Omio News Blog

Three Revs Up ZTE Racer, Speedy Sub-£100 Android Smartphone

Mobile network Three are speeding towards the head of the smartphone pack, building on their incredibly strong handset line-up with the ZTE Racer – an exclusive Android device priced at just £99.99 on prepay.

Available from the end of this month, the Racer speeds out of the gate with the latest Android 2.1 software under the bonnet, sporting a simple chassis turbo-charged with a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 3.2-megapixel camera, 3G connectivity and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

With 2GB of memory via microSD card and a no-nonsense form, the ZTE Racer seems like the equivalent of a saloon car – perfect for those looking to get onto the smartphone highway in one piece rather than simply turning heads with go-faster stripes or a loud exhaust.

A decent ‘own-brand’ effort for Chinese phone maker ZTE, and hooking up with the data-savvy network should see many users opting for the Racer when looking for an affordable handset ready to roll online.

Prepay users reportedly get 150MB of data with every top-up of £5 or more, or can purchase an additonal 1GB for £5 more, whilst pay monthly customers will be on the standard amount of 500MB of data, with the option to grab an extra 1GB too.

The ZTE Racer will be in Three stores by the end of July at a price of £99.99 on pay as you go (£109.99 once they chuck in the tenner top-up), and from around £15 per month on pay monthly.

3 Confirm HTC Desire & Announce Free Twitter Forever!

3 have today made a double announcement:

The first is that it is now offering Free Twitter to all of its mobile customers… forever!

So it doesn’t matter whether you’re on Pay As You Go, or a contract, or whether you access via the browser, or an in-built app, it will be free to use Twitter.

Also, anyone worried about Twitter using up some of their internet allowance shouldn’t fret as it won’t be counted against their data allowance.

The second announcement is that the HTC Desire will be launching on 3.

After receiving a deluge of interest in the handset, 3 will be bringing an un-branded version of the handset to their customers, so you can enjoy HTC’s flagship handset in it’s unblemished ‘Urban Brown’ colourway.

The top of the range touch-screen Android device will be available free on tariffs from £35 a month, with 750 cross-network anytime minutes and unlimited internet and texts.

Check back later this month for HTC Desire deals on 3!

Via 3G.co.uk

Tweet For Free On 3 Phones For February And March

With some saying the Twitter whale is more powerful than ever as teens flock to the next trend, 3 UK are offering free access to the micro-blogging site on mobiles.

For all of February and March, whether accessing the mobile site itself or using the swanky app available on savvy phones like the INQ Chat 3G and Sony Ericsson T715, tweeting both messages and pictures is entirely free.

Zero. Zip. Gratis.

Charlotte Blanchard, Director of Products and Services at 3, said; “We want to make the internet as easy and affordable to use on your mobile as on your PC.  Our 3G network is built for services just like Twitter, so throughout February and March we’re encouraging our customers to give it a try.”

This offer is available for existing subscribers as well as new sign ups and is a great addition to the already online offerings from the 3 network, including Skype calls and instant messaging.

May we suggest that you start your voyage into the chatty world of Twitter by following us on @omiodotcom? We’re very interesting!

Spotify Prem bundle with HTC Hero on 3 now available

Music fans eager to experience the benefits of Spotify’s ad-free premium service through HTC’s Hero can now do so on a bundled deal with 3 mobile.

The deal, which we first mentioned a couple of weeks back, allows users to benefit from Spotify’s Premium service in all it’s ad-free glory.

Spotify Premium also allows users to download and play tunes offline – essential for anyone likely to make frequent underground journeys.

Redemption is simple enough too, just download the Spotify app via an in-box voucher, soyou could be enjoying Spotify’s vast back-catalogue of music via your gleaming new HTC in no time at all!

HTC Hero With Spotify On 3: Pricing Details, Release Date Announced

Earlier we reported on mobile network 3 UK inked a deal to offer music streaming software Spotify on mobile phones, now we finally have details on the hows and whens – and it’s good news!

Spotify on 3 will come bundled with the Android-powered HTC Hero, a handset which has won its fair share of plaudits including Gadget of the Year at the 2009 Stuff Awards, and bagging Phone of the Year at both Mobile Choice and T3′s Gadget Awards.

Available on a 24-month, £35 Internet Texter Plan from November 3rd, the handset will cost £99.99 upfront and bundle a “free” 24 month Spotify Premium subscription code (worth £240) right in the box.

The deal enables owners to become fully-fledged VIP members of the Spotify service, allowing music to be streamed and downloaded for offline use on both their home computers and mobile phones.

Charlotte Blanchard, director of Products and Services at 3, said: “We have built this service into an attractive, well-priced package. Over time, our deal with Spotify will extend across a range of our products including mobile broadband.”

Interesting to see how some savvy decisions have enabled 3 to be in a far stronger position than Nokia’s flagging ‘Comes With Music’ service, with a mere 107,000 users at last count.

Spotify has been given a new lease of life – and new sign-ups – since taking their solution to Symbian, iPhone and Android handsets, and this deal is the perfect way to court the casual consumer.

As Blanchard says, they intend to roll this out to other products in the future…who’s to say that a certain fruity phone won’t have a giftcard for Spotify in the box if they get their hands on it in 2010?

3 Reduces Data Roaming Charges To Lowest In UK

In another move to champion themselves as the nation’s best value network, 3 UK have announced Britain’s lowest standard data charges, inclusive of EU roaming.

From tomorrow (30 June), 3 will drive down their cost of browsing the internet using both mobiles and laptop dongles to only £1.25 per MB,  the lowest of any UK network.

Calls to the UK and to other EU countries whilst in the European Union will cost 34p per minute, while texts to the UK and other EU countries will cost 11p. Calls cost 15p per minute to receive, and receiving texts is free.

They are also eager to reiterate that this is not a limited time deal and is available to all customers, automatically, whether on contract or prepay.

Admittedly, the European mobile operator regulation requires all networks to comply with lower rates (€0.43 per min. calls and €0.11 texts) from the 1st of July, but 3′s new prices are a shade lower than the newly imposed charges.

This latest move is the latest in a long line from the 3 network to cement themselves as the best value network in the UK, following on from being the first to make VoIP service Skype available on the Nokia N97 and the controversial £0 per month ‘SIM Zero’ tariff.

3 SIM Zero Tariff Offers Free Calls, Free Instant Messaging, Freedom From 17th June!

Yes, the unthinkable has happened. In the phone deal price war currently raging, we have seen £8.50 monthly deals, £5 monthly deals, and even phones for a couple of quid.

3 has finally gone and topped them all by offering a £0 per month monthly deal!

Not content with attempting to get us all chatting online with free unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls, this new offer is a bid to get a precious 3 SIM into your phone and get you enjoying other aspects of their service.

Due to launch on the 17th of June, the SIM Zero tariff needs no top-ups, and is an intriguing hybrid of pay monthly perks and prepay freedom. So, whilst the voice calls via Skype and IM functionality won’t cost you a bean, making phone calls or sending texts will be charged at a standard rate.

In this respect, be careful as the minutes (and megabytes if surfing) can quickly stack to to a pretty penny for those used to more traditional pay monthly deals, but the billing rates are still very favourable compared to out-of-bundle costs on the other networks…

The SIM Zero deal breaks down as follows:

- Free Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messaging
- Free Windows Live Messenger
- Free voicemail in the UK
- 20p per minute for all standard calls
- 10p per text
- 30p per MB of data
- a 1 month minimum term, then 1 month’s notice to cancel

So, a pretty great deal for those people who like low bills as much as they dislike being tied into a long term contract, then… Head of 3 Pay Monthly Andy Nuttall echoes the sentiment:

“For customers who are fearful of commitment, SIM Zero has minimal ties. Customers can try us out and if they don’t love being with us, they can leave with just one month’s notice.”

True, the only things to bear in mind are whether you want to be on 3, and if you have a phone capable of making the most of their network. The landmark web-savvy INQ1 and SkypePhone S2 are both ready and raring at a cost of £69.99, so it’s a small price to pay for a big change in how people use their mobiles!

Twitter Phone From INQ, Coming Q4 2009

Noticing that the Web 2.0 world is only on the rise, INQ – owned by network 3 – has pledged to create a handset integrating Twitter into the device, due for a Christmas launch.

INQ has always been ahead of the curve, with the INQ1 proving that an integrated online experience can be quicker, more complete and cheaper than most smartphone offerings.

The social networking savvy device linked to MSN, Skype and mail clients with ease, culminating in the “Facebook phone” rightly winning the ‘best handset’ category at Mobile World Congress and selling in excess of 700,000 units.

With a massive increase in the popularity of micro-blogging, or ‘tweeting’, messages through the Twitter service to others, INQ sees the perfect opportunity to bring a dedicated version of the website onto a mobile and to the masses.

3 has seen a large increase in both data usage and revenue as young, socially active people access services more frequently through the INQ1 than your average smartphone user.

With the intention of launching both a Twitter phone and a second handset in the lead up to Xmas, INQ is determined to sew up the bargain web phone market. With twitterific ideas like this, they look set to!

Source: Reuters

New 3 Skype Phone Coming In Q4 2009?

If today’s ‘free Skype for everyone‘ announcement means that you no longer need a dedicated handset to enjoy VoIP calls on 3, what does that mean for the humble Skypephone, the handset that made chatting over the web cool since 2007?

Well, 3UK CEO Kevin Russell was clear in stating that it was not the end of the line for the Skypephone brand, far from it in fact….

He said that there would still be Skype handsets from 3 and the best experiences will be from a device with the service embedded, such as the original Skypephone, the S2 and the INQ1 which integrated contacts list from Skype, Facebook and your phone book to have one unified group of mates.

He went on to mention that there would be a new Skypephone in the fourth quarter of this year, and although Skype will be available on any phone from this Summer, they would be continuing to release dedicated Skype devices.

There you go, not only will you be able to Skype up your life with any 3G phone you might have knocking around, but can also look forward to handsets tailored to make the most of the web on 3. Roll on INQ2!

3 To Offer Free Mobile Skype For All

In a move touted by 3 UK themselves as “fundamentally changing the way that customers use and pay for mobile communications,” the data-loving mobile provider is freeing up its network to allow anyone with a 3 SIM to make both Skype to Skype calls and use the Skype Instant Messaging service – all for free!

The initial phase begins on May 1st, when all 3 customers on both prepay and contract deals will incur no data charges or require top-up fees for using Skype. Converts will be able to purchase a 3 SIM and speak to anyone else on Skype for free!

The seismic shift occurs in the Summer, when any unlocked 3G handset fitted with a £1.99 3 SIM will immediately be able to make free Skype-to-Skype calls.

The prerequisites are merely that the phone supports 3G, and the network reassures us that ‘the bulk’ of handsets currently available will be supported.

What has prompted such a bold change in direction? Well, 3′s UK CEO Kevin Russell was adamant that the mobile provider landscape today is long overdue for change. They want to force the move from the outmoded and rigid ‘minutes and texts’ template to one of flat-fees, freedom of data usage, and omitting termination rates.

That, and people use way more 3 services in general when they use Skype. They made 10% more voice calls, sent more texts, are big mobile browsers and access other social networking sites like Facebook. All of which take place on 3′s data networks and offer a higher margin.

When drawn on whether 3 was actually providing innovation in the mobile web whilst the iPhone and Safari were reigning supreme, Russell returned to the matter of money:

” We offer solutions at price points to open up the service to millions rather than the hundreds, and providing mass market solutions to revolutionise the industry.”

Whilst not an entirely altruistic act from 3 and Skype, they are certainly blazing a trail in terms of allowing consumers to be free to communicate to whoever they want, wherever they are, in the same way as they do on PCs.

In a philosophical moment at this morning’s press conference, Skype’s president Josh Silverman was very defensive over the reluctance for less visionary providers to embrace the social platform:

“The transmission of communication whether it be synchronous as in a voice call, or asynchronous as in a blog post or an IM, is all just the transfer of 1s and 0s across a network. Skype’s shortcomings on some phone networks are down to carrier policy, not the software’s capability…I find it offensive that they prevent some forms of 1s and 0s such as ours from being transferred, whilst allowing others. What’s the next step, blocking certain websites based on political views?”

This is not, however, an exclusive deal, with 3 rather aspiring to have all mobile operators embrace this data driven change in direction, rather than their adverse reaction to Skype and VoIP in general at present. Remember the ‘Skype embedded in Nokia N97′ announcement? The backlash was severe.

With 3 currently facilitating over 1.5 million Skype minutes on its network each day in the UK, it’ll be exciting to see what opening up free mobile Skype to all and sundry will do.