Over recent months competition amongst mobile broadband providers has become increasingly tough, with the popularity of mobile broadband quickly gaining momentum, and providers of mobile broadband all wanting a piece of the action. In a recent announcement Vodafone has thrown down the gauntlet and increased the competition by announcing that it is expanding its network.

Vodafone is to expand its high speed mobile broadband network to include a number of other major cities in the UK, and this includes Manchester, Reading, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Bristol, where consumers will be able to enjoy access to the 7.2mbps 3G network.

Vodafone aims to extend the network by the end of the year, and the expansion will allow it to serve an additional three millions mobile broadband users. However, officials state that users should expect speeds to be significantly lower than advertised, as is the situation in most cases.

The mobile broadband service offered by Vodafone uses high speed download packet access (HSDPA), which is sometimes referred to as 3.5G. This will allow consumers to enjoy uploads of up to 1.8mbps, which is six times the current limit of 300kbps.

Vodafone recently announced that it was offering unlimited Internet access on its mobile phone packages. However, consumers should be aware that the fair usage policy states that the limit is 500MB, which is significantly lower than that offered by other providers on their entry level packages.