BSkyB, BT, Everything Everywhere, O2, TalkTalk, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone have all signed up to the new code which should help broadband customers make better decisions about which packages are most suitable.

With all of those internet providers onboard, 9 in 10 fixed-line broadband customers and 6 in 10 mobile broadband customers are covered.

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the leading advisory group to the UK government for broadband, assisted in producing the code. Their Chief Executive, Antony Walker, said, “This commitment to provide clear and comparable information in a common format is very important. It will not only help to ensure consumers are better informed about the services they buy and use, but will also provide a clearer picture for policy makers of the way in which traffic management is actually used in the UK market.”

“Consumers need to be able to make informed choices about the services they buy and policy makers need to be able to make informed decisions about the policy and regulatory framework they set. This new commitment provides an essential building block for getting both of these things right,” added Mr Walker.

If you want to make informed choices about internet deals then it would be a good idea to browse our selection of broadband prices from a variety of internet providers. View our latest Broadband Deals now.

Anyone who subscribes with Vodafone to their Standard, Premium or Ultimate mobile broadband service for 18 months gets a free dongle and the first three months free.

The Vodafone Standard mobile broadband package costs £15 a month for a 3GB data allowance. Thrown in with this package you also get basic PC protection (anti-virus, anti-spyware and auto-update) and 2GB of PC backup.

Both the Premium and Ultimate mobile broadband packages come with premium PC protection (anti-virus, anti-spyware, auto-update, firewall, spam filters and control panel) and 20GB of PC backup. The Premium deal costs £20 a month for 4GB data allowance and the Ultimate will set you back £25 a month for 5GB.

Vodafone also have a Starter mobile broadband internet package which comes with few frills but a very cheap price tag. The main incentive with this offer is that you don’t need to subscribe for 18 months. For £15, you can sign up for a month at a time, you still get a free dongle and 3GB data allowance but without any PC protection or PC backup. The Vodafone website says that the 3GB of data allowance that you get on the Starter and Standard packages will have you surfing online for up to 100 hours.

For a regular comparison of these sorts of mobile broadband offers from a range of internet providers along with mobile broadband deals with free gifts such as laptops, keep an eye on our Best Mobile Broadband Deals page.

So what is the Dell Netbook like?

A brief technical specification shows that the Netbook, or Dell Inspiron Mini, has

• a very compact 8.9 inch LCD screen, 22.6 Cm in new money
• a 1.6 GHZ Intel Atom Processor
• Windows XP
• 1 GB Ram
• 8 GB hard drive (with optional memory expansion)
• Less that 1KG
• WiFi enabled with build in mobile broadband from Vodafone
• and an integrated Webcam

So, this is a very small, very light laptop, perfect for browsing on internet, anywhere!!  It does only have a 8GB hard drive though, so you won’t be able to download too much music, or store thousands of photos (unless you get the memory expansion at extra cost) but this is one of the most ‘mobile’ laptops on the market.

And the built in Vodafone mobile broadband?

According to Vodafone, they offer the quickest mobile broadband on the market, up to 7.2 mbps, but this will depend on where you are in the UK.  You can check your coverage very easily using Vodafone’s helpful coverage checker .  All sounds good, and they offer either 2 choices of package, a 1 GB package (meaning you can download up to 1 GB of data i.e. music, photos, MSN, e-mails from the web) for £25 or the 3 GB package for £30 which represents the best value for money if you use your laptop a lot.  It’s very important to get the right package for you so use this data checker to find out whether you can get away with the 1GB or need the 3 GB.  It’s very important as if you exceed your download limit, you get charged an additional usage charge of £15 per GB.  If you think you will use more than 3GB, be warned this deal may not be best deal for you.  You can have a look for other deals with a higher limit with our mobile broadband comparison table.

So all in all this seems a great deal, a funky new Dell Laptop for free with the speed and coverage of the Vodafone network, all for just £25 per month.  You are locked in to a 24 month plan however, but if you feel you will be using the Internet a lot, whether on your travels, at uni or with work, then this could work out as a great deal.

To view more information on this deal, visit our Vodafone Mobile Broadband section or if you would like to view more mobile broadband deals with free laptops from T-Mobile, 3 or Orange view our profiles for the best current mobile broadband deals with a free laptop