After the years of controversy, nay-saying and all round pessimism that have dogged the development of 3G mobile phone services, it still seems a little surprising that the technology ever made it into actual, real live products. Nevertheless, the third generation mobile networks are finally up and running, albeit with limited coverage, and early adopters all over the UK are learning that the novelty of live video chat wears off a lot quicker than you'd think.

Mobile phone behemoth Vodafone has launched its first 3G product into the IT market. Rather than offering a 3G mobile handset the company has released a datacard that allows laptop users to access the Internet via the new high-speed network. The premise is simple: plug this PCMCIA card into your laptop and you'll get broadband Internet access whenever you're in range of Vodafone's 3G network. Before we get into the details, let's answer the most important question: yes, it works, and it works pretty damned well.

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We tested the card in several locations around London and, even though the signal strength varied considerably between areas, the card provided a decent connection. In areas where the reception was at full strength we achieved download speeds of around 380kbps. This is not quite as fast as a typical cable or DSL connection (512kbps) but plenty fast enough for the kind of applications mobile workers are likely to use and certainly a massive improvement over the GPRS connection mobile Internet users have been stuck with thus far.

When you move out of 3G range the card switches over to a GPRS connection, which offers speeds similar to a standard dial-up modem. We didn't expect it to work as smoothly as it did, but we have to admit that the transition between the two connections is fairly seamless nearly all of the time. Vodafone's 3G network is currently restricted to major cities but is expanding fairly rapidly, and you can get a GPRS connection just about anywhere in the country. A coverage map is available on the company's Web site.

Installation is a doddle. We set the card up on a Compaq Armada E500 running Windows 98SE (the minimum Windows version supported) and had a live connection within ten minutes. The card is managed via Vodafone's Mobile Connect dashboard, a simple application that tells you everything you need to know about your connection and even allows you to send SMS messages from your PC.

Our main gripe about the card is that in order to boost network performance, the system performs extra compression on nearly all Web page images. This includes buttons and logos as well as photographs, and there's no option to turn it off. While it's not usually that noticeable, the over-compression can sometimes make images look bad and if the quality of images in web pages is very important to you then we recommend that you try the card out in a Vodafone store before parting with cash.

The only other negative that's worth mentioning is the large antenna that comes with the card. It's about five inches long and needs to be positioned vertically for optimal performance. That said, when attached to the top of your laptop's screen it's bound to score some bonus gadget-points from other commuters when you're checking your e-mail on the train into work.

For more information about Vodafone please visit the pages below:
Vodafone News Centre for the lastest announcements
The Vodafone Shop for the Latest mobile phones
The mobile services section for mobile broadband

This could be the start of a revolution in mobile Internet access, adding a fast new option to the existing wireless networking solutions available to laptop users. If and when the 3G coverage improves, datacards such as this are likely to become a staple component of the mobile worker's inventory.