The mushrooming mobile broadband market represents the best piece of technology to emerge in 2008, one expert has insisted.

Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC has highlighted the growing use of dongles as the best development of the year tech-wise.

He said that the growing method of internet communication had been a revelation for mobile phone operators, with 3G connectivity replacing fixed-line broadband in many homes.

Mr Cellan-Jones commented: "The mobile networks suddenly discovered a whole new market and a way to use all that 3G capacity they had spent billions building.

"Dongles are now being plugged into routers and used as an easy way for a household to share a broadband connection without using a fixed line."

Sector commentators foresee the rise of long-term evolution 4G technology from the year 2010, allowing mobile broadband speeds to continue increasing.