Orange reports 500% increase in dongle mobile broadband sales

Mobile phone operator Orange has revealed that sales of mobilebroadband subscriptions via dongle have increased by 500 per cent during the past year.

The company claims in a report that it has signed up 3.8 million customers to its 3G internet service, either by dongle or smartphone.

According to Orange, this has resulted in a 108 per cent increase in the quantity of mobile data being downloaded from its network.

Search engine activity has also increased by 120 per cent on the firm's dedicated portal, with social networking websites the most requested category, followed by ringtones and games.

Mark Watts-Jones, head of product management at Orange, told PC Pro: "There has been an unprecedented upsurge in the number of customers accessing social-networking sites via their mobile phones, with unique users increasing by 50 per cent since the last report."

Mobile video is also booming in popularity, with downloads increasing by 38 per cent compared to last year.

Meanwhile, the World Cellular Data Metrics report by analysis firm Informa Telecoms & Media has revealed that the US market for mobilebroadband grew by 24 per cent year-on-year during 2008.