'3' to revive mobile internet

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated: 04:47 EST, 17 November 2006

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Mobile phone operator 3 is linking up with a band of top online firms as it looks to fix the problems surrounding mobile internet usage.

The company has struck deals with Skype, Yahoo, Google and MSN so that customers will eventually be able to make free internet phone calls and watch television and films on their mobile phones.

The operator spent billions of pounds on the Third Generation licenses and developing the mobile internet technology, but customers still use the phone for making simple calls and have complained that the signal coverage is poor.

Hutchison Whampoa, which owns 3, hopes the planes to offer fixed-line broadband services such as web calling and home TV on mobile phones, will attract more third-generation (3G) customers.

The Hong Kong-based ports-to-telecoms conglomerate said its 3 UK mobile operation in Britain would offer services next month such as unlimited web calling, instant messaging, search and other applications on mobile handsets for a flat monthly fee.

'This is about enabling people to do with a mobile handset what they would generally expect to do at home sitting in front of their PC at home or their TV,' Hutchison's Group Finance Director Frank Sixt said.

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Called X-Series, the service will be priced like fixed-line broadband and will be rolled out in the group's eight other 3G markets early next year. It will initially be available on two handsets -- the Nokia N93 and the Sony Ericsson W950.

Customers will be able to make unlimited calls over the web from their mobiles using Skype software, watch their home TV on mobiles, access their home computer remotely and have access to messaging services from Yahoo, Microsoft and Google.