Three (3) is planning to increase its current mobile broadband speeds across its network to 7.2Mbps. It’s hoping that it’ll be in place by the end of the summer, with a further increase to 14.4Mbps HSDPA in the near future (by early next year).

However, expanding to 7.2Mbps doesn’t mean consumers will get to enjoy the service at that speed. At Three’s current speed (2.8Mbps), the most consumers are getting is 1Mbps+ (even though, apparently, a delivery of 3.6Mbps is possible).

In reality, 7.2Mbps would most likely mean a real world speed of 2Mbps at the most. Three have said that the focus of its upgrades isn’t primarily to increase speed but ‘to offer greater capacity, in order to serve more users’.

Unfortunately, Vodafone already has pipped Three to the post - it already has a 7.2Mbps network. And Three’s other competitor, Orange, recently announced its plans to meet its 14.4Mbps target by the end of next year as well as a 7.2Mbps rollout campaign across several UK cities in the short term.

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T-Mobile is set to rebrand its whole fleet of Web n Walk packages. Soon, Web n Walk will be no more. The company has decided that in its place will be the name ‘Mobile Broadband’.

Mobile Broadband will be split into 3 separate categories: Mobile Broadband Plus, Mobile Broadband Max and Mobile Broadband Daily. ??T-Mobile has chosen to go ahead with the whole rebranding move in order to better differentiate between its USB mobile broadband and its mobile mobile broadband.

However, it would appear that Web n Walk won’t be totally extinct. Internet access on mobile phones will still be called Web n Walk.?? Confused….? ??I think some T-Mobile customers will be.

Regardless of T-Mobile’s rebranding stance, it doesn’t take away from the annoyingly irritating fact that, for some reason, it continues to charge its customers extortionate amounts for mobile broadband access when they go abroad.

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The mobile phone industry’s gearing up for an anticipated Christmas deluge and is due to wrap up its drawn-up strategies fairly soon.

December tends to be the month when the industry experiences a significant peak in sales. Last 4th quarter, it sold an extra 750,000 contract, prepay and Sim-free products (715,000 of which were prepay).

This December is expected to be no different. The wave of new products set to make their market debut towards the end of the year is likely to ensure those sales stay on the up and up. Amongst them: O2’s 3G prepay iPhone (plus their 2nd version Skypephone), Carphone Warehouse’s ‘Webbook’ and Virgin Mobile’s dongle – products all looking to get a piece of the Christmas pie.

This Xmas also sees a race to the finish in the megapixel camera-phone department between Sony and Samsung. LG and Motorola are also alleged to be rolling out one of their own.

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Mobile phone operator 3 has taken the step of placing a blanket ban on using it’s mobile broadband services whilst abroad. The decision affects all customers who wish to use their USB dongle or mobile phone to access 3G data services whilst away from the UK.

The move follows several instances of “bill shock” whereby some customers have inadvertently incurred thousands of pounds worth of data charges whilst abroad. Three customers who wish to use their 3G mobile internet package abroad will have to contact their provider to lift the ban before they travel although a credit limit will be applied in order to avoid any excessive charges.

Chief executive of 3 UK, Kevin Russell, said on Tuesday, “Because of the huge disparity between what we charge on our own networks and the costs charged by many networks for wholesale roaming across Europe, which we are forced to pass on to the customer, we have decided to make a data-roaming bar the default for our contract mobile broadband customers”

Currently, Three operates it’s mobile broadband network in several European countries including Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden. 3 customers roaming between these networks incur no extra charges, but elsewhere in Europe charges vary from network to network.

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Ian Dobsyn, a 34 year old IT worker from Manchester, got a real surprise when he found out he was charged £31,500 for using his mobile broadband connection whilst on holiday in Portugal.

The astronomical bill was the result of downloading the Sky TV Series Prison Break and some MP3s. After negotiating with his service provider, Yes Telecom, a revised bill was drawn up up for a more realistic £227.


Mr Dobson’s solicitor stressed that customers should read the small print in their mobile broadband contracts relating to roaming data charges.

This latest case follows similar episodes of staggering mobile broadband bills incurred abroad. Earlier this year, an Oxfordshire solicitor was billed £4900 for downloading an episode of the BBC’s Apprentice whilst in France.

Original story from The Times

UK computer retailer, PC World will give you a free laptop if you take up a mobile broadband subscription with network operator 3 via their stores.

This is one of the offers in it’s “Get Connected” initiative which enables customers to purchase and be immediately connected with all their computing, broadband and Digital TV needs.