WWAN card installed - Impressed

When I bought my laptop I ordered it with Bluetooth and WIFI integrated, but didn't bother with the WWAN / mobile broadband option because

1 - You can only order Vodafone through Dell UK and their mobile broadband prices aren't that good.

2 - The additional charge seemed expensive at the time and wasn't something I thought I'd use.

However the other day I came across a TMobile pay as you go tariff while shopping in Carphonewarehouse. TMobile's Broadband Daily tariff suits me to the ground.

I have broadband at home, via cable, and it's quick and wireless. However I do occasionally take my laptop out of the house with me to my parent's boat, friends houses and other locations. These places don't always have WIFI. However the frequency of my visits wasn't worth taking out a contract. TMobile now do a deal where you can pay £2 for a day's usage (allowance up to 3 gig!) and the best bit is that you can just pay the odd day, as and when you want it. So if I visit my Mum on a Monday, I pay £2 and I have 3 gig mobile usage. Then I can leave it for a month or so and do the same again the next time I am out.

The connection seems good so far, using 3G, EDGE, GPRS and HSPDA 3.6. Even if you can't get on to the fast data part of the network, in poorer coverage areas, it appears to use the standard mobile network to connect you (although at a slower speed).

It's no good for serious downloads and I've not tried online gaming with it, but for browsing, sending emails and general web use it's spot on when not at home.

So now I obviously wanted mobile internet and was kicking myself for not ordering it from Dell when my laptop was built. This wasn't a problem though, a quick search on Ebay reveals the 5520 card that's suitable for my laptop and it's pretty cheap too (there are loads on there, varying in price). 2 days later the card arrives and about 10 minutes later it's installed (the only tricky bit is the areal wire is slightly short for one connection, so is fiddly). The only major problem was finding a driver that

1 - worked
2 - wasn't Vodafone branded

another quick google revealed this driver http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=20&fileid=213879 which is exactly what I was looking for. It installs a Dell, unbranded - all networks, driver and control software which makes it extremely simple to connect to your mobile internet and send SMS messages too if you wish.

I gave the mobile internet a quick try and it's great. Quicker than I thought it would be and there's something enjoyable about using it when I don't need to have a lengthy unsightly USB dongle sticking out of the side of my laptop unlike most other users (thanks to the included sim card slot next to the battery on all XPS 1530 laptops and the now installed WWAN card).

So I'm very happy with my purchase and it works very well when away from home. And for UK users the TMobile tariff is spot on if you are an occasional user like myself. If you're more of a heavy mobile internet user or don't have home broadband, take a look at some of the packages available from Three instead, they are aimed more at those types of user.

The one downside is that if you buy your mobile internet connection from a store you have to buy the dongle too. None of the suppliers would sell me a stand alone sim and all the networks said they wouldn't allow me to buy a normal pay as you go sim and transfer it to a mobile internet sim. And they were all extremely baffled when I said I didn't need one because my laptop had one built in (seriously, some of them were treating me like an idiot, saying I was mistaking WIFI for it! ). Perhaps this is something that may change over time, but either way it's not a massive issue. You can sell the unused dongle on Ebay, give it to a family member or friend or you can simply search Ebay for a standalone mobile internet sim card (there are plenty of Three network cards about like this, but not too many on the other networks at the moment).

Anyway, that about does it Anyone else use it?