Sales of prepay dongles have risen to 8,000 per week in the UK, as the popularity of mobile broadband continues to boom outside of contracts.

GfK figures show that prepay USB broadband stick sales alone have risen substantially from the start of the year, when around 1,000 per week were being sold.

Non-specialist retailers such as Woolworths started selling prepay dongles two months ago,and 3 dominates the prepay dongle market.

In total more than 30,000 dongles are now being sold each week in the UK across prepay and postpay.