By Steve Johnston

Pay-as-you-go mobile broadband tariffs allow you to use a mobile broadband service without the commitment of a long-term contract, some of which can tie you into a monthly payment plan for up to two years. Each of the packages offered by the major providers is slightly different, so it's a good idea to take some time to compare the mobile broadband tariffs and understand how each one works before making a decision about which one to go for.

The term "tariff" refers to the amount that you pay for a certain amount of data transfer, over a certain amount of time. This isn't as complicated as it sounds and works in just the same way as a pay-as-you-go mobile phone tariff does, except that instead of paying for minutes of call time, you pay for gigabytes of data download and upload, to and from the internet.

When you buy a pay as you go mobile broadband deal you get a Dongle, or USB Modem as they are also known, which is basically a small piece of hardware that plugs into the side of your laptop and allows you to access the internet. They look very similar to USB memory sticks.

3 Mobile currently offer a good range of options, with top-up costs varying according to the amount of credit that you buy at a time. 10 will buy you 1GB of data credit, whilst 15 and 25 will buy 3GB and 7GB respectively They also offer the cheapest set-up cost at 19.99 for the USB dongle.

3 mobile also offer deals with prepaid data allowance; you can get a deal with a Dongle and 3 GB of data allowance included for 39.99. Although you can normally get the Dongle and 3 GB of allowance for less than this the credit lasts for 3 months instead of 1 month.

The other "starter kit" deal from 3, offers 12GB of start-up data credit along with the USB dongle for 97.86. The data allowance for this package will last a full 12 months, which makes this package a good option as a starter for students heading off to live in halls.

A good company to consider when comparing mobile broadband tariffs is T-Mobile because they offer a deal where you pay by the day, week or month - it is either 2 a day, 7 a week or 15 a month and you can use up to 3GB per month, which is a great option if you only want to use your mobile broadband for short spells of a day or week and is just as cheap as the other providers for 3 GB per month. You will have to pay 24.46 for your Dongle which is slightly more than some of the other providers.

Although Vodafone charge 15 per gigabyte of data, you're credit lasts for as long as you have it, so it won't run out after a week, month, or even a year. This is a great option for those who will use very little data transfer allowance, as it allows you to use your connection anytime without having to top-up every single month.

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