Broadband System Requirements

Wireless broadband is not particularly demanding on your computer. Most - if not all - newish computers will have the necessary system requirements for wireless broadband internet access, whether they're PC or Mac, Laptop or Desktop, or public or private.

  Mobile Broadband Broadband At Home
General requirements
  • USB port (TYPE A)
  • 20MB of free hard disk space
  • Ethernet port if connecting via Ethernet
  • Wireless networking device if connecting wirelessly
Mac OSX 10.4 and above
  • Macintosh computer with an Intel, PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 processor
  • At least 512MB of RAM
Windows XP SP2
  • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack Two
  • Pentium 300MHz processor or equivalent
  • At least 128MB of RAM
Windows Vista Home Basic
  • 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  • At least 512 MB of RAM
Windows Vista Home Premium/Ultimate
  • 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  • At least 1 GB of RAM

Check your specs

Got no idea whether your computer system has any of the stuff in the table above? No problem. Hopefully you at least know if it's a Mac (also known as Apple) or a PC? If you don't know, since only about 5% of computers are Macs, chances are it is a PC.

  • PC: Select the Start Menu, then select Control Panel, then select System.
  • Mac: Select the 'Apple' menu, then select About this Mac.

This should tell you all the stats you need to know!