subject: Is Mobile Broadband Ever Unlimited? [print this page] Unlimited home broadband - also known as fixed-line broadband - is a familiar sight on the virtual shelves of the UK broadband market.
However, mobile broadband deals rarely come with unlimited usage allowances despite an increasing demand from consumers.
There are a number of reasons why this is not the case when it comes to broadband deals, however, in particular with mobile broadband.
First, the market has set usage allowances at fairly high prices per GB. Usually this works out at about 5 per 1GB, much higher than the price for home broadband.
Second, there's the question of the so-called capacity crunch in mobile broadband networks.
Put simply, there's a premium on the space on the network with not so much a lack of coverage for individual consumers but a lack of individual deals that they can offer.
Still some unlimited mobile broadband deals do exist for consumers to buy.
However, as a result of the restrictions outlined above these do tend to come with a number of caveats for consumers.
The first of these is a long contract which can be inconvenient. Although it does offer better value for money in comparison with shorter broadband deals the long tie in and lack of flexibility can be extremely off-putting.
The second is more important to note: it's the fair use policy on mobile broadband deals.
Of course, fair use policies are common-place amongst fixed line broadband but they are much lower and much more strictly enforced amongst mobile broadband providers.
For example, the Orange unlimited mobile broadband deal has a fair usage amount of 20GB a month, only a little bit less than the biggest usage allowance on the market 3 mobile broadband 15gb.
Going over these allowances can have serious consequences - the speed of the broadband is likely to be severely slowed and if there's an ongoing problem you're liable to have your connection cut off altogether.
In this sense, mobile broadband is never truly unlimited in the way that some home broadband deals can be.
For truly unlimited broadband using an ADSL or cable connection, however, there are still fairly few options.
Plusnet does a deal where you can have completely unlimited access through the night and some other providers have been trialling similar things but with mixed results.
If you had considered getting unlimited mobile broadband as a replacement for a home broadband some of these deals are available on a short contract.
