Orange Mobile Broadband Pay Monthly

Independent review with up to date prices, details and special offers for this package...

Connection speeds up to 3.6Mbps
Plentiful 500MB, 1GB, 3GB or unlimited usage allowances
Happy hour with unlimited downloads on Dolphin deals
PC and Mac compatible
Opt-in for cheaper broadband in the EU

At a glance

Our Rating:

Monthly Price:	from £5
USB Modem Cost:	Free
Contract Length:	18 months

Mobile Broadband:
Max Speed:	Up to 3.6Mb
Usage Limit:	Up to Unlimited

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Orange mobile broadband review: Pay Monthly

WANT to get online on the go? You could do worse then take a look at Orange's mobile broadband deals.

Scroll down to the deals available below and you'll see why: Orange have come up with some innovative new mobile broadband ideas that you won't find anywhere else.

Cheap Deals and Unlimited Downloads

Orange mobile broadband is competitively priced - a fiver a month for the cheapest deal and just £2.50 per GB for the most pricey.

There are less exclusives for existing Orange mobile customers than there have been in the past but it's good news for the rest of us, with more to choose from.

There is also the excellent addition of an unlimited deal - one of the very first of its kind and, though it will be subject to a fair usage allowance, that'll be a small price to pay if you regularly run up a mobile broadband bill that could be mistaken for a phone number.

There's also an unlimited option with Dolphin deals - though only for an hour a day.

The good news is that you can choose the hour, though: 8-9 am; 12-1 pm; 4-5pm or 10-11 pm.

Choose your Animal Allowance

Orange have extended their animal-themed deals from their mobile contracts but in this case each animal is a different usage allowance.

You can choose between 1.5GB (Racoon), 3GB (Dolphin) and unlimited (Panther) monthly usage allowances and if you're an existing Orange customer you can also get 500MB a month (half a GB) for £5 a month, the UK's cheapest mobile broadband contract.

However, you'll pay an excess for going over your allowance.

At just over £20 per extra GB this is pricey so it's important that you estimate your usage correctly.

Browsing can use up around 25MB per hour, streaming video up to 500MB and audio up to 150MB so you can see that as soon as you start using your mobile broadband very frequently or for streaming it'll be worth your while to pay for more allowance.

As well as the allowances listed here, you can now add on extra usage at a reduced price. This is very reasonably priced - from £5 when you add 1GB to £2 per GB when you add on 10GB.

Orange have taken the gentlemanly measure of capping extra usage at £30 a month, which is a nice cushion, but estimating correctly and adding on any extra you might need will still be much cheaper.

Remember the cap is only for usage in the UK, so you'd be wise not to leave your laptop downloading the latest Celebrity Big Brother whilst Skiing in Switzerland.

However, there are now reduced charges within the EU: just £2 for 2MB a day when you opt-in (the standard rate is £3 per MB).

A Free Dongle

All packages come with a free dongle. The dongle is smaller than your average, just 4cm and 4.5g.

You can also choose to upgrade the dongle to the newer 'Option 515m' dongle. It's touted as having a higher performance antenna and so should boost your connection speeds and make it easier for you to find signal.

The dongle upgrade is currently on offer for £20 - and also comes with a free 8GB micro SD card for use in the dongle as portable storage which does slightly sway our initial judgement that you'd be best off simply picking the free one.

Both dongles have maximum download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, which is the theoretical maximum speed for 3G - whether anyone will ever get that or not is another matter.

All in all, there's a good choice of mobile broadband bundles available here and unless you live in a rural area (we'd suggest doing all you can for your coverage with the dongle upgrade) - you can't go too far wrong whichever dongle you choose.