LONDON: British mobile phone operator 3 UK will offer free long distance phone calls and unlimited access to broadband internet service for a fixed fee. The operator, a unit of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, said the new service will start in December and will cover operations such as unlimited web calling, instant messaging, search and other applications on mobile handsets for a flat monthly fee.
Called X-Series, the service will allow users to access the internet in the same way as they access it from home using broadband connection, the company said Thursday.
Major internet firms are readying themselves to get into mobile internet in a major way as there are estimated three billion mobile phone users across the world, compared to one billion people with PCs.
The service will be priced on the lines of fixed-line broadband and will be rolled out in Hutchison Whampoa's other 3G markets next year. It will be available on two handsets -- the Nokia N93 and the Sony Ericsson W950-- initially.
Subscribers will be able to make unlimited calls over the web from their mobiles using software offered by another internet phone company, Skype, watch TV programs on the phones, access home computers remotely and also have messaging services from Yahoo, Microsoft and Google.
The company has already concluded partnerships with Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo, Nokia, Google, eBay, Microsoft's MSN, Orb and Sony Ericsson for the service. It said using Skype, the users will be able to call any one of the service's 136 million registered users around the world for free. Using a Slingbox, they will be able to watch pictures from their home television sets on the phones anywhere in the world.
Under an arrangement with Google, customers will be able to search with Google.
3 has 13.5 million customers and its operations cover Italy, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel and Ireland, besides the U.K.
