Following on from a post I wrote a few days ago, covering the impending tie-up between 3 (in the UK) and Spotify, we now know the tariffs that are involved. According to TechDigest, it will be:

£35/month, which gets you Spotify premium included, plus unlimited texts, unlimited internet usage, and 750 mins of calls. The Spotify subscription can also be accessed from your PC too. The HTC Hero I mentioned during my last post (it’s going to be the first device with the service on it) will cost £100 upfront also – always good to know.

Hmm, that’s not a bad deal – the Hero is a good device, and having Spotify on Mobile, for those that use it, I’m sure is a major boon.

[Via: TechDigest]

No, no, no, not a quantity of 3 handsets, but rather some of the range of upcoming handsets from Operator “3″ in the UK!

New Media Age has confirmed that Spotify has done the deal to enable it’s streaming music service to go on selected devices from 3 – which is it’s first mobile operator partnership.

The service will go on the HTC Hero, and that’s apparently due before Christmas – after that, there is (again, apparently) going to be a further set of devices that will come bundled with the service – of those, I’d bet on the INQ devices being at least one of them!

Interestingly, this means that Spotify and Nokias ‘Comes with Music’ will go head to head, in a battle of the music services – however, whilst the CWM business model is well known (the device subsidises the music subscription), the Spotify tariffs are not yet known.

In terms of direct-to-customer Apps, Spotify already has an App for the iPhone and Android devices, weighing in at £9.99/month – so it should be fascinating to see if the 3 deal betters this.

[Via: New Media Age]

The slimline INQ Mini 3G is going to be available on 3UK, free on the £15 Internet Texter plan, from … now! The tariff, created for the launch of the INQ1, offers free internet, free 3-to-3 calls, free voicemail and 75 minutes for £15 a month. It will also be available free on any Mix & Match tariff.

On Pay As You Go, the handset slots neatly into the value end of 3’s range at £59.99, offering a market leading price for such an anticipated phone. Top-ups start from £5 online and £10 from all other outlets, and with every top-up customers get a bundle of free texts, a generous allowance of Mobile Internet access, free 3-to-3 calls and free voicemail. The larger the top-up, the greater the rewards – and you can use them for 90 days whether or not the balance is in credit.

Both Pay As You Go on 3 and all contract tariffs come with free Skype-to-Skype calls and free Windows Live Messenger in the UK. And if you buy the INQ Mini 3G on the £15 Internet Texter plan, or on Pay As You Go, all your internet, including Facebook and Twitter, is covered by your bundle.

In case you’ve not come across the Mini 3G yet, it adds Twitter to the range of great internet products built into the heart of INQ’s phones, adding to Facebook, IM and Skype. Applications are easily accessible from INQ’s carousel menu system which can be pulled up on any screen using the handy switcher key.

The new Twitter application lets customers make the most of the ‘always on’ capability that the applications on the INQ1 are known for. Like Facebook, IM and Skype, after the first log in, Twitter stays ‘on’ in the background, letting customers send ‘tweets’ and ‘retweet’ using the phone’s application.

As well as improved software and additional functionality, the INQ Mini 3G is the first mobile to follow the new look and feel for future INQ handsets. It can also be customised with a range of seven coloured backs. INQ Mini 3G will be available with red backs in-box, other coloured backs will be available from 3 Stores.

Omio.com is reporting that 3UK have picked the INQ Mini 3G for release – arriving early October.

As you might remember, the Mini 3G is one of a duo of devices that are following up the INQ1 – both are rocking some serious social networking connectivity, with more native apps than you can throw a bluetooth headset at!

The INQ Mini 3G is a slimline Social Mobile that offers Twitter, Facebook, IM, Skype and standard ‘IMAP’ email services like Hotmail.  It brings the usability that INQ is known for to a new form factor.  Like the INQ Chat, the INQ Mini 3G offers impressive capability at a fraction of the price of other application-rich devices.

• Active address book is presence-enabled showing live status from all your contacts, letting you chose how to contact them
• Built-in plug and play HSDPA modem to give your PC wireless broadband access
• 2.2” QVGA TFT landscape display
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• 100Mb user memory (expandable to 8GB)
• Brew 4.0 and Java MIDP 2.0 for application development multitasking supported by dedicated Switcher hard key

Both phones have plug and play HSDPA modems enabling high-speed wireless broadbandon PCs and Macs.

So what do the tariffs look like? Well on contract you can get the device free on the £15/month Internet Texter plan, or even better, you can grab the device for a fairly amazing £59.99 on Prepay! Both contract and prepay deals get free Skype-to-Skype calls and free Windows Live Messenger access.

The Mini 3G also has changeable covers, which are obviously one of the most important features of a mobile phone – I know I won’t buy a device if I can’t swap the back panel at will … ahem …

[Via: Omio.com]

The owner of the “Three” mobile operator group, Hutchison Whampoa, has taken a stake in Spotify, the streaming music service that we’ve all been hearing so much about recently.

We don’t know the amount that has been invested, but it’s been enough to get HWL a seat on the board of Spotify. Specifically, it’s the Chairman of INQ (HWLs handset division) that has the seat – so it doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that Spotify is going to get (even more of) a Mobile steer – with particular consideration to INQ I’d suspect.

One further leap in inference, and you can see the next round of INQ handsets coming with a native Spotify app on board – which would be a cool thing. If they can get some kind of semi-persistent storage going on on the devices, that would be quite excellent indeed – then you’d have music on the go, even when you were out of coverage!

[Via: Mobile Choice]

3UK will launch a Mobile Wi-Fi service – also known as MiFi® – in time for Christmas this year, allowing you to use Wi-Fi wherever you can access the 3 network with a small wireless modem. The wireless modem sends out a Wi-Fi signal so that you can connect a range of Wi-Fi enabled devices to the internet without the need for wires or a USB connection. No fixed-line is needed; customers simply require 3’s 3G coverage to connect.

The wireless modem – smaller than your average mobile phone at just 86 x 45 x 10 mm – allows you to create your own personal mobile Wi-Fi connection. You can connect multiple devices to the internet at the same time so while you are checking e-mails on a netbook, you can also download a track from iTunes onto your iPod touch.

Set-up is simple.  No software installation is required. Simply switch on the wireless modem and connect to the Mobile Internet using a Wi-Fi signal.  A Wi-Fi enabled device will automatically pick up the signal and ask for an eight-digit network key which you will be asked to input just once for every new device you want to connect.

Like other Wi-Fi style services in markets across the world, Mobile Wi-Fi from 3 is an ideal solution for both consumer and business use. It offers the UK market the most flexible and convenient way to get online since the arrival of the Mobile Broadband dongle over 2 years ago.

Marc Allera, Sales & Marketing Director at 3 UK says, “There are millions of Wi-Fi devices out there, but they can only be used in fixed locations. Consumer demand for easy and affordable internet access on the go is growing fast and we’re responding to that by announcing the UK’s first wireless modem. Using Mobile Wi-Fi from 3, consumers can connect to the internet wherever they have a 3 signal, whether at home or on the move. They can download a track onto their iPod touch, or tweet their latest updates to their mates, or both. Either way it’s simple to set-up, without the need for wires.”

Mobile Wi-Fi, also known as MiFi®, will come to 3 in time for Christmas 2009.  Pricing will be announced closer to launch.

[Via: 3UK]

According to Mobiletoday.co.uk, 3UK has launched the first ‘zero pound’ SIM-only tariff – which gives customers free Skype too (if they use a 3 phone). The deal comes in on June 17, and further builds out 3’s selection of tariffs which have Skype inclusive.

Apparently it’s a rolling tariff, so customers have only 1 month lock-in with the deal – a nice touch I think. But more interesting is the fact that Three seem to be on some kind of a mission to give customer massive amounts of free minutes (albeit with some limitations on who is being called). Ostensibly though, Skype on 3UK is now very similar, cost-wise, to Skype as you would use it on the InterWeb.

Whether this is going to take off is hard to tell – what do the IntoMobile readership think?

[Via: Mobiletoday.co.uk]

You’ve probably heard that Hutchison’s and Vodafone’s Australian operations want to merge to create a new operator called VHA, which stands for Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) Hutchinson Australia. Well, the government has nothing against the deal, even though they raised some concerns earlier that it could kill the competition in the market.

The new founding is that the move is unlikely to hurt competition, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The reasoning behind this flip-flop is the “increasing need for mobile network operators to have sufficient scale to be able to continue to make significant investments in their network capabilities.” Hold on a sec – am I reading this correctly? Hutchinson and Vodafone don’t have the money to invest in infrastructure?

Sure, Australian market is not that large, and they need to make some money along the way, but we’re talking about two friggin’ giants here.

Anyway, now that the government doesn’t have anything against the deal, guess it’s all about the timing and operational things to complete the deal. We’ll certainly cover the official “VHA lives now” news, have no doubt about it.

Well palmwebosblog.com has narrowed it down to a few Operators, and discounted Three within that mix! I’m not going to spoil their analysis, or the good work done by the Really Mobile Project in checking stuff out too, but instead comment where I believe the Pre is going – and I reckon Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) is where it’s going to be at – why? – just call it a gut feel….

Which Operator do you want to see the Pre on? Let us know!

[Via: palmwebosblog.com via: Really Mobile Project]

I reported recently on the news that 3 were to offer free Skype-to-Skype calls – well now they are promo-ing it heavily, with the help of Skype!

The email I received (see pic above) carries quite a bold claim – but then again, free Skype calls on Pre-pay handsets, without needing to top up ever,  is potentially a game-changing offering!

Anyways, if you want to learn more about what 3 have on offer, then check out their site here.