Avoiding excess charges
Contract mobile broadband offers great value, but there is often a nasty sting in the tail for anyone unfortunate enough to exceed the download limit. Given that for some contracts the sting can be £200 for an excess usage of just 1GB, it can be very nasty indeed.
Indeed some might think that those setting excess charges are moonlighting wheel clampers. It's hard to believe that they will last as they certainly aren't customer friendly. In the meantime though, there are simple steps that you can take to avoid being penalised.
Keeping tabs on usage
When you first install your USB modem, some software will load automatically. The details vary from one mobile phone network to another, but it always includes a section called statistics, downloads or something similar. This will show your monthly download usage - keep a good eye on it.
If you swap your USB modem between computers, you'll need to add up the usage from each computer.
Avoid unnecessary usage
Our getting started guide suggests how to familiarise yourself with what actually uses up your mobile broadband allowance. It can be surprising, but it's usually easy enough to stop usage that you don't want, by closing the program.
The important thing, though, is to remember to disconnect your mobile broadband when it's not in use. This stops things that run automatically (like Microsoft and anti-virus updates) from using up your download allowance without you realising. It's important that you do allow security updates to run on your computer, but far better that you decide when to do so because then you can keep an eye on them.
Use wi-fi
Some networks (O2 and T-Mobile) usually include free Wi-Fi access. If you're somewhere where it's available, use it, because it's fast and free!
Choose a friendly network
One network, T-Mobile, stands out from the rest because it doesn't have excess usage charges. Instead they have a "fair usage" policy. These have a bad reputation for conventional broadband, but for mobile broadband they are without doubt a good thing.
Orange do have excess charges, but they let you boost your download allowance at a reasonable cost if you realise that you are running short one month.
3 also have excess charges, but they offer such good value that you can simply sign up for a plan which offers a much bigger download allowance than you need.