I first heard of three "Mifi" a portable wireless modem when I had an iPod touch and the lack of internet when I was away from home was getting annoying. Whilst I had the O2 wireless for the laptop I didn't have anything for the iPod. I was attracted to this dongle not only because it would solve the problem with my iPod but also as you are able to connect up to 5 devices to it I could connect both my laptop and my iPod to the one device.

There is a pay monthly range in which case the modem ranges from £39.99 if you get it on a monthly contract or free if you choose an 18 or 24 month contract. However I chose pay and go since I wouldn't be using it all the time.

For this option the dongle is:

* £61.99 if you get it with 1GB of data to use over 1 month
* £71.99 if you get it with 3GB of data to use over 3 months
or
* £129.99 if you get it with 12GB of data to use over 12 months

These prices were taken off the 3 website but you may be able to get it cheaper if you look around.

In the box you get the modem, a very small instruction manual, a USB cable, a charger and a sim card. If you choose pay and go with 1GB you also get an in car charger.

The modem itself is fairly small and weighs only 90g making it easily portable and allows it to be easily carried in either a bag or your pocket. Personally, I don't like the look of it, it's made of white plastic and the front of it is coloured to make it look metal, however since it spends most of it's time in my pocket this is a minor inconvenience.

The screen has 5 LED lights, one indicates signal, another showing whether you're roaming, another showing whether or not it's transmitting wirelessly, another showing broadband status and finally one showing whether or not the battery needs recharging.

Installation is surprisingly simple. There are three buttons on the side, a power button, a broadband button and a wireless button. All you need to do is hold down the power button and wait for the lights to come on, then hold down the broadband button and wait for the broadband light to come on and finally, to hold down the wireless button and wait for the light to indicate that the wireless is on. Once this is done you just need to search for the wireless signal on your computer and enter the passkey, the name of the wireless and the passkey are both provided on a slip of card provided in the box. For those of you who are security conscious the name of the wireless and the passkey can easily be changed.

The modem also has a micro SD slot allowing you to use it as a memory stick to transfer files between computers or simply just to save specific files on as a back up.

I was worried about getting signal because I have heard a lot of negative reviews about 3's signal however I have found that this hasn't been a problem for me. I have tested it both in towns and in the middle of the country and whilst the speed did slow down in the country I was still able to connect. The one downside I have found here is that if you do get disconnected you have to manually reconnect which is more then slightly annoying as it means digging around in your pocket or bag to fish the modem out and then to go through pressing all the buttons in order to reconnect.

Topping up can get expensive depending on how much you want to download, the options are:

* £2 for 500MB to use over 24hours
* £10 for 1GB to use over 30 days
* £15 for 3GB to use over 30days
or
* £25 for 7GB to use over 30days

Topping up is easy and can be done either through a normal mobile phone voucher or through their website with a card.

The Mifi takes around 9 hours to fully charge and then runs for around 5 hours, less if used to connect to more then one device. It also automatically turns off when not used in order to save power. However, it can be used whilst it's being charged and will not turn off if connected to the mains.


Overall I would highly recommend this broadband, its not only cheap if not used to download too much but does exactly what its supposed to and is very easy to set up