It seems that a lot of visitors to netbook planet are already in possession of a netbook or laptop and are more interested in getting a mobile broadband dongle.

To that end we are taking a quick look at the most popular and best value dongle only deals.

If you are a data whore and need a big monthly allowance then the great new offer from Three mobile gives you 15Gb per month for £15. You have a choice of several dongles but it does require you to take out a 24 month contract which isn’t for everyone but if you want that much data then there really is no other viable option. Any other network will charge you twice as much for only 5Gb per month and still want a 2 year contract.

If the long contract is an issue then consider that a £30 deal for 12 months will cost just the same.

Vodafone have recently dropped the price of their Dell mini 9 deals but the dongle only plans are still worth a look.

You can have 3Gb a month and a free dongle on a 12 month contract for £15 a month or 5Gb a month with free dongle on a 12 month contract for £25 per month. If you want to stick your neck out and take a 24 month contract on the 5gb plan then the first 3 months are only £15 saving you £30.

T-mobile offer 3Gb per month on an 18 month contract for £15 per month and a 5Gb plan for £30 per month on a 24 month contract.

If you expect your mobile broadband use to be occasional but you want it just in case then you can get a pay as you go dongle for just under £30 and then you pay £2 for every day that you use it. Obviously if you end up using it more than seven days a month then you might as well have got a contract.

One last thing to add to the mix is maximum download speeds.  Three are certainly offering the best price in the marketplace but their dongles all have a maximum download speed of 3.6mbps whereas T-Mobile and Vodafone both offer a maximum download speed of 7.2mbps.

In practice this isn’t likely to have a huge impact as you need to be in a particularly good signal area to achieve anything like those speeds and even then it will be dependant on other network usage in the area.

In summary we find it difficult to recommend anything other than the 15Gb plan from Three at the moment.  It is time for the other major players to respond with some serious price cuts.  Network coverage in your area will also have a bearing on your final choice (you can check out coverage by postcode on our free netbook page).