After just having purchased the new Vodem from Vodafone, as well as being a Telecom wireless broadband customer, I’ve made a few comparisons:

One aspect I have discovered after much research, is that the pricing plans between the two are almost identical, meaning that one can forget any price issues and concentrate solely on the hardware functionality.

The Vodem plugs into the USB port of the computer, which can possibly be considered a drawback.

However I do like the idea of a SIM card in the Vodem, which means that my user details are loaded onto the SIM card by Vodafone, so unlike Telecom, no username and password are required to connect to the internet.

Plug in the Vodem into the USB port, and push connect.  Simple.

The Telecom equivelent is a PCMCIA card, and is arguably more space efficient than the Vodem which of course has a USB cable attached.  Therefore the Telecom device looks far more tidy on your desk!

In terms of speed, it really depends on the area you are in, however comparitively the two products seem identical to me.

The best feature of the Vodem is no software disk is required to load.  The software required to run the Vodem is on the device itself.

When you plug it in for the first time the software loads automatically (and is compatible with Windows Vista). 

No need for software disks if you want to change the Vodem onto another computer.

Both these products have similar reception and range.

I’ve used both on the boat at sea, and they seem to have no problem with range.

After having used both the Telecom & the Vodafone Vodem, my preference is now for the Vodem, for one main reason:

No software disks to load, and it connect very quickly (Possibly due to no user name & password authentication).