I am looking at the 'free laptop' offer from 3 at the moment for their £35 a month MOBILE BROADBAND package.

These are my thoughts so far:

- it works at speeds equivalent to old dial up internet

- it's not much use for overseas broadband

- it's very useful for use on the move in the UK

- for a standalone user you wouldn't need Microsoft exchange server as long as you keep everything on one pc

- there's no such thing as a free laptop, but there does seem to be some discount inbuilt

- can anyone add anything to this?

As you said, nothing is free.

Mobile broadband is - in my opinion - a misleading name. Broadband is by nature anything above a 512kbps service and should offer AT LEAST 1Mbit. Now, you may get a fast service though clever compression and other whizzy bits, but in reality outside major cities and airports you are going to struggle to get service at reasonable speeds. Vodafone offers a high speed service in airports and major cities and high population areas, but beware - if you fall outside this, you will not get what you expect and there's little you can do about it.

T-Mobile also offers web-'n-walk which is OK but quite frankly it is down to what your expectations are.

If you want to have true mobile broadband and you live outside a major city, then forget it. You'll possibly get low speed or medium, but you only have to look at Vodafone's coverage map for mobile broadband to get a good view of service levels. For the word 'variable' read 'almost non-existent' as my business tested this in alleged 'variable' areas and we got virtually nothing.

Don't quite understand your reference to MS Exchange - has nothing to do with mobile broadband!

SHARK!

My reference to exchange server is because if you use your laptop away from home you might have a standalone at home and have issues with where you keep your files and updating contacts, backups etc.

I know someone who uses mobile broadband successfully at home in Huddersfield (they have no land line).