THE latest mobile broadband products from O2, Vodafone and 3 will significantly change the world of businesspeople on the road, students who travel home at weekends and for the summer and people who up to now could not get broadband over their phone lines or via wireless providers.

After years of false starts and empty promises, the technology now exists to offer broadband speeds on your laptop no matter where you are in the country by just plugging in a very small USB device . . . no landlines, no cables and no aerials on the roof. These products are a boon to digital nomads.

All USB modems from O2, Vodafone and 3 are a little larger than the memory sticks available these days, and through these dinky devices you can get up to 3.6Mbps connectivity with future speeds promised to reach 12Mbps and higher.

Coverage for this broadband is not at 100% of the country yet, just like other broadband services, but after testing these products around Ireland, I found that the service works in areas which cannot get broadband over phone lines or via wireless.

Installation is quick and simple, with the modems themselves containing the drivers which will autoinstall, unless of course you are using Windows Vista which throws up lots of issues and saw the broadband modems as CD drives. Tech support for all three providers happily provided details on how to get Vista-specific drivers for the modems.

After this it is simply a case of plugging in the modem, double-clicking on the 'connect' icon and joining the information superhighway at speeds ranging from 300Kbps to 3.6Mbps, depending on where you are in the country.

Vodafone mobile broadband

SPEED and coverage for the Vodafone broadband service are excellent, with speeds anywhere from 300Kbps to 3.6Mbps. The current package on offer is 14.99 for the first three months and 29.99 thereafter but Vodafone locks you into an 18-month contract with this. The USB modem costs 99. The download cap is half that of O2 and 3 at 5Gb and you are charged at 12 cents per megabyte.

A good thing about this service is that, in areas where the 3G signal is unavailable, you will be switched to Vodafone's GPRS service, which has the same speed as dial-up but at least means there are no blackspots.

One niggling issue with Vodafone is that I could not get Skype to work. For those who are into file-sharing, Bittorrent also did not work, but for general web surfing this was perfect. This Vodafone package could easily have been more competitive if the data download limit had been doubled to match the offerings of O2 and Vodafone.

O2 mobile broadband

THE last of the providers to launch, O2 Broadband has a 10GB download cap per month and will not charge you for occasional excess usage. Coverage so far is about the same as all the other providers with O2 rolling out to more and more areas.

Pricewise, O2 will be cheaper if you are an existing customer or sign up as a new voice customer. The service will initially be available for a three-month introductory price of 15 a month for those with an existing post-pay voice connection or for new post-pay customers. Following the three-month promotional period, the monthly cost is 30 which again is for voice customers. The introductory three-month price for those who do not want the voice service is 20 a month and 40 a month thereafter.

The USB modem will be priced from 69 and the contract is for 12 months.

Like the Vodafone package, in areas without a 3G signal, you will be switched to O2's GPRS network allowing you to still connect to the net, though at a much lower speed. This is a strong offering from O2 and it is promising speed jumps in the next few months which might surpass anything available from DSL providers. Worth getting and one to watch in the next few months, if O2's promises come true.

BEST OF THE BUNCH: 3 Broadband

THE 3 broadband package recently relaunched with better pricing and with a new USB modem. The cost of the modem is 129 and the charge for the service is 20 a month.

You do not have to sign up to the 3 voice service to avail of this. Contract length is 12 months.

Download limit, like O2, is 10Gb and speeds are comparable to the other two providers. Unlike the other two packages, if you cannot get a 3G signal then you cannot switch to using GPRS. It's all or nothing. In reality this doesn't have much impact unless you are on the move a lot, and if so you can avail of a roaming version of this product for 39.99 a month with a 3GB download cap.

I tested this package on the train from Dublin to Cork and even at the beach and was very impressed with speeds and availability. The supplied software could be a little better and it would be nice to auto-reconnect when the signal dies as you are on the move. The net connection itself is unrestricted and Skype works perfectly on it, as does Bittorrent.

Of the three broadband packages available from these mobile companies, I found the 3 service easiest to use, fantastic value for money and affording the most freedom online.