O2 Mobile Broadband reviews and offers

O2 mobile broadband review

Our mobile broadband service rating for O2:

O2 has undertaken a total refresh of its mobile broadband offering, laying the foundations to reinstate customer confidence in the market by providing simple, honest advice to help consumers understand the best solution for them.

The refresh includes making it easier for customers to be certain of their ongoing spend including a price reduction on core mobile broadband tariffs, the launch of a new coverage checker and a 50-day Happiness Guarantee set to turn the market on its head and offer a superior customer experience. These elements will help reinforce O2 as a highly competitive provider of mobile broadband and allow its customers to stay connected whether at home or out and about.

To help save what could be an unexpected surprise on their bill, international roaming will not be automatically enabled for all new O2 Mobile Broadband customers. New customers will need to contact O2 Customer Service to have roaming activated so that O2 can explain the likely costs.

For heavy Mobile Broadband users, O2 is also introducing a new 10GB package for £30 per month on a two year tariff and is also the only provider to offer all its customers unlimited Wi-Fi through any of the 6,100 hotspots through an exclusive partnership with The Cloud.

In addition, O2 is reducing the price of its core Mobile Broadband tariffs, with 3GB packages costing just £15 per month. Customers purchasing an 18-month or 24-month contract will also receive a free USB modem (or £99.99 on a rolling monthly contract).

All in all we see these changes as a sea-change in provider openness and clarity. O2 have managed to deliver substantial value and reduce their prices - commendable stuff!

Headline download speeds are stated as 1.8Mbps and during testing 500Kbps was the reality. Upload speeds were, as with the other network providers, adequate at around 290Kbps. O2 have said they are due to due to upgrade their service to 3.6Mbps soon. O2 does use website image compression which cannot be disabled so some image-rich websites cannot be enjoyed to their full potential. Be wary also that O2 don't allow the use of VoIP or filesharing applications.

O2 has joined with The Cloud WIFI network and, as a result, access to some 7,500 hotspots nationally is included with your mobile broadband package. O2's software handles the combination of 3G and WiFi very well and lets you know you when a higher-speed Wi-Fi connection is available.

We'd recommend O2 for people who are likely to spend a fair amount of time in places with good WIFI coverage and who will benefit from the reduced home broadband offer.

Current mobile broadband plans from O2

Laptop-inclusive mobile broadband plans from O2

O2 mobile broadband plan information

O2 Mobile Broadband is now available with either an 18, 24 month contract or a rolling monthly contract. Your monthly allowance includes 3GB or 10GB of data, as well as unlimited access to 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK - so you can stay connected wherever you go.

QUICK FACTS.

Speed: Up to 1.8 Mbps :: Technical Support Phone Costs: Free :: Additional Usage Costs: 20p/MB (after 31 Oct '08) (£102/GB) :: Roaming Costs: Up to £6 per MB

Find out more...

Current O2 mobile broadband promotions

Discounted Home Broadband from O2

Choose any O2 Mobile Broadband and they'll give you a £2.50 monthly discount on your O2 Home Broadband packages.

Other promotions

Unlimited Wi-Fi access
Free delivery on all online orders.

Find more about these and other great mobile broadband offers from O2 here...

Current O2 mobile broadband news

O2 revamps mobile broadband offering

New research for O2 shows that over one in ten mobile broadband users feel that they were mis-sold on what it offered. The main source of irritation is that consumers feel that they were deceived on the cost of the service with nearly a third complaining that the ongoing cost was higher than expected. One-fifth were also upset that they were unable to use mobile broadband where they wanted it despite being told by providers that there would be coverage. Another 13 per cent were frustrated that there was no returns guarantee if the service wasn't right for them and around half wanted inclusive Wi-Fi as standard.

On the back of this, O2 have announced a total refresh of its mobile broadband offering, laying the foundations to reinstate customer confidence in the market by providing simple, honest advice to help consumers understand the best solution for them.

O2 starts mobile broadband upload service

O2 has announced a new enhancement to its mobile broadband service, which now enables customers to upload content at broadband speeds of up to 1.4Mbps, said to be significantly faster than other similar services in the market. This new functionality is expected to be benefit business and consumer users, enabling them to upload music, photos and corporate documents quickly and easily, and is in addition to the existing downloading capability of O2 Broadband, which now offers 7.2Mbps functionality.

O2 Broadband is based on HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology with 89% population coverage, and allows customers to wirelessly surf the internet. Now O2 has reportedly become the first mobile broadband provider in the market to roll out HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access)

Find more O2 mobile broadband news on the O2 website...

O2 mobile broadband network coverage

O2 have just revamped their coverage checker and it promises to be much more accurate that previous versions.

The improved coverage checker is available in all O2 stores as well as online and through O2 Customer Service. The coverage checker gives an honest assessment of the likely coverage customers will receive at their postcode, and helps the customer make an informed decision as to whether O2 mobile broadband is the right proposition for them

Check O2 mobile broadband coverage in your area...

O2 Mobile broadband dongle - system requirements and technical support

You'll need Windows 2000, XP, Vista or MAC OS X (10.4.7+)

Go to the O2 technical support site for help with 3G mobile broadband dongle setup and configuration.

read our comprehensive guide to mobile broadband