Mobile broadband abroad

Mobile broadband is as easy to use abroad as it is at home.  It's great for business people who need to be able to work properly on emails rather than fiddle around on a BlackBerry or similar.  Costs are high though, compared to the UK, so it's really only for those where the business use justifies the cost, or for people with deep pockets.

Which networks are best?

At the moment Vodafone are the clear leaders, because you can sign up for an overseas download allowance on a daily basis.  The price is lower within the EU (this is true for all the mobile phone networks).

3 have great deals, provided you are visiting one of Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy or Sweden.

Stay in control of costs

• Make sure you disconnect after use
• Close all programs that you don't need to use before connecting
• If you're using Outlook 2007, use the 'download headers' function and then choose which emails you want to read in full
• Avoid games, downloads and videos

The future

It seems likely that prices will come down rapidly, particularly within the EU, so here's looking forward to a future where we can use mobile broadband as freely overseas as at home.