was the message saying "Required Booster - you need this Booster for your phone to work properly" (see below) along with a greyed out Selection Box. Saying it's required makes me think I have to select it, but I can't as the selection box is greyed out. I guess this is T-Mobile's way of saying it's already been added, but displaying a selection box which cannot be selected is confusing.

The price plan was described as Mobile Broadband Plus Daily. I'm not sure why the Plus is in the name. It implies a premium product and I was just after the basic offering. As far as I could tell there is no Mobile Broadband Daily.

Other comments on the checkout process are that it's good to see the Terms and Conditions opening in a separate window, and that MasterCard Secure Code is in use on the site. I would advise the inclusion of a confirm e-mail address field though. The checkout had a nice stepwise procedure where you could save what you'd done so far. The registration for My T-Mobile came after the order confirmation, but ideally would be incorporated into the checkout process. After I had filled out the My T-Mobile registration, I was taken into a "dead end" screen saying "Basket is empty", on which the Back button didn't work. This was a rather ungraceful end to the process.

T-Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband Box Contents

T-Mobile Broadband Order Delivery: 10/10

Date of Arrival: Monday 17 May 2010
Time Taken for Delivery: 3 days (but this was over a weekend)
Delivery Firm: Royal Mail Special Delivery

The order was made on Friday and arrived on Monday, so no complaints there. The order was accompanied by a simple invoice which did the job.

T-Mobile Broadband Ease of Setup: 2/10

Please Note: Since the test given below performed in June 2010, we have done another test with a more recent T-Mobile dongle in April 2011 and found it very easy to install. The fact that in the latter test we were in a 3G area would have helped to make the install a lot easier.

I did not find the T-Mobile dongle particularly easy to install. I had to restart the computer twice to complete the installation. Initially I couldn't get a signal, but this was rectified by connecting the dongle using a USB extension cable, and then I could get a 3G / HSDPA signal. Unfortunately, once I had connected, the service was not recognising the £10 Top Up that I had to buy when ordering the modem, so I could not try any surfing tests. When I next had time to try the service, I was in Salisbury, in an area where I could only get a GPRS signal. I received a text message to the mobile broadband interface saying that to use the service I must buy or activate a Booster, which would require logging in to My T-Mobile. However, the GPRS service was not good enough to allow me to log in to T-Mobile. All that would happen when I tried to use the service is that I would be redirected to a mobile broadband account page showing that I had no credit and displaying a Top-Up button, and nothing would happen if I clicked on this button. Whilst it might be a bit unfair to be attempting to do the initial set-up under GPRS, it does highlight the difficulty you might have with the service if you bought it to be your sole internet connection at home and find that you only have GPRS available.

After failing under GPRS, I decided to use my home broadband connection for the My T-Mobile registration. The Top Up interface reports my modem number in the international format as 447539nnnnnn, but the registration page didn't like that as it was too long, so I had to change it to 07539nnnnnn. That's easy enough if you understand international phone numbers, but another potential stumbling block if you don't. Evidently the T-Mobile registration I did when buying the modem did not take effect, as I was able to use the same username to register now.The registration sent a PIN via SMS to the number of my modem, which I was able to pick up with the T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Manager software. From the T-Mobile broadband default page I I could now log in to T-Mobile via the Top Up button. However, the £10 credit I bought with the modem was still not showing. On contacting customer services about this, I was informed that the only way I could get the Top Up added was by visiting a T-Mobile Shop. For someone that wanted to order online, this is somewhat of an inconvenience. A few days later I made the trip to my local shop, and after initial incredulity that the Top Up had not been added and a fair amount of checking with customer services, my SIM card had the £10 added and the dongle was eventually ready to go.

It might have been a little unfair to attempt T-Mobile setup in a poor signal area, but nevertheless this was a real world experience. The failure of the initial My T-Mobile registration during checkout combined with the difficulty encountered in getting the compulsory £10 Top Up recognised meant that I had to give T-Mobile a low score for ease of setup.

T-Mobile Broadband Ease of Top Up

Sorry, we didn't need to perform a Top Up during our testing.

T-Mobile Broadband Connection Software Usability: 8/10

The T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Connection Software, which they call Mobile Broadband Manager, is functional, but I wouldn't call it "slick". I would prefer to see labels as well as icons for key areas of functionality, and the signal strength indicator is a little small. Again the data usage functionality is saying that the figures given are just an estimate, which seems to be the case with many of the other mobile broadband providers' software too. I don't know why the software can't display exact usage, maybe there is a technical justification. A simple SMS client is included too (see screen prints below).

T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Manager Software

T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Data Usage Screen

T-Mobile Broadband Performance: 6/10

As well as the results obtained in June 2010 shown at the end of the review, we have done some more recent testing with a more recent dongle in March and April 2011, so we base our average speed etc on the more recent results.

Fastest mobile broadband speed obtained so far: 1.28 Mb/s Download.
Slowest mobile broadband speed obtained so far: 0.09 Mb/s Download.
Average broadband speed from testing so far: 0.70 Mb/s, based on 20 results.

T-Mobile Broadband gave a usable connection which in all tests allowed streaming of video from YouTube. Overall our opinion is that T-Mobile is a consistent performer, but it's average speed was not the best available, so we've marked it down for that.

T-Mobile Broadband Value for Money: 8/10

For Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband, T-Mobile has a flexible pricing structure allowing Top Ups lasting a day, a week or a month. If you are just going to use mobile broadband occasionally when travelling, this flexibility makes for value for money, as if you only need to use it for a few days a month, you'll only have to pay for those days. In pricing for given time periods, T-Mobile differs from other providers such as 3 Mobile, who charge for set amounts of data. Whilst T-Mobile talks of unlimited browsing in its sales pitch, there is actually a fair use policy under which T-Mobile can start to restrict your usage if you use more data that it deems "fair". We prefer this policy to being charged for excess data use. We'd say that in general T-Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband is good value for money, but particularly so for light data users who will only use the service occasionally.

When it comes to mobile broadband contracts, T-Mobile is reasonably competitive, with it's £15 per month offering 3GB of monthly data usage (as at July 2010) which is a figure typical of mobile broadband contracts. You can find higher data allowances for a similar cost on the 3 Network, but for many, 3GB of monthly usage will be adequate, and the main deciding factor should really be who offers the best mobile broadband performance in your area.

T-Mobile Broadband Review

Overall Rating for T Mobile Broadband and Conclusion: 7/10