Mobile 3G Broadband

3G Broadband Hardware

There are different types of 3G Broadband modem available to connect your PC or laptop to the Internet and it is crucial that you are supplied with the correct type to suit your needs.

3G USB Dongle / 3G USB Modem

By far the most common - and usually the most appropriate for most users is the 3G USB Dongle or Modem. These simply plug into a spare USB socket on your laptop or PC and once setup and connected to your 3G broadband provider, act like a typical USB Broadband modem. Some varients have a memory card slot built in as well, which may be of benefit to some users.

As almost all laptops and PCs have a USB interface, these are now the most common type in use and can be used in most modern PCs with the minimum of configuration.

3G PCMCIA / 3G PC Card Modem / 3G Datacard

These are the oldest type of 3G Modem and are often referred to as 3G datacards.

They are generally only usable in laptops (although there are some routers and PCs with PC Card slots - but these are quite rare) and require a full size PCMCIA or PC-Card slot to be used.

Many modern laptops now only have "Express Card" slots (see below) and almost no "Netbook" PCs (miniature laptops) have the required slot to use this type of modem.

3G Express Card Modem / 3G Express Card Datacard.

This is a more recent version of the 3G Datacard detailed above.

The Express Card is a smaller version of the PCMCIA or PC-Card interface and is found on newer laptops.  Express Cards and PCMCIA cards have different connectors and are not interchangable.  Some laptops have both types of card slot and can accomodate either a PCMCIA or Express Card tyoe modem or datacard.  Netbook miniature laptops do not usually have an Express Card slot for these modems.

3G Routers and Broadband Routers with 3G backup.

To connect more than one PC or laptop to a 3G broadband connection, there are specialist routers that take one of the 3G modems listed above and provide one or more (usually 4) network connections and/or a wireless connection to allow multiple PCs to share a common 3G Internet connection, at the same time.  This is of use where there is no telephone connection, for a temporary set-up and where the normal broadband connection has failed.