A mobile broadband dongle is the small piece of hardware that plugs into the side of your laptop or desktop computer and allows you to access the internet via a mobile network. They're around the same size as most USB memory sticks (or slightly larger) and they plug into your computer in just the same way.

What does it do?

Your dongle contains a SIM card, just like the one in a mobile phone, which allows you to connect to the mobile network in the same way that your mobile phone does, so it's a bit like a tiny mobile phone for your computer!

What's So Great About A Mobile Broadband Dongle?!

Mobile broadband dongles are beautifully simple to set up. You can literally just plug the thing in and be surfing the web in minutes (seconds, in some cases!).

They give you access to high speed internet from just about anywhere.

They allow you to access the internet without a landline phone connection.

Does It Matter Which Dongle I Get?

Short answer: not really.

There are differences between dongles. Some have neat little features to help improve your signal, and some double up as memory sticks by accepting Micro SD memory cards but in practice, the major providers only tend to offer one option (albeit with different colour variations), so it's much better to find the provider and package which best suit your needs, and take whatever dongle comes with it, than to try and get a deal with a certain type of dongle.