Although mobile phones have been able to access the internet for some time now, the experience still falls far short of that which is available on desktop and laptop computers. Currently, there are four types of mobile connection to the internet: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, and HDSPA.

GPRS(General Packet Radio Service) is the slowest type of web connection available to mobile phone users, at a rate of 128kbps, which is the equivalent of dial up. The next step up is EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution), which at 236kbps is almost double the speed of GPRS.

The type of connection that really made mobile internet a viable option is the 3G (third generation) standard, which was touted as being the mobile equivalent of broadband, although in reality, the average speeds achieved through a connection of this type are more in line with the dial-up connections used by desktop computers in the 90s. However, this still represents a massive improvement over the almost unusable GPRS and EDGE standards.

The newest kid on the block is HDSPA, a souped-up version of the 3G standard, which claims a theoretical maximum data rate of 14.4Mbps, with the emphasis on the theoretical. In practice, however, they are only a little bit faster than a standard 3G connection, and are often less reliable, although this is set to improve in the years to come as more bandwidth becomes available to 3G networks.

If you are disappointed by the quality of internet access that you can achieve through the mobile networks, you may be heartened to learn that some newer mobile phones are also able to connect to the internet via the proven Wi-Fi transfer protocol.

However, Wi-Fi is not available everywhere, and if you want to use it, you often have to pay for it by the hour.

One major problem with accessing the internet on mobile phones is that most web pages have been designed with much larger screens in mind than are available on most mobiles, although there are some websites, such as FaceBook and Twitter, that have special mobile versions available.

Manufacturers have taken note of this problem and developed new smartphones, such as the Nokia N97 and the HTC Magic, that have larger screens and control devices such as trackballs and touch screens to allow you to navigate as you would with a mouse.

However, most mobile phones, even the larger ones, still have trouble coping with multiple windows, and certain websites, such as the popular video site Youtube, cannot currently be viewed on mobiles at all.

The mobile internet may have a bright future ahead of it, but it cannot be said to be quite there yet, although things are improving steadily.

Discover the latest Vodafone mobiles and services including mobile broadband that lets you connect to the Internet whenever you want.