Mobiles2day - Mobile Industry News

3 UK introduced Motorola RAZR2 V9 handset as it’s latest offering. 3 didn’t have any Motorola handsets llately and now re-introduced first one by troubled manufacturer.

This is an extract from 3’s press release:

“3’s Director of Products Fergal Walker said: “Motorola’s renewed focus on powerful 3G handsets like the RAZR2 V9 means we can welcome them back into 3’s growing portfolio. A strong roadmap and some compelling products will help us give our customers the best possible choice of 3G phones.”

17 MOTOAGENTS will tour the entire 3Store base throughout March and April to help reintroduce the Motorola brand to 3 staff and customers.

“Motorola is delighted to be working with 3 on the launch of the Motorola RAZR2 V9 across the UK,” said Jim Michel, General Manager, UK & Ireland, Motorola. “The rich capabilities of the RAZR2 V9 are a perfect match for the advanced services and experiences available through the 3 mobile network. Together, we have great expectations for how the product will perform in retail and are looking forward to building a portfolio of Motorola products available on 3 in the future,” he added.”

The RAZR2 V9 is available from 3Stores and Three.co.uk from 13 March 2008.

Short Specs:

2.0 Megapixel Camera with 8x zoom and photo light P2P Video calling camera Video capture and Playback MPEG4 Talktime: 180 mins Standby: 295 hrs45MB internal Memory 4GB expandable memory using MicroSD cardDimensions: 103 x 53 x 12.9 Weight: 120g

Valentine’s Day is coming tomorrow and if you are still looking for a present or just simply looking for new mobile contract, here are deals worth considering:

3 is giving away 1 Nintendo Wii every hour starting tomorrow at 10:00AM!

Customers who buy mobile contract or mobile broadband contract from 3Store are eligible for this prize draw.

Check 3 offers here.

T-Mobile have similar competition which is already running from 1st February 2008. T-Mobile gives away 3 prizes, worth £3000 each in Capital Bond vouchers. These vouchers can be used at Virgin Holidays. So you can win that dream holiday you wished for!

If you buy any contract plan including U-Fix with either LG, Sony Ericsson or Samsung phone, you will be automatically entered into prize draw. Winners will be announced on 29th February 2008 and T-Mobile will contact winners on that day, if they will not be able to contact winner in 2 days, T-Mobile will re-draw and choose another winner.

Competition ends 14th February, cancelled contracts will not be eligible.

Check T-Mobile offers here.

Nowadays every operator is offering mobile broadband packages. If you thinking about getting one, I have compiled data from all operators for you to have an overview and comparison. You can see what different options available and decide which one suits you best.

Vodafone

Vodafone offers range of devices for mobile broadband: USB Modem, USB Modem 7.2, USB Modem Stick and ExpressCard. See table below for quick overview.

Device	Device Cost(12months/18months)	Cost Per Month	Speed	Comments
USB Modem	£99	£30	up to 3.6Mbps	No long term commitments, you can cancel anytime with 30 day notice. Plug and play on desktops or laptops and Macs.
USB 7.2	£57.58/FREE	£30	up to 7.2Mbps	Speeds of up to 7.2Mbps. Plug and play on desktops or laptops and Macs.
USB Stick	£116.33/£57.58	£30	up to 7.2Mbps	Small, slim and fast, only on Vodafone
ExpressCard	£57.58/FREE	£30	up to 7.2Mbps	Advanced receiver, ideal for laptops, adaptor for PC card slots supplied

USB Modem 7.2, USB Modem Stick and ExpressCard can also be purchased on Mobile Broadband 24, any of the listed devices will cost £199.75 and 24 hour access will cost you £9.99. This is ideal for occasional users who do not go online everyday.

Also you can purchase Mobile Broadband Travel price plan, which will cost you £111.63 per month but gives you 200MB per month included on any network abroad and £4.99 per MB after that. This is ideal for people who travel abroad regularly and have to be connected all the time.

All broadband tariffs are subject to fair usage policy, 3GB download limit applies to monthly plan, 500MB limit to 24 hour access. If you do not use your monthly or daily allowance, it is not rolled over to next month/day. So you either use it or loose it.

Vodafone’s terms and conditions say that if your usage is continually excessive, Vodafone will warn you and charge you, may limit the speed of your service or ultimately terminate contract.

3

3 offers only USB modem with it’s broadband packages but have bigger range of price plans. See table below for available options.

All of the above packages are available as Pay As You Go options with same allowances and cost but you will have to pay £99.99 for USB modem (available in various colours), you will have 1 month to finish allowance and every 1MB over allowance will be charged at £1.00.

Available colors:

T-Mobile

T-Mobile gives you a choice between USB Modem or Data Card. See table below for price plan options for USB modem:

Data card options:

T-Mobile also gives you access to Wi-Fi hotspots for free if you are new customer. This can be handy if you like to surf web while sipping coffee in Starbucks or travel often and need access at airport.
Prepay option also available, you will have to buy USB Modem for £99.99 and 24 hour access will cost you £4. It makes sense to buy a contract if you will be connecting more than 5 times a month.

So how do they compare?
If you travel abroad a lot and you need constant access to internet, Vodafone is best option. Other carriers do not give you bundles with international allowance, but at the same time Vodafone is the most expensive. Vodafone also claims that speeds can be up to 7.2Mbps, which is the fastest but I am not sure what speeds you actually get when using it.

If we compare 12 months contract with 3GB allowance and USB Modem, 3 comes cheapest at £20.83 per month (including £69.99 for modem), followed by T-Mobile at £29 (you get free Wi-Fi connection) and then Vodafone at £38.25 (including £99 for modem). Good thing with Vodafone’s package is that you can cancel contract with 30 day notice, so no long-term commitments!

Comparing to basic BT broadband package, you will have to pay £11 phone line rental and £17.99 per month for 5GB package. In total you pay £28.99 per month, you get speeds of up to 8Mbps but you are not mobile. So as we can see, there are now mobile packages which are even cheaper than this and you have advantage of taking it with you whereever you go!

I personally tried T-Mobile’s USB Modem as well as Datacard. USB Modem is much more easier to install and use, it is really plug and play as they say. Datacard is compact and can sit inside your laptop, but there are problems if you remove it and then insert again. Drivers may need to be re-installed and your datacard will not be recognized. I would say USB Modem is much morefriendlier option and gives you flexibility to use it with laptop or PC. I found that daytime there could be times that you may not get decent connection speeds, eventhough you have full 3G reception signal. Night time connection is pretty reliable and you get decent speeds as well.

So decision is yours, it all depends on your choice of what you need and what you going to use it for!

If you have any comments or experience with mobile broadband, leave a comment!

Popular smartphone Nokia N95 Black is now available from 3. You can get it with 18 month contract as low as £15 a month. Handset comes with full length Spiderman 3 movie, which you can watch on handet’s 2.8″ QVGA screen or at home using TV Out application.

You can buy it from 3 here.

With recent 15.0.015 firmware update for the N95 8GB from Nokia, handset is more stable and faster, and it adds full support for Flash Lite 3, including video, which automatically allows the use of sites such as YouTube. With this capabilities, you can utilize 3’s 3G network to the max, watch videos online, download music and browse media rich websites.

Black Nokia N95 8GB is already available for about 6 months from Vodafone.

I wonder when other providers will offer this handset so that customers on other networks can get hold of this handset.

If you own this handset and updated firmware recently, please share your experience!

See handset review here.

T-Mobile UK and 3 announced yesterday that they have signed a deal to share 3G networks. This will enable both telecomms provide fast wireless network covering 98 per cent of the population by the end of 2009.

Companies insist that this move should not be considered as prelude to merger, companies will remain competitors and will not share 2G networks. Companies will continue manage their own services and customers.

Unlike other UK operators, 3 and T-mobile did not invest in fixed line broadband service, they are trying to position themselves as promoters of wireless broadband and this deal should enforce this position. Mobile broadband that both companies provide is based on HSDPA technology, which can offer download speeds of up to 7.2 megabits per second.

T-Mobile and 3 are first to conclude infrastructure deal, previous attempt between other operators have failed (Vodafone and Orange, T-Mobile and O2). Both telecomms will save in long term on reduced radion installations and attracting more customers with broader 3G coverage.