Three’s first 4G mobile broadband dongle: The ZTE MF823

Three has launched its first 4G mobile broadband dongle, the ZTE-made MF823. 

The 4G dongle costs £35 if bought on a 24-month contract, or £40 if bought on a rolling SIM-only basis. 

While Three doesn’t talk about the top 4G speeds you can get on its network, ZTE’s specs reveal that the top download and upload speeds you’ll be able to get on the MF823 are 100Mbps and 50Mbps respectively. 

It’s unlikley that anyone connecting to Three’s 4G network would actually get these speeds mind, unless they were stood at the optimal diastance from the cell tower and nobody else was using the network. 

Thanks to Three’s “Feel At Home” roaming deal, subscribers can use their UK data allowance abroad in countries such as the US, Australia and Italy. 

The dongle is compatible with Windows laptops running Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 and Mac OS X machines. There’s also a microSD slot capable of handling cards of up to 32GB in size. 

Unlike other UK networks, Three hasn’t increased costs for 4G, choosing to make it available for all of its customers for no extra charge. Perhaps anticipating blaggers who didn’t fancy forking out for superfast broadband in the home, Three recently cut the option of unlimited WiFi tethering for its phone and tablet customers. 

Three claims that all of its customers who can get it are now using 4G. By the end of 2015, 98 per cent of the UK’s population should be covered by Three’s 4G network.