TALK ABOUT connecting the unconnected. The INQ has just discovered that mobile operator 3 UK has been connecting the previously unconnectable with its mobile broadband offering.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair had the socially disadvantaged in mind when he was urging the ICT industry to help get all UK citizens onto the net.

But effectively what 3 UK is doing is getting the large number of the previously 'disenfranchised' onto the internet. These are people who actually have the money but for various reasons can't get fixed line access.

3 UK is, of course, naturally very wary of talking about to this type of clientelle. What a 3 UK spokesman would say, however, is, "Our prepay mobile broadband offers have opened up broadband to people who have never had good access before."

If you're a student or you're living in rented accommodation, then the prospect of an 18-month fixed line contract makes little sense and it's also expensive.

Alternatively, your address might have a poor credit rating for any number of reasons. [A previous partner, for example.]

Or you simply plan to move house in a few months. All of these things are barriers to fixed broadband.

"We're pleased 3's prepay mobile broadband offering - which gives the same in-bundle pricing as our equivalent contract offering - is connecting such people," added the spokesbod.

The beauty of mobile broadband from the likes of 3 UK is, of course, that you don't have to pass credit checks or even have a fixed abode to sign up to the prepaid version of mobile broadband.

All you need is a computer, a USB port and a decent signal from the nearest 3 mast.

This might help explain why 3 UK has sold some 500,000 mobile broadband dongles when its actual total subscriber base is only three million plus.

So that's something like one in six customers are just using mobile broadband rather than voice. Impressive.µ