Vodafone’s new dongles and data deals are good, but where’s the MiFi?

Published by Ewan on Wednesday 13th January 2010, 14:21 View Comments | Filed under: Vodafone

I’m pleased to see Vodafone UK is still innovating with mobile broadband. Today they’re launching some new monthly price plans, thus:

- Ã‚Â£15/month, which now gets you 3GB of data, along with basic anti-virus, spyware and 2GB of data backup

- Ã‚Â£20/month, which now gets you 4GB of data and a new ‘Premium PC Security Pack’ — useful if you’re a PC user. The pack includes anti-virus, spyware protection, firewall, parental controls, email spam filtering and unlimited backup and restore. Not bad, not bad!

Pay As You Go gets a bit of news today as well. The new K3565 ‘TopUp and Go’ USB Modem stick (3.6Mbps) gets 3GB of data, valid for 30 days, for just Ã‚Â£34.99. That is a really, really good deal, especially if you’re arriving into the UK for a few weeks and need a decent PAYG data solution. If you’re partial to a bit of style, you can also pick up a blue or a pink USB stick, thus:

There’s more information here.

The one thing that’s missing from Vodafone’s line-up is a MiFi device like the Novatel MiFi unit. They’ve got MiFi over at Vodafone DE. If you’re thinking about MiFi, by the way, I strongly recommend this Novatel unit. I’ve been testing it for months.

I know of quite a few 3 customers who are seriously enjoying their 3UK MiFI service (here’s a vid) so I’m quite disappointed Vodafone UK hasn’t quite jumped on the bandwagon yet.

Until then you can get the Novatel MiFi unit unlocked for Ã‚Â£214 from the likes of Expansys.

StandardBearer

We have a very large corporate account with Vodafone - and they are not the best at rolling out new tech..
We've resorted to buying the Novatel MiFi units from resellers like Expansys because even with our clout (and we have plenty with Voda) they didn't see the need for the device. Trying to source these through Vodafone proved a futile and time consuming exercise that was costing us more in time than the devices! We now use these very successfully for networking our teams when they go onto a client site, and also gives them 3G access at corporate rates where no other signal exists. You tell me what else there is to allow a team to continue working together when in the back of an exec travel coach/car and seamlessly continue being linked to each other and the web whatever the venue? Not many - and not as easy.
I now carry one instead of a USB stick, and the bonus is that it works with my iPod Touch. I charge it with one charger - the BlackBerry USB charger. I use a Mophie power pack for the iPod (same connector as the BB Bold phone, and carry the USB cable for the MiFi. Works fine with no added hassle.
MiFi battery life is around 4 to 5 hours anyhow.
Personally - I don't know how I ever managed without one!
Each to their own.

Ewan

Good to hear, StandardBearer. It's one of those things. Somebody somewhere at Vodafone said 'no' to MiFi. No matter, though - as you pointed out, you just need to go and buy one.

I'm just sad for those I know who like to buy direct from their operator. There's quite a demand for the Vodafone UK MiFi unit amongst the consumers I know. But they'll stick to arsing around with dongles.

MarkyD

I thought this was available on Vodafone UK through Carphone Warehouse???

Am I mistaken?

sheepdog_herding

Not so good - previous PAYG didn't run out after 30 days (180 days before) which was the major advantage over the others. Although it is more 3GB than previous 1GB it's annoying as I tend to use it infrequently and not a heavy user at that. Maybe time to start looking at tethering my Blackberry instead.

Jakdaw

Well done Vodafone. Do normobs *really* want another battery to keep charged? MiFi solves a problem that simply doesn't exist.

If this problem really did exist, then a small proportion of people would have found some other way to solve it - find me a geek who plugs their dongle into their laptop and then uses the laptop's build-in wifi to share internet for other devices. That's completely possible, gives you all the same functionality of MiFi (ie multiple devices) & without the extra battery to keep charged, but I'll bet you can't find anyone who actually does so regularly.

Ewan

Me and quite a few other power users reading Mobile Industry Review

Jakdaw

I take it back then!

Out of interest, what software were you using?

	YES!		9%
	No - boring!		91%

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