I’ve been a 100%* mobile broadband user for nearly a year now, and I’ve had a lot of first hand experience with this service. I’ve also monitored the blogosphere and the twittersphere closely to keep up todate with news and other user experiences. Based on this input, I hereby present you my personal wish list for mobile broadband providers for the 2nd half of 2009.

Good upgrade opportunities 
First came the so called 3G and then Turbo-3G. Now we’re moving into the Turbo-3G+ era. My mobile broadband is a Turbo-3G plan with a binding period of 24 months. I’m not dissatisfied with the service I have now. However, as mobile broadband plans are being released based on this new generation of techonology, there’s a prospect for me of becoming a mobile broadband Neanderthal within a year from my purchase. Not so nice. So, therefore, I hope the mobile broadband providers will continue to be cool and give us some good upgrade offers.

3G sniffers 
I see a lot of users out there, primarily UK by the way, who are very dissatisfied with the coverage in their particular home area or the area through which they commute. We’ve had WiFi sniffers for some time now, maybe the market is ready for low cost 3G sniffers? Either so cheap that potential customers would want to invest in one and test their signal before signing up for a 24 month plan, or maybe simply for the mobile broadband providers to lend out to the potential customers? This suggestion has been forwarded to firebox. ;-)

Better cross border services 
Mobile broadband should be, surprise, mobile! I simply cannot understand why mobile broadband customers, who use networks of the same company in two different countries should pay significantly more for their use. Most of the plans I’ve seen so far have fair prices locally, and then you get hit by their money truck when you’re roaming in a different country. Of course, roaming in different countries means extra flexibility. But getting charged mega-prices pr. megabyte (not even gigabyte!) is just ugly, greedy business (remember we’re talking separate national mobile networks, but from the same company here). Get cool, give us better roaming. ONe of the first companies to actually give us such a cool roaming product, although by happenstance, is 3 Sweden / Denmark. One price, use both places. THAT is a killer product, especially for such two countries being connected in so many way culturally. The same could be said and done in Spain / France, where Orange is active.

A data first and voice calls second mentality 
Although I have a very portable 13” laptop, I sometimes want to have access to the Internet without having to bring my laptop it with me. So, of course, I’m constantly contemplating on when to go in and buy one of the cool smart phones available today (iPhone / HTC Magic etc.). The other day I went to my local mobile broadband pusher (3) to check out the HTC Magic as a potential for my future mobile-broadband-in-my-palm. The cool HTC aside (and it was pretty cool, I must admit), it surprised me that of the approx 37€ plan pr. month (24 binding period) offered to me, 20€ was marked for voice calls, with no possibility to transfer to the next month. So, in that plan, more than 50% of the price was for voice calls! I was amazed with this mentality, actually. Come on, 20€ a month for voice, no transfer – it’s very 2003... After that, I talked with my friends about this and basically everyone reacted with “I don’t call for that much at all… it’s closer 5 to max 10€...”.  So in other words, my wish is that the mobile broadband provides would consider to put together plans for data heavy, but not necessarily voice or call heavy customers. I want plans that gives me mobile broadband in my hand, with voice calls as a side dish, just as sms has been for a long time to voice plans. And at affordable, non-greedy prices, por favor! :-)

What’s on your wishlist for mobile broadband in the 2nd half of 2009? Let us know!

* I use mobile broadband only. No land line internet at home.