According to the latest data from the UK broadband comparison website Broadband Genie, only around one in ten (11 per cent) mobile broadband users are satisfied with the speed of their mobile broadband. The data claims that exaggerated advertising and unrealistic ‘up to’ speed claims have given the public an unrealistic expectation of mobile broadband that the service cannot live up to. And of course, some operators are better than others as this comparison between Vodafone UK and 3 UK shows. At least from this person’s experience, 3’s mobile broadband service just does not work.
Mobile Broadband Blog 
As well as the ‘up to speeds’ trickery, we’ve also been spoiled (sort of) by our home broadband speeds, so to many it feels like taking a step back in terms of progress.
I dont doubt this for a second – the coverage and real world speeds of mobile broadband are a joke.
Mobile broadband is still evolving, the technology is improving to help offer faster speeds. It is unlikely that mobile broadband is going to offer a direct alternative to fixed line broadband for the forseable future as fibre broadband is starting to be rolled out across the UK that is able to offer much faster broadband speeds.
Wireless technology is still very infant and so over time and with investment, congestion issues causing poor speeds will get resolved. The biggest issue is value for money in terms of download capacity when you compared to a fixed line connection.
It is expected that mobile broadband users could reach 3 billion by 2012 and the mobile networks are already worrying about this as some are finding the current number of mobile broadband users being a strain on their network capacity!
About 2 years ago I was using 3 mobile broadband in Sweden, not on roaming, but a native connection. I was in the middle of nowhere and the thing flew at an almighty pace. For what amounts to £15 a month, the Swedes were getting unlimited (fair use) download. Just looking now, looks like the quotas are back but download speeds are up to 16Mbit/s. Is it the fibre-optic infrastructure making the difference?
Just came across this today but I’m not sure if this is still such an issue, if you look at sites which try to advise on the <a href="http://www.uk-mobile-broadband-deals.com/topdeals.php" best mobile broadband deals around now you tend to see better satisfaction, stories of speeds up significantly and so on. Three and Orange in particular seem to have got their acts together.
Actually, mobile broadband users have now surpassed broadband users as far as the number of users connected, what do you say to that? Hmmmmm lol
There are a lot of mobile broadband users despite the fact that there are already numerous wifi hotspots. So far, mobile broadband providers were able to meet the needs of their customers.