3 Mobile UK

Recently 3 Mobile UK were nominated in three categories for the Top 10 Broadband Awards 2009. The good news is that 3 triumphed taking home:

“The Best Value Mobile Broadband Award for their Mobile Broadband Max product, sweeping aside stiff competition.” The judges noted “Combining a low monthly cost of just £15 with a monthly data allowance of 15GB, […] offers outstanding value for money.”

The existence of the awards shows the growing prevalence of mobile broadband as a necessary service, something backed by figures as described by Top 10 Broadband’s Kimberly Howson,

“An investigation by the global media market research group Screen Digest has revealed that the usage of dongle devices rose by 800 per cent between 2006 and 2008.”

This is reflected in 3’s own research with the first six months of this year showing a 170% rise in mobile broadband consumers. And, with 3 endeavouring to make mobile communication in all forms available to everyone, the award of Best Value Mobile Broadband is an important achievement.

If you’ve got thoughts on how the mobile internet industry is moving forward, then leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

On the back of the recently announced agreement with the Irish government to bring broadband to the entire country, 3 have linked up with a technology firm from California to contribute to achieving this.

Nextivity will be delivering to 3 ‘Smart Repeater’ devices that are designed to boost the broadband signal in houses where ‘packet loss’ occurs – the weakening of the base station signal due to surrounding infrastructures.

Silicon Republic has all the details, including the news that while not every residence will need a Repeater, 3 has been proactive in making sure the devices are part of the strategy to deliver on the National Broadband Scheme.

Online at What Mobile is the INQ1 review from the February issue of the magazine.

It’s a comprehensive assessment that gets to grips with the device and what it can do. Understanding that the INQ1’s applications are available on other phone models they praise the integration – the feature they see as keeping it out of the crowd of other mobiles jostling for marketing position.

They mention that the INQ1 is built by Amoi, the same company behind 3’s original Skypephone and the S2. And it is this that leads to their verdict:

“What the Skypephone did for cheap phone calls, the INQ1 does for social networking. This phone has got to be the cheapest way to enjoy all of the latest services…”

Full 4/5 conclusion here.

In an article written for Mobile Today, the CEO of 3 UK, Kevin Russell, predicts that in 2009 we “will see a shift in the balance of power between the customer and their service provider, with the service providers having to work harder to keep the customer happy.”

He puts this shift down to the lack of confidence and consumer spending caused by the credit crunch (is it being called a full-blown recession yet?), and hails this as a “change for the good”, which, I’m sure, most (if not all) of us would agree with. Russell also points out that, despite the state of the economy, “small moves have been made to bring down costs for consumers through slightly lower VAT, but there is a real opportunity to bring substantial savings by removing mobile termination rates.”

A promising outlook for 2009?

There’s more to read if you follow this link. Let us know what you make of the CEO’s comments and what you think it’ll mean for 3 customers… in real life, I mean.

3 will be increasing the speed of its turbo mobile broadband in Sweden.

This has been covered over at From The Hip, who suggest that theoretically speaking the broadband speeds will max out at around 21 Mbps. Alongside this, network coverage is also due to be extended.

Due to be available commercially in the second quarter of 2009, you can read the From The Hip article here, as well as leave them any comments.