A report by Allot Communications out today of 190 million mobile broadband subscribers worldwide shows that mobile broadband usage was up 68% in the first half of 2010 as the technology continues to grow at a fast rate.

The company released its Mobile Trend Global Mobile Broadband Traffic Report today and the study had some interesting findings. Whilst total bandwidth used by mobile broadband was up by the 68% figure, there was a huge spike in the usage of social networking over mobile broadband with Facebook up 200% and Twitter up 310% suggesting that mobile broadband is continuing to move away from the traditional business on the move usage and more into consumer territory. This was further backed up by impressive bandwidth

increases in video over mobile broadband – up 92% – largely due to the popularity of video streaming sites like You Tube and also strong growth in Skype and Instant Messaging. The popularity of Apple’s new iPad device is also likely to be a factor.

Allot Communications’ President and CEO, Rami Hadar said, “The results of our latest MobileTrends Report reinforces that mobile broadband operators continue to face growing challenges as subscribers demand real-time content through an array of smartphones and Internet devices.”

“The findings also clearly demonstrate the close ties between mobile broadband and social networking. Whether it’s YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, social networking via mobile devices is becoming a ‘must have’ for subscribers and we expect that this is just the beginning,” added Hadar.

Mobile broadband speeds are notoriously unpredictable. At their best they can exceed most home broadband connections and nip along at speeds close to the maximum 3G speed of 7.2Mbps. For most users, most of the time, however, you can expect a realistic speed of something more like 1Mbps, perfectly usable and acceptable for on the go broadband access but nothing to write home about.

So we were excited this morning when we saw a glimpse of the potential future of mobile broadband in the form of a demo by South Korean giants Samsung of the new WiMax 2 technology. For those not quite as geeky as us Wimax is a fairly new technology that allows wide coverage of high speed data access. Think of it as something of a cross between a vast high speed WiFi network and the traditional mobile phone networks. The demo by Samsung was of the latest version of this early technology; Wimax 2.

Samsung showed off the technology delivering speeds of a whopping 330Mbps, mobile broadband roughly 20 – 30 times faster than the fastest home broadband speeds widely available right now. Samsung showed 16 high definition videos streaming through four different screens using the same connection with no lag. It’s obviously very early days and we don’t expect to see mobile broadband like this commercially available in the UK anytime soon but it is an exciting glimpse of what the future might hold and something for us all to dream of.

A recent study by card protection and insurance company CPP revealed more dangers surrounding the use of public and even homeWiFi networks in a revelation that throws light on the benefits of mobile broadband from a security, as well as convenience, perspective.

In a so-called ‘ethical hacking’ experiment researchers logged on to public WiFi hotspots in town centre cafes and restaurants and were able to quickly and easily harvest personal information from others who had used the hotspots. The researchers were able to collect usernames and passwords at a rate of more than 350 an hour whilst logged on to the networks throwing a spotlight on the dangers of logging on to public WiFi networks when out an about on your laptop. In contrast users of mobile broadband would have been secure as the researchers / hackers would not have been able to access the same internet connection. The lesson appears to be clear, be very wary of accessing anything sensitive on a public WiFi network and use a mobile broadband dongle if you want to use the Internet securely when out an about.

Even home networks weren’t immune to the dangers of hacking. In the same study CPP found that roughly a quarter of 40,000 networks identified had no password protection leaving them vulnerable and of those that did have protection most had only basic passwords that the hackers were able to bypass in seconds.

The popular 3 MiFi device last night won the coveted ”best work gadget of the year” award from gadget magazine T3. The device beat of strong competition from other top gadgets nominated including the Apple MacBook Pro, iPhone 4 and Blackberry Bold 9700. The award comes on top of other mobile broadband themed prizes won by 3 in recent weeks including Best Network for Mobile Broadband at the Broadband Genie Awards, Best Value Mobile Broadband at the Top10 and number one network for iPhone from YouGov.

As with a dongle, MiFi uses the mobile phone 3G networks to create a mobile broadband signal at speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, however, the difference is that MiFi then creates a local WiFi hotspo with the connection that up to five gadgets at once can conncet to. So you can access the Internet, for example a couple of laptops, an iPod Touch, a Nintendo DSi and a smart phone all at once off one high speed mobile broadband connection.

MiFi is available free on contract from 3 with deals from just £9.50 a month. Compare all UK MiFi Deals.

3 Mobile broadband this week released research showing how their customers are using their mobile internet service. The data was only from mobile broadband dongle users and the staggering fact was that in July alone more than 2.5 terabytes (2,500 gigabytes) of data were downloaded over Three’s network alone.

Not surprisingly Facebook was by far the most visited site and accounted for almost a third of the data usage. Less expected though was the fact that the second highest amount of downloads came from social gaming platform Zynga, with almost 15% of the total. Zynga produce games Farmville, popular with social network users and relatively graphically intense which explains part of the high data usage – but still, 15%? On Farmville? Other domains to make the top 10 include the usual suspects of Google, You Tube, MSN and Hotmail with Apple a high placed site too – probably related to downloads from the iTunes platform.

All this suggests a huge amount of mobile broadband usage, and particularly consumer rather than business usage which is consistent with other studies we’ve seen recently showing a big increase in mobile internet take up over the last year or so. Not so long ago mobile broadband was expensive and largely the preserve of business customers so it’s great to see high allowance, low cost deals like T-Mobile’s unlimited mobile broadband offer and 3’s own 15gb internet dongle deal cutting through with a consumer audience. We firmly believe that mobile broadband should be for everyone and even if we’re a bit surprised to see social gaming doing so well we’re certainly delighted to see the technology breaking through to a wider audience.

Internet Service Provider Talk Talk has today announced they are broadening their offer to include a new mobile broadband deal for existing customers. Talk Talk were recently spun out of Carphone Warehouse but are now an independent company and are infamous for their ‘broadband is free’ campaign a few years ago where they offered free broadband with a phone line contract and struggles to cope with the unprecedented demand they drove. Since then they have gone on to become a respected ISP with a large share of the UK market.

The move into mobile broadband is a natural extension for the brand and the service will run as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) on the Vodafone mobile broadband network meaning consumers should get similar mobile broadband coverage and speeds to existing Vodafone mobile broadband customers.

The Talk Talk offer will be available for existing customers only and in future is likely to be part of a ‘triple play’ deal with fixed broadband and a phone line for a set monthly fee. For now it costs £29.99 for the dongle and then £10 a month on a rolling one month contract for 1gb of data allowance. This is similar to other offers on the market but noticeably more expensive than the market leader 3 Mobile Broadband’s one month, one gigabyte deal.

3 Mobile Broadband have been voted network of the year for the second successive year by a You Gov study of thousands of mobile broadband users. Three were ranked top in eight different categories including most reliable connection, fastest mobile broadband speeds, best value for money and easiest to use service. Three have been picking up plenty of awards recently including best mobile broadband network from comparison sites like Top10 and Broadband Expert but the You Gov survey carries particular weight because of the official nature of the award and the number of consumers included in the study.

Three’s Director of Mobile Broadband commented on the award saying We’re thrilled that our customers have rated us the number one mobile broadband provider in the UK for the second time running, but also that smartphone users, including iPhone customers, are seeing the value of our strong 3G network. It’s a huge accolade and we can’t thank our customers enough.”

The iPhone reference refers to yet another award for 3 recently when they were credited as best network for mobile internet on iPhone, also by You Gov. Three are making a big deal of the recent awards as they try to push the message in their marketing that they are the number one network for internet access on the go, including takeovers of several tube stations with the message and taking over the entire front and back cover of the Metro newspaper today.

Compare Three’s Mobile Broadband Offers

Today sees the start of a live trial of the feasibility of delivering mobile broadband over wifi on the London Underground. Transport for London, in partnership with BT, have started a trial of the service at Charing Cross station with users able to access the hotspot on the platforms of both the Bakerloo and Northern Lines in a move which, if successful, could see the access extended throughout the tube network, presumably including within the tunnels themselves.

The trial has been set up as a BT Open Zone hotspot which is great news for London based mobile broadband customers of O2, Vodafone and Orange who include free access to BT WiFi hotspots in their best mobile broadband deals. For other users you can still access the hotspots but will need to pay for access via a voucher, as with other Open Zone hotspots. If extended this move could see a real advantage for mobile broadband providers including WiFi in their tariffs and could potentially really shake up the market as their is currently no other way to access phone or internet services underground.

The trial will run for six months and will benefit the 68,000 passengers who use Charing Cross station every day. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has committed to making mobile communications available on the tube, preferably in time for the 2012 Olympics and this move looks like it may be one of the most cost effective ways of doing that.

Samsung’s iPad rival the Galaxy Tab launched in the UK this week and early reviews and sales look very positive for the South Korean electronics giant. The 7″ Android powered tablet PC has been largely well received by the media and public as the most credible alternative to the popular Apple device and the Head of Samsung’s Mobile Division has targeted one million sales by the end of the year.

The Galaxy Tab and other tablets are hugely exciting devices for mobile broadband users as they offer a highly portable and easy to use way of accessing the mobile internet when out and about, especially when paired with a mifi device like those from 3 Mobile Broadband and Orange. Their compact size, customisable apps and touchscreens bring a new dimension to browsing on the move and whilst they obviously don’t have all the functionality of a free laptop or netbook their portable nature, ‘instant on’ function and ever growing range of games mean they do have some advantages.

One disadvantage, so far at least, is the price which has not been as well received as the actual devices. The Galaxy Tab retails at around £500 whilst an iPad is closer to £600, almost twice the cost of a good netbook. It remains to be seen whether the networks will look to bundle subsidised tablets with mobile broadband in the way they do with pay monthly laptops which could see their popularity explode.

Telephone regulator Ofcom has published research showing that 87% of the population now live within 3G coverage and thus can have access to high speed mobile broadband where they live.

As network quality and coverage become more differentiating and competitive factors for the main networks it’s no surprise to see them investing in it more which is great news for us consumers. The research does contrast slightly with the announcements made by the mobile broadband providers about their coverage, 3 for example claim 97% population coverage and Orange 95% coverage with 3G but this will almost certainly be due to the methodology used.

Ofcom’s research found that only 12% of the population weren’t happy with the current level of mobile broadband coverage which matches very closely with the proportion of the population not covered at home. Also, large population centres were, not surprisingly, well covered but rural villages in large, sparsely populated areas of the UK, especially in Wales and Scotland were not within reach of 3G coverage, definitely a factor in the current debate about the digital divide.

You can check mobile broadband coverage in out coverage and speed section.