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Vodafone launched with 3G coverage in the area inside the M25 and in Reading, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Southampton.

Orange launched with coverage in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Belfast, Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Leeds and as a result claims to cover 66 per cent of the population.

T-Mobile has coverage in most of the largest conurbations in the South East and Midlands as well as around Glasgow. This is due to be extended to other areas in the north east, north west, south west and Edinburgh some time this autumn. However, T-Mobie has restricted the speed of its 3G service to just 128kbps initially, although it says this is for commercial rather than technical reasons.

First impressions

All three cards come with the necessary drivers and software on CD-ROM and are relatively straightforward to install. All bar the Vodafone card require a very recent version of Windows to operate. Vodafone also launched a Mac-compatible card at the beginning of September.

The user interfaces all offer one click access to the internet, email, instant messaging and SMS. Of the three, the Orange user interface is the slickest however T-Mobile’s software allows the user to define three quick launch buttons themselves, useful if you have a corporate application that requires internet access.

Vodafone’s software is particularly picky about when you plug in the datacard. If you turn your laptop on with the card already in the slot before launching the software, you need to reinstall the software – very annoying.

In use

Vodafone’s card performed well in the Belfast hotel, with a top speed of 251 kbps, although at times this dropped to just 9kbps. The Orange card performed best, achieving 330kbps using our standard speed test. T-Mobile’s card couldn’t find a 3G signal here.

Vodafone managed the best speed in our whole test with a huge 380kbps at Luton airport, close to the theoretical maximum. T-Mobile’s card initially picked up 3G but the card lost the signal after a couple of minutes. The Orange card failed to find a 3G signal at all.

In our central London test spot – in a building renowned for its poor phone signals – the T-Mobile momentarily located a 3G signal but then lost it and racked up a top speed of just over 30 kbps on GPRS. The Orange card performed well, finding and keeping a 3G signal and achieving a data transfer rate of 375kbps while downloading a file from a website. Vodafone’s card managed 290kbps and held the signal.

Verdict

T-Mobile’s pricing, with included wi-fi, is certainly the best. In our test, the Vodafone card performed best on the road, finding a 3G signal in all our test locations.

The pricing for 3G datacards seems high at the moment given the poor coverage in some areas but this should improve over time and in any case, it will often be companies who will be picking up the bill rather than individuals. In this case, business travellers who are desperate to keep in touch will find a 3G datacard very handy.

However, with wi-fi hotspots springing up all the time and new wi-fi technologies on the horizon, 3G datacards may have a limited lifespan. Even the networks have started to realise this by bundling wi-fi access with their 3G data packages.

Have you used third-generation datacards? What are your experiences? Let us know at businesstravel@thetimes.co.uk

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