Taking a look this week at the costs of Mobile Broadband to the average SME and trying to choose which plan is best for you and your needs.

Advantages of Mobile Broadband

• You have broadband no matter where you are (or nearly). As long as you can get mobile coverage then you can also get Mobile Broadband coverage. The better the signal – the faster and more responsive your broadband will be
• You don’t need a landline. Say ‘No’ to the still ridiculous notion that you need to pay a monthly fee for the line rental to Eircom – just to get broadband
• You can share it with friends/colleagues. Just unplug the USB dongle and connect it to your friends/colleagues laptop/PC
• You don’t need a laptop! That’s right – you can use it with your home PC if you just want basic internet and don’t want the hassle of wired broadband. Good for SMEs who may need the power of desktop PCs but may not always have access to a landline
• It’s almost as fast as basic wired broadband. Depending on your coverage you can get up to 3-5Mbs, which is just as fast as some of the starter broadband packages that require a landline
• You can manage the costs by using a non-contract plan and tailor the cost of having broadband to a plan you can afford.

Which Plan for me?

A better question is: “How much data will I be using per month?”

If you’re using it for email and web surfing only choose the lower end plans (1-5GB). It’s more than you need.

If you will be working with media (images/video) as well as the above or often work with large documents (excel/word/pdf) consider a medium plan (5-10Gb)

If you have the luxury of not having to worry about the cost, or will be downloading large volumes of data (cd images, streaming audio/video) then you should really consider a heavy-usage plan. Maybe even consider switching to fixed-line broadband depending on your needs.

Comparing the plans available:

( Prices in the above comparison are correct as of Aug 5th 2010 – always check back with the operator for the most up-to-date prices)

Recommendation

Start with a low-usage plan. Unless you really use the internet for a lot of audio/video data there’s no real need to get a plan greater than 5Gb per month.

What’s most important is that it works where you need it most – so be sure to check the coverage maps before you choose