i tested a vodafone 3g datacard last week, a breeze to setup, worked
quickly at expected speeds, no trouble.

today, however i tested an orange 3g datacard ... same breeze to setup
but speed wise was a dog from same location as vodafone one. (may be
better from different location, going to try a few)

the orange one connects at 115k compared to 384k of the vodafone. but
even then it didnt even give me ordinary modem speeds - signal said was
strong and good but internet connection speed was terrible - took ages
to load up just text pages. didnt manage to logon to my work vpn
connection with it once - it did get to authenticating stage but never
got past it ... not so sure if speed or congestion on that score at the
moment but the vodafone one just went straight in.

that was in centre of birmingham ... ill test it in cannock monday and
giving it out to a user who'll be trialling it in oxfordshire over the
next month.

anyway ... initial thoughts was .... vodafone far better (although thats
purely based on initial impression and 1 location) ... ill re-assess
once tried a few locations out.