Been using this for over a week now.

The speed is very good - even though I only average 2bars.

A huge improvement over the crappy 3G Orange Datacard that I was using earlier.

For some reason, the Vodaphone has automatic content blocking that, along with blocking access to some el-Reg pages, also blanket blocks AOL's AIM website - though that could be described as a good thing.

You need to provide a Creditcard to disable it - No debitcards will work.

I don't understand why they block crap without FIRST asking if we want to be treated like children.

An interesting comparison..@ ZAR 12.50 / GB Pound

Connection Fee(Once-off)

ZAR 97.00 UK 7.76

Monthly Charge / Subscription (24 Months)

inc FREE Data Card

ZAR 350.00 UK 28.00

Included Data 500 MB

Out of Bundle charge

ZAR 2.00/MB 16p / MB

OR

Connection Fee(Once-off)

ZAR 97.00 UK 7.76

Monthly Charge / Subscription (24 Months)

inc FREE Data Card

ZAR 599.00 UK 47.92

Included Data 1 GB

Out of Bundle charge

ZAR 2.00/MB 16p / MB

When not in an HSDPA area, do you not drop back to UMTS? GPRS is significantly slower than UMTS which is what I'm using now (with the original Vodafone Mobile Connect card.)

Vodafone refuses to sell the card to customers who are not registered with Vodafone as corporate account holders. The monthly cost is £50.

In contrast, T-Mobile will sell its version of the card to anyone, and the monthly cost is £17.

There are are minor differences in the services available via the 2 versions, but the connection speed in London is identical.

I would urge anyone considering 3G broadband to look at T-Mobile. After 10 years of stomaching every inefficiency from Vodafone, it has been a pleasure to deal with T-Mobile.

AB, London

An ex-Vodafone customer.

Had a play with one of these over the weekend, and was impressed with it. Currrent software doesn't fall back into a lower grade network, but new products in the offing from Vodafone will have that ability.

I’m using the current Vodafone 3G data card, and I’m less than impressed with it. My Nokia 6680 plugged into my laptop is a better than it. Id like to try out there new HSPDA card, but unless you live in London, or mainland UK, its relativity useless. I’m struggling to get a 3G signal at all where I live, and considering I live in the middle of Belfast it’s pretty disappointing. Hopefully in the next few years we will finally see this technology become wide spread, and prices will fall.

Anyone looking at data charges in South Africa need to take into account that what may appear cheap to us is actually very expensive to South Africans who generally earn far less than what we do here.

The same card is available on Voda Ireland (HSDPA not activiated until later this year) with an all-you-can-eat data tariff of €49 per month. (subject to T's & C's.)

Incidentally one of which is VOIP is prohibited, so I suspect the UK deal is the same.

I also understood that the same deal was available in the uk for £37.50 or thereabouts.