Just last week, T-Mobile launched their Wi-Fi Broadband router, the T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Share Dock.  This is a Wi-Fi access point that accepts the T-Mobile USB Mobile Broadband dongle, and allows you to share and access the mobile broadband connection.  It’s limited to 3 concurrent devices, and as part of configuring it, you set a password to protect access.

The biggest downside is that in the short term T-Mobile have stated it will only be available with a *new* Mobile Broadband contract (£20 for 18 months which includes the Mobile Broadband dongle), but some people are reporting it’s going to be available to existing customers, at a price which varies based on your current contract.  This should be available in stores around now, although it does not appear yet on the T-Mobile online store.

Now, this week, 3UK have launched their own equivalent device, the D100 Router.  Looking a little smaller and neater, it also performs the same function; providing access to the 3 USB Modem via wireless, and 3 say this can be shared with up to 4 people.  It will work with all Huawei USB dongles, although possibly not the elder Huaweu USB Modem devices.  However, there are something about this which have attracted our attention…

Although we have little other details, we notice an ethernet socket on the side; it will be interesting to see what this is for, and whether it allows you to use this on both wired and wireless networks.  3UK are also currently making this only available with a new mobile broadband, but that can be a contract or PAYG, and we understand it will be available within the next few weeks, and priced as follows:

• If you are a new customer, you can pay £69.99 when you purchase either a Mobile Broadband contract *or* a Pay As You Go USB dongle.
• If you are a new customer, and you buy 2 “contracts” at the same time, it will only cost £34.99.  We’re not sure if this means you can purchase a phone contract and a broadband contract and benefit from the half price, but we hope it does.
• Finally, if you are an existing 3UK monthly contract customer, it will cost you £34.99 with a new Mobile Broadband contract.

We would recommend and remind you that 3UK are still offering monthly the top Mobile Broadband 15GB tariff at half price for existing customers (ie £15 per month); we’re waiting for confirmation from 3UK as to whether you can use both these offers together.

If you plan to share out your USB Mobile Broadband device with either of these routers, we’d recommend making sure you are on one of the networks higher tariffs.  Certainly the ability to allow friends and family to access the internet when visting you (or you visiting them) or just the ability to create your own wi-fi access point whilst travelling (allowing the connection to be shared by a number of devices) will make these popular sellers.

Next up, we hope the networks release devices that perform the reverse; using an existing fixed broadband connection to provide a femtocell; providing network coverage for your phone in areas where the signal is currently poor.  For many, these type of devices, even if limited to voice and text would be welcome.  They are being worked on (and we have covered these devices before), but it’s still not clear when they will be available for sale.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.