2nd generation digital wireless telephone, the most commonly available in the UK
3rd gereration wireless mobile superceding 2G in the UK offers more functionality than 2G and higher bandwidth
Before a mobile broadband connection is used for the first time the sim card usually requires activation by the ISP
A computer program that attempts to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software.
Audio Video Interleave, a media format used for video
The amount of prepaid broadband data available each day/month
Full name "blue screen of death" a euphamism used in the IT world when a windows PC suffers system crash
A telecommunications term which when used in relation to the internet refers to the ability to transfer large amounts of data
see ISP
The speed at which data is transferred over a network, a fast the connection means more data can be transferred in less time.
Information tansferred over a network
see bandwidth allowance
Or PCMCIA card is a piece of computer hardware which can be used instead of a usb dongle if your laptop supports it.
A usb device resembling a usb flash drive it's a USB modem but delivers double the speed of a standard USB modem
The empty space on your hard drive
A small hardware device that connects to a computer or laptop,
Data received over the internet and stored on your pc/laptop
A computer which has a different IP address each time it connects to the internet
A contractual term to define limitations related to the use of an ISPs services, usually download / upload limits
Hardware or software which inspects network traffic passing through it, and denies or permits passage based on a set of rules.
Ambiguous measure of data or memory capacity meaning either 1000 or 1024 megabytes
General Packet Radio Service is a Mobile Data Service available to users of mobile phones. It provides data rates from 56 up to 114 kbps.
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access is mobile telephony communications protocol supporting down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.4 Mbit/s
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access similar to HSDPA but has faster uploading capability up to 5.76 mbps
(Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that electronic hardware uses in order to identify and communicate with each other
Internet service provider a business or organization that provides consumers or businesses access to the Internet and related services
Kiloytes per second 1000 kilobytes= 1 megabyte a measure of data transfer
Input lag, the latency between using an input device and the result being displayed.
Media Access Control address a unique number allocated to network communications hardware
Megabytes per second 1000 megabytes= 1 gigabyte a measure of data transfer
1000 kilobytes=1 megagbyte
In computing the ability to store data on the fly usually a static harware device RAM random access memory
wireless broadband access
MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 a digital audio encoding format used for music on the net as it can shrink files meaning it uses less bandwidth
links and nodes arranged so that data may be passed from one part of the network to another over multiple links and through various nodes
Areas where a paticular mobile broadband providers data signal is broadcast
A company which owns the equipment used to broadcast a mobile broadband signal, not to be confused with an ISP as an ISP may only lease space on network
The software used to run a computer, windows, mac etc
Pay as you go, an adhoc arrangement where you only pay for what you use when you use it
Personal computer
PC Card (originally PCMCIA, or PCMCIA Card) is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers
see memory
data structure transmitted between computers
When a computer uses the same IP address every time it connects to the network
Streaming multimedia is multimedia that is constantly received by, and normally displayed to, the end-user while it is being delivered by the provider.
A variant of HSDPA offering faster data transfer than the standard 1.8 mbps up to 2.8 mbps
A contract with a mobile broadband provider with no cap on data/bandwidth usage, check the small print for a fair usage policy
The process of transferring data from your computer to the network
A restriction on the amount of data you may up / download in a given period of time, a contractual specification.
Universal Serial Bus a computer hardware connection format a common socket on pc / laptop
Video on demand see streaming
Voice over internet protocol is a method of making phone calls over the web using mobile broadband usually for free
Not to be confused with mobile broadband, Wifi is similar but is confined to small areas (hot spots), cafes etc and usually restricted to customers
Broadband supplied by fixed wiring
We compare the latest mobile broadband deals