3 preparing a number of interesting items
November 22nd, 2007 
Tags: 3, Skype, SkypePhone, Travel, WiFi
3UK providing some useful information at the bloggers update session today. Firstly, 3 announced that they will soon be releasing a PAYG (Pay As You Go) USB Modem. This will be useful to occasional travellers fed up of paying for and relying upon hotel WiFi systems that don’t work as well as you like and never quite reach the bedroom.
Also more interesting was Adam Davis’s comment on the 3 SkypePhone. Adam is “Head of Marketing and Product Management UK Handsets” at 3UK, and said the following; “The important thing next year is improvements to the phone. The problem is different things are wanted in different territories, but we are looking at things like improving the camera, HSDPA, SkypeIN/OUT. But the bottom line is the price must not increase.” For some of us, the idea of SkypeIN and SkypeOUT would make the phone an interesting proposition on top of our normal mobile phone, and hence we believe once these features are available, 3 could be selling even more of these devices.
On that point, it’s worth pointing out that the iSkoot Skype product (which 3 use on the 3 SkypePhone) supports SkypeIN / SkypeOUT, so iSkoot already has the knowledge to get these things working.
Thanks to Ken at UK Mobile Report for some content.
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November 25th, 2007 at 10:45 am
I was not aware that the 3 Skypephone did not provide SkypeIn or SkypeOut until I got the phone home and powered it up. What a let down.
Now I can understand Skype’s and 3’s conflicting revenue interests here but I don’t like the outcome. Skype, you haven’t done well enough in your negotiations.
3, you are entitled to expect all out going phone number calls to go via the 3 Network. However, I believe that I am entitled to receive all incoming to my 3 Skypephone free and without blocking, regardless of their source or routing. Skype, you have let your customers down by not ensuring this occurs.
I do hope that both parties will resolve this issue shortly.
November 25th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Marc – as the article mentions, 3 are at least talking about offering SkypeIN / SkypeOUT in the future. I can also understand the issues from both sides of the argument, but I personally suspect we’ll see this fall in favour of the consumer at some point during 2008.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I wrote a quick workaround for SkypeIn and SkypeOut for the SkypePhone: http://leon.mvps.org/SkypePhone
December 28th, 2007 at 10:13 am
[...] we first mentioned here, 3 have now released their USB Modem as a Pay As You Go (PAYG) offering. Simply head over to their [...]