| Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
| Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
| Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Features and performance
The Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem provides tri-band GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G wide-area wireless connectivity. It is also HSDPA compliant, and therefore capable of delivering up to 1.8Mbps in suitable conditions.
When used with supported versions of Microsoft Windows, it is a complete self-install system. The modem can also be used with Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher, but you'll have to install it manually from a CD in this case. We understand that Windows Vista compatibility will be provided via a download from Vodafone's web site.
We used a notebook running Windows XP to test the modem. We followed the instructions in the user guide, plugging the modem in and waiting for its software to install. The process took just two minutes on our test system.
When the installation had completed, the Vodafone Mobile Connect software ran automatically and informed us that Vodafone’s 3G network was available. After hitting the Connect button we were online. If the system works as smoothly on every notebook as it did on our test system, installation requires absolutely no technical capability.
There are a few settings available: you can instruct the software to connect automatically whenever you attach the modem to your computer, and set the Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem as your default modem. There's a built-in usage monitor that can display both the time spent online and the amount of data accessed by the device, for the current and previous months.
Having set the software up to connect to the internet automatically whenever the modem is plugged in, subsequent online sessions on our test system were initiated in around a minute if we had previously connected during a single computing session. Connections took around 1.5 minutes if we rebooted the machine between connections. Note that these timings will vary depending on factors like processor speed and other software that's running when you plug the modem in.
We completed a number of speed checks during the testing period and found that we were able to consistently connect to the internet at speeds of over 1.0Mbps. Of course, throughput will vary depending on local signal quality and the number of other users online at the time.
We found the single-ended cable a little short for our liking. The USB ports are on the back of our test notebook and the cable didn't stretch far enough for us to easily see the modem's flashing lights. However, this is a minor gripe, easily solved by using the longer double-headed cable.
We are very impressed with the Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem. It couldn't be easier to install, delivers solid 3G data communications and is straightforward to configure. It's also smaller and easier to carry than a PC Card, and requires minimal technical competence to use.
