When it comes to browsing around the world the iPhone is a great contender, allowing you to view the web, emails or even chat on MSN if you need to, but sometimes it just isn’t enough to be browsing on your phone.

If your like me there are times you simply need the functionality of an actual computer, a little like last night when I may have accidentally mistyped a command into the system (read, I killed it). So if your out on the move what options are available to you? Well we’re going to look at three options, aimed mainly at the UK market, but it’s still advice you can use all around the globe.

iPhone Tethering
This is a great solution since it lets you connect to your iPhone wirelessly or via bluetooth depending on your operating system. The only trouble is, companies like AT&T and O2 like to charge ridiculous sums of money for the functionality. One that many people believe should be included in the iPhone plan. (Click here for details of the o2 Internet Tethering Option)

For o2 customers, as well as your phone contract you’ll need to pony up £10 a month minimum to give you 3GB data. Of course this comes with the ability to connect to local wireless hotspots for free if you don’t want to use your tethering plan. Unfortunately, those hot spots are limited only to o2′s own “The Cloud” service with plans to give access to BT Openzone (The most common one in the country) are said to be “Coming Soon” (N.B the site has said this since OS3 came out). Since The Cloud is few and far between this isn’t such a good deal, costing you £10 extra a month for 3GB usage and practically useless Wifi access, I got the opportunity to try this out some months after o2 released the ability and I wasn’t terribly impressed. The iPhone isn’t so good on getting signal anyway but the connection just felt slow, laggy and certainly required a lot of effort to maintain. The o2 network is also fairly slow itself, 3G data in most areas and all but the major cities scarcely gets 1mb.

At the moment at&t don’t offer internet tethering, and given their past reputation on rolling out things like this, they might never do until their hand is forced.

There are however sites out there that allow you to download a configuration file for the iPhone in any country to enable tethering, however o2 says they can “detect and will discontinue service” for anyone that uses it. I can’t quite see how they would but we’re pretty sure they would notice the increase in web traffic from your phone.

The Growing World Of Wifi
If you’re not as unfortunate to be in a place where there isn’t any wifi, the list of places that have it is growing at a phenomenal rate. WiFi is now seen as a selling point for private coffee shops and at least one major chain in the UK. Costa clearly hasn’t got the message here yet since none of the stores seem to offer even paid wifi access which might explain why all the stores around here are decidedly empty. Starbucks however have teamed up with BTOpenzone to provide free wifi to anyone with a starbucks card at pretty much all their stores. Ok so you have to have a Starbucks Card with at least £5 thats registered but it does give you more or less unlimited access in the UK’s biggest coffee chain.

Failing that, many hotels and airports are now realising that people wont pay for mediocre broadband services and have instead decided to offer simple free wifi with many other smaller coffee shops and restaurants catching on. It does however leave you high and dry if you have nowhere to go plus there’s the small matter of finding a spot with wifi, let alone a free one. I could sit here and list all the apps that would help with this but frankly I’ve never seen one that comes even close to doing a decent job. However sites like http://www.hotspot-locations.co.uk/ are ready and waiting to try and fill the gap, even if you have to check them from your iPhone or before you travel.

It’s by no means a perfect solution, but free wifi is starting to catch on as companies realise the ‘geek culture’ sweeping the nation means that people will go to a store to sit there, drink coffee and browse the web. Britain is famously behind for that but it’s getting there.

Wireless Broadband ‘Dongles’

This one’s taken some time to take off in the UK but finally mobile broadband dongles are becoming accessible for people outside of the business world.

The beauty of these things is that they connect to most Mac and Windows laptops with minimal fuss and can provide data anywhere there is a mobile signal, even if it is only at 2kb a second. It might not be much, but if you have one email your waiting for, this could make the difference between a missed job referral to something much more important, and yes alright we know you’ve got your iphone to do that.

The downside however, is the price. Put simply these dongles are well known for being extraordinarily expensive to run. Three offer a mobile broadband dongle starting at £7.50 a month. Reasonable, you might say, but thats for 1GB, a data limit that is easily hit with todays media rich and media happy people. Go over and some places will charge up to £1 per MB. Couple that with up to £30 a month for 15GB and you start to see the price points. It’s great for convenience, but you’re limited of course to the quality of data and level of service in your area and I’m sorry but, no matter  how many ‘signal strength’ searches there are but they really can’t account for buildings, interference and of course your house.

It’s hard to see which one of these is the best, but it’s more than clear that the tethering isn’t the way to go. It’s simply too expensive for what it is and it’s limited lack of functionality. Personally I find the best combination is a Starbucks Card for the times I’m sat near a coffee shop, and mobile broadband for when I’m not. The biggest problem with mobile broadband is the pay and go service. Unfortunately, no matter what you put on it, it expires in 30 days flat. Personally I would prefer to put say, £30 on the dongle, and then it expires only when I’ve used up the £30 allowance.  At least this way I could have a preloaded dongle for 3 months or until I needed it.

Still, we’re getting there, and we’d love to know your thoughts on this!