From: Ad 

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39029453,49285322,00.htm

I know vodafone are about to follow suit. Broadband on the move. In fact I
have a friend who can get 3 3G & is a 3 customer but only has the
choice of a single broadband supplier (he lives near Hull & Kingston
comms has a monopoly) & he's looking to use it as his broadband...

"Hutchison, more commonly known as 3 in the UK, today announced a
partnership with Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo, Nokia, Google, eBay, Microsoft,
Orb and Sony Ericsson. The idea is to bring all of these services on to
your mobile for a flat rate fee -- it's been dubbed
'X-Series'.

According to the hype, you'll get free Skype-to-Skype calls to any PC or
other X-Series user worldwide, be able to search on Google and Yahoo, send
MSN instant messages to your friends, watch your TV from a Slingbox, access
your computer at home with Orb and buy or sell stuff on eBay.

So far the only thing getting between the majority of consumers and the
mobile Internet has been the cost of accessing online content and the
limitations of certain sites on certain handsets. 3 says it is going to
eradicate these problems by charging a set fee and making sure that its
handsets support the content properly. The first handsets to be sold on the
X-Series plan will be the Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson W950i Walkman
phone.

Researchers at IDC say that 1.3 billion people will connect to the Internet
via mobile phones by 2008, and a recent study by Informa Telecoms and Media
and the Mobile Entertainment Forum estimated that mobile user-generated
content will be worth $13.2bn by 2011. As most of the speakers at this
morning's presentation pointed out, the traditional mobile strategy of
charging people per megabyte is like using dial-up, whereas a flat-rate
plan will give users the freedom to do much more.

This isn't the first time we've seen a flat-rate plan go into action,
though. T-Mobile also started its Web'n'Walk plan this year, charging users
œ7.50 for unlimited mobile Internet use. The main difference between these
two services, though, is that 3 is planning to offer a better overall
package, with more preinstalled applications than T-Mobile. The X-Series
service will be available in December."

The vodafone kit my mate has been talking about is a microcell + wifi i.e.
an all in one radio solution such that your mobile hooks into the microcell
when you're near enough & you get el cheapo voip calls & equally
your PC hooks in & you get broadband.

Course if like this 3 deal you get skype & 3 can hook a moble number to
your skype account...then why do you need the "microcell" part?

Adam

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