Virgin Media has joined the mobile broadband party, offering a fairly competitive package which is even cheaper for existing customers.

Certain existing Virgin customers can get Virgin Mobile broadband for just £5 a month, depending on which package they subscribe to, but this comes with a 1GB data cap.

Although this should be enough for those just wanting to check email and do some basic surfing, those doing anything more data intensive may soon exceed the limit, which incurs an extra cost of £15 per gigabyte. Alternatively, non-Virgin customers, or those wanting a higher limit, can sign up to an 18-month contract at £15 per month with a 3GB data allowance.

Customers will also get a Virgin-branded Huawei E160 HSDPA USB stick, currently Huawei's most recent USB mobile broadband modem. The unit is much the same size as a standard USB thumb drive, and includes a microSD slot allowing it to act as a combined removable storage device and internet connection. This will be particularly useful for netbooks, which usually have just USB slots.

The device also has hidden LEDs, which light up through the casing to provide basic information such as data speed.

Set-up is very straightforward as the installation software is stored on the device. This means that users just need to plug it into a spare USB slot and run the install program. Once complete a Virgin Mobile Broadband icon is placed on the desktop to launch the application.

The application is very simple to use, and provides a range of useful information. As well as allowing users to connect and disconnect to the Virgin Mobile network, there is a signal strength indicator and a very useful graph plotting upload and download activity.

The main screen also provides a range of details including time connected, current upload/download speeds, and session, daily, monthly and yearly data usage, vital to making sure users do not exceed their data limits.

From the menu, users can also send text messages to up to 20 people at a time, at 10p per message, as well as manage address book details for up to 200 contacts stored on the SIM. The management menu also gives the user access to diagnostics and PIN tools, as well as a user guide in PDF format.

Virgin promises speeds of up 4.5Mbit/s, but in most areas we were only able to get an average of around 1.5Mbit/s with spikes of up to 2.5Mbit/s, and very occasionally 4Mbit/s when we could maintain a 3G signal. Although not nearly as high as the advertised speeds, nor as high as Vodafone's purported maximum of 7.5Mbit/s, the connection was stable and fast enough to do email, surf and even comfortably stream clips from YouTube or BBC iPlayer.

As with all mobile broadband services, the quality of the connection will depend on where you are, and from our own usage we had a pretty good signal in most places around London.

We would always advise anyone considering using one of these to check what coverage is like in the places they will most commonly use the device. Virgin Mobile says its 3G network covers over 85 per cent of the UK, and has an online form where people can check the coverage in specific areas or post codes. Most providers will usually give out this information, as will some broadband comparison services.

Unfortunately, unlike some other mobile broadband providers such as O2 or BT, there is no included connection to any Wi-Fi hotspots, so customers will be entirely reliant on the mobile data connection.