Mobile Today has been on the case again and got a quote from the 3UK CEO Kevin Russell, regarding his predictions for 2009.

Mr. Russell starts off by saying that because of economic conditions, the customer is going to have more power with respect to the Operator – essentially customer retention is going to be a big issue, since customers will obviously looking for enhanced value.

3UK has been focusing on both growing the customer base, but also looking at costs – inlcuding self-service options for customers, network-sharing (with T-Mobile (NYSE: DT)), and also the retail footprint in the UK.

Like with the O2 (NYSE: TEF) predictions, Mr. Russell sees a huge growth in the use of Mobile data – with the USB broadband dongle, but also going forward with devices like the INQ1 (which 3UK launched last year – see here). The INQ1’s tight integration of social networking services is an indicator of more people using internet services on their devices, Mr. Russell believes.

I pretty much agree with everything being said again here – the ‘killer app’ (if that’s the right phrase) for last year (and the year before) certainly seem to be the USB broadband dongle – an astonishing success in a somewhat more tepid mobile market. And devices like the INQ1 definitely have got the integrated mobile interweb approach sorted, even if perhaps the brand is still very new. I guess 3 will be working on new devices and services around INQ over the next year, to really drive take-up.

[Via: Mobile Today]

Mobile Choice UK is reporting on a special tariff available for the new INQ1 handset from 3. As you may know, the INQ has been delivered by an offshoot of Hutchison, essentially a new handset vendor.

The INQ1 has been gaining lots of press attention (including ours, here) for the fact it integrates tons of social network features across services like Windows Live Messenger, and the daddy of SN, Facebook.

Anyhoo, the tariff is as so: £15/month for 18months gives the handset for free, with unlimited mobile internet, text messages, “3-to-3″ calls, and finally, 75 mins to any network. Add a fiver to that tariff, and you can have 200 x-network minutes.

[Via: Mobile Choice UK]

independent.ie is reporting that 3 Ireland has won a €40m contract for the National Broadband Scheme (NBS), beating Eircom (another Irish MNO).

The Goverment-backed NDS scheme is to get broadband to the 10% of the population that can’t get Internet services i.e. those in remote rural areas. Whilst the contract should be sorted out in the next couple of weeks, rollout may actually complete sometime in 2010, or even 2011.

It’s a good win for 3 Ireland, and even more than that, a great intiative by the Irish government – those who are geographically marginalised shouldn’t be marginalised in terms of access to key services these days. So it’s smiles all-round I guess. Apart from those bidders that didn’t win the contract. They probably aren’t smiling.

[Via: independent.ie]

Mobile Today is reporting that 3UK customers can now get Sky channels on their Mobiles.

Interestingly, the video will be served up ‘off-portal’, which means customers will need to decide whether to take out an internet add-on package, before streaming. The result, cost-wise, is that there will be charges for the service, and then for the add-on, apparently.

Sky TV Mobile has a flat rate of £5 per month or £1 for a day. An internet add on from 3 is available from £2.50 per month for 10MB of data.

The Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N96, having launched across most Operators, is carrying iPlayer on board – so I wonder whether the move above is part of a strategy to open up as much TV as possible to subscribers – after all, too much choice never hurt anyone, right?

[Via: Mobile Today / Image via: Sky, Three]

Buongiorno has announced that they are successful in a bid to provide the outsourcing of 3UK’s Java Games Platform (the same win for 3 Ireland too actually!). Buongiorno merged with iTouch last year, and this will be the first implementation by the Group in the UK and Ireland.

The platform (with a portal front-end) wil aggregate all the top content providers’ titles – with an aim to become the leading mobile games shop.  Promos will be via a “Games Club”, and through plenty of attractive bundles for customers. Apparently Buongiorno won due to the strength of their offering, and also their extensive Java Games expertise.

Well personally I’m quite chuffed about this – I like both 3 and Buongiorno, having worked with them (and also iTouch previously) – and I think the sum of the offering will be even greater than it’s (already good) parts! Get ready for a great games portal, 3UK/Ireland customers!!

[Via: 3G.co.uk]

­Hutchison Telecom has reported that for Q3 this year, it added 11.2m subs to it’s total user base. This was across both newer and more established operations.

In Indonesia, 401K new subs were add, making a total customer base of over 3.6m. In Hong Kong, a 50% of the 3G market was reached, and in Israel 8% growth led to total subs of around 2.9m.

The high profile launch of iPhone 3G in Hong Kong during the quarter boosted mobile data usage and related revenues with over 40% of the iPhone users subscribed to the highest monthly plan. As a result non-voice revenue of the Group’s Hong Kong mobile operations as a percentage of total revenue trended up to 21.2% during the quarter.

Of course, Hutchison Telecoms is well known for the 3 brand across a number of Mobile OpCo’s – however they also have significant investments in other Operators, both Mobile and Fixed-line – as the results above show. In the current economic markets, those are results not to be sniffed at!

[Via: Cellular News]

3UK has announced that it is planning to have 14.4Mbps speeds rolled out across the UK by 2010. Currently it has 3.6Mbps rolled out to 95% of the population, and the intermediate step of 7.2Mbps will come sometime between now and 2010, depending on where you live.

Of course, the thing with these numbers is that they are largely coverage/user dependent – if you don’t got good coverage, or you are in a busy cell, I shouldn’t expect anything like these numbers. In fact, reading some of the comments from 3 Mobile Broadband users, they seem to suggest that the uplink rates (which are usually less than downlink, but should still be respectable) are actually throttled to a very low number- which isn’t really what the messaging of this announcement is trying to convey.

Right now there seems to be a bit of a backlash against any sort of advertised ‘possible speeds’, and also toward the ‘unlimited usage’ policies that always have a caveat of ‘within fair use limits!’ in small print.

Overall, I think there might have to be a paradigm shift soon where Operators focus on quality – both in the sense of network capacity, but also of customer care – rather than the maximum theoretical speeds of a given service

[Via: The Register]

The INQ1 Mobile Phone

INQ¹, the world’s most advanced social networking mobile phone, is unveiled today and brings Facebook to the core of its user experience.  The phone will be available exclusively from 3.

The Headlines for the device are:

• INQ, a new mobile handset manufacturer backed by Hutchison Whampoa, unveils first device based on a radical new user experience
• New mobile integrates Facebook into the heart of the handset along with Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.fm
• UK’s biggest 3G network and mass market pricing brings next generation of mobile internet communications devices to users from just £15 per month

INQ brings the Facebook experience to the INQ¹ with one-click access and live updates pushed direct to the front screen of the device.  Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Last.fm are integrated into the heart of the phone and a host of other social utilities can be customized by the user.  This makes the device the first ever real-time interactive, ‘live contact book’ with friends’ online status and Facebook profile pictures displayed against their contact details.  In addition, the phone offers integrated RSS feeds, free Skype-to-Skype calling and unlimited free instant messenger capabilities.  INQ¹ also allows you to directly upload pictures to your Facebook profile from its 3.2 megapixel camera. For these reasons, INQ refers to the INQ¹ as the first Social Mobile.

Facebook on the INQ1

INQ¹ will be available free on a contract tariff from £15 per month offering unlimited free Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and web access, plus 75 minutes of calls to other networks, unlimited texts, unlimited email and unlimited free 3-to-3 calls*.  £20 will get you all of the above but with 200 minutes of calls to other networks. INQ¹ will also be available on PAYG at £79.99 with internet packages available from £5 per month.

Address Book on the INQ1

Specifications

• Weight: 110g
• Size: 97 x 47.6 x 14.4 mm
• Display: 2.2” QVGA 262k colour TFT
• Battery: 1150mAh
• Networks: GSM 900/1800/1900, EDGE/UMTS 2100
• Memory on board: 50 Mb
• External memory: to 4Gb
• Browser: Netfront 3.4 + Flash + Accelerometer
• HSDPA:    3.6
• Colour: Black & Silver
• Chipset: Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) 6260

Features

• Facebook, Windows Live Messenger + Skype in address book, inbox, idle screen
• Facebook photos in caller ID
• Email (Outlook, web email)
• MP3 player (inc. Last FM)
• Search, Weather + Clock widgets
• RSS support
• Plug ‘n’ Play USB Modem
• 3.2 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera
  

UK readers – visit Three.co.uk for more info!

Is 3's teaser for the INQ-1? Only time will tell!

As I was writing my previous post, some more info came to light on what it is that 3UK might be up to on Nov 13 – though at this point I will say this is speculation, co-incidences often pan out the way you expect …

So, check out Telecom TV’s coverage of an interview with the INQ Mobile CEO Frank Meehan, where he talks about the services-centric INQ-1. There is a lot here that sits nicely with the 3UK teaser, so might we see a new handset (range?) launch?

The Telecom TV coverage is here. Make up your own minds on that one!

Thanks to Guy Daniels at Telecom TV for the info!

Is the 3UK teaser related to INQ? Could be...

knowyourmobile.com has spotted an interesting little teaser on 3’s site regarding a new product launch that is tied to Facebook.

The microsite has a countdown timer linked to it, running out on November 13 – at which point we’ll find out what is going on – my guess is that it will be the first of the INQ Mobile devices that I reported on a few weeks back.

At any rate, roll on November 13!

[Via: knowyourmobile.com]