We’re all getting used to HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) for fast downloads on mobile broadband and our mobile phones, but T-Mobile has today switched on it’s HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) facility, which does the same thing for uploads.  Limited to a maximum of “only” 1.4mbps, it’s faster than most broadband download speeds! Not all kit supports HSUPA today, and it’s not clear how widespread T-Mobile’s roll out is today, but it’s a start.  They’ve also upgraded their HSDPA to a maximum of 7.2mbps, but again, without coverage information, this may not benefit many people either.  The only good thing is that T-Mobile have at least stated that the 7.2mbps network is likely to result in real world speeds of 4.5mbps, in line with other providers.

T-Mobile have announced price reductions in their SMS and data costs whilst roaming. SMSes will now cost 25p (instead of 40p), and data will now “only” cost £1.50 per MB (down from £7.50 per MB). Whilst we support these price reductions, we don’t think they go far enough to encourage people to use these services completely (when 3 will give you Mobile Broadband in the UK for £10 for 1GB, it puts into question these data roaming charges). For calls, we recommend you look at MaxRoam, but until they support data, you may still be better just leaving the phone switched off.

These price changes should take effect from next month, according to SMS Text News, but we would recommend you check with T-Mobile if you are going to rely upon the price to use the service abroad.

It appears at the last minute, 3 have decided to extend the half price Mobile Broadband offer for existing customers until the end of June, so you can still head off to the 3 Store for this offer.

If you’ve been to the 3 Store recently, you will have seen the Mix and Match 1100 tariff on special offer; £20 per month (a 25% saving). There’s been a few comments on the internet about the fact that this offer is about to end (in fact, we were notified by 3 it was due to finish on Saturday). 3 have now confirmed to us that this offer is still currently on, and will remain, but will only be offered online.

However, we understand that the half price mobile broadband for existing customers deal is due to end this Saturday, so if you fancy that, head off to the 3 Store quickly and sign up.

Update: The £20 M&M1100 offer will only continue for a few more days, finishing at the end of next week.  However, 3 are looking at creating some online special offers moving forward.

Nokia have updated the E90 firmware. The main additions are Flash Lite 3 support, direct YouTube video support, a newer version of Quickoffice, plus a load of bug fixes and tweaks. Unfortunately, as Ewan over at SMS Text News has reported, Nokia have temporarily removed Vista support. This means that the Nokia Software Updater won’t work on Vista. It’s no different to last month when it did work, but apparently, some recent updates to Vista have occasionally made NSU unstable, and this has led to mobiles being broken beyond repair. Given the potential damage, we can understand Nokia making it very difficult to perform, but removing all capability seems to be taking things a bit too far. What with Vista also causing problems with USB Broadband devices, we can understand why XP is still so popular.

It appears Vodafone have taken 3’s concerns (and complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency) seriously, and are revising their claims for the Mobile Broadband service. Having claimed users could get 7.2mbps, 3 have pointed out that the real maximum is more like 6.69mbps, and even that figure is not always obtainable. Vodafone will now, instead, concentrate on tasks like “Downloading music videos” as they shift the advertising more towards a consumer bias.  To compare, 3 state you are likely to get 2.8mbps on their network, although they plan to increase this in June.

It appears a recent Vista security update is causing problems with USB Mobile Broadband devices, including the 3 Modem Stick.  It appears that the update causes Vista PCs to power down the dongle, even though it’s connected and data is flowing.  Shane from SOS has come up with an interesting solution, which he has released on his blog.  Basically it’s a batch file which runs a directory listing of the disk section of the USB device every 5 minutes to ensure it’s kept active.  Hopefully, a proper fix will be released by Microsoft soon; given O2, Vodafone and 3 are all in talks with Vodafone, it hopefully won’t be too long.

Story courtesy of 3mobilebuzz.

According to an article by Fresh Plastic, the 3 SkypePhone is now available at both Woolworths and Sainsburys at just £39.99 on PAYG. Even better value, this includes a £10 TopUp credit, reducing the real cost. We’ve been a fan of the 3 SkypePhone since launch, and since then 3 have made a small, but significant change to Internet Access. For 50p a day, £2.50 a week, or £5 a month you have always been able to access the Internet direct from the phone, but for the last few months, 3 have opened up a new option for customers; Mobile Broadband.

Mobile Broadband costs £10 per month, but importantly allows you (under the T&Cs) to connect your PC through the 3 SkypePhone to access the internet. Technically, the cheaper Internet Access is limited to direct access from the mobile itself, and this limitation is removed for the Mobile Broadband option. Now, some people question whether this is worth the extra £5, given the fact that the same £10 also buys you 30 days credit for a PAYG USB Modem too. Well, remember that it also gives you free Skype access on the 3 SkypePhone, and with the ability to configure the phone to provide the PC access via Bluetooth, then you can have the same access without anything attached to a Bluetooth capable laptop. For many, this Skype access makes the 3 SkypePhone better value. Even if you only topup with £10 per month, and use this all for mobile data (ie you don’t use it for phone calls) the device will feel useful because of the Skype access. Of course, looking at the other point of view, the 3 USB Modem will get higher data speeds, so that may be a deciding factor for that option instead.

Price drop story courtesy Fresh Plastic [Via 3mobilebuzz]

BT has announced that it will be helping it’s BT Business Total Broadband customers to turn their premises into WiFi Hotspots, allowing visitors to be able to access the Internet without having access to the business customer’s network. The press release mentions the BT FON community, and we wonder whether they are planning to offer the BT FON community offering currently only available to home users. Interestingly, the press release even makes mention of these visitors being able to make VOIP calls, an interesting statement from a company historically reliant upon call revenue…

More information as we can obtain it.

Thanks to Mark at Automated Home for alerting us to this article.

For £5 per month, the BT Vision service will now offer PictureBox from Universal, which offers a choice of 28 films per month. BT Vision already offers a range of monthly subscription packages, and this new one should go live on 5th May. The PictureBox service is already available on TopUp Anytime (Freeview based) and Tiscali TV (cable based). BT promise the films will not have already aired on Free to Air TV channels, although they may have already featured on other premium services.

BT Vision uses a Freeview PVR box, but to get BT Vision you must already have a BT Home Hub (ie be a BT Broadband customer). However, the self-install version of the service includes 2 Powerline adaptors allowing you to use the power cables to connect the PVR with the Home Hub if they are in different rooms or different locations. A nice touch there, with someone thinking through the average UK house design…

On Friday O2 finally launched their competition to Vodafone and 3’s Mobile Broadband. For £20 a month you get a 3Gb allowance (with a handy text message at 2Gb warning you the allowance is running out). Over that, it’s 20p per MB. However, you do also get unlimited WiFi via The Cloud. One limitation - you must be an existing O2 customer, and it’s an 18 month contract. There’s a month-by-month option (a bit like PAYG) which is still £20 per month, but you’ll need to buy the USB modem at £120 first.

Unlike 3, the max speed on offer today is 1.8mbps, with O2’s 3.6mbps rolling out in June.

Certainly the unlimited WiFi deal is a bit of a differentiator, but compared to 3’s offer of half price broadband to existing customers; and with the trick of getting a 3 Skypephone on a 6 month contract just to become a customer, it’s not necessarily the cheapest way of getting online for everyone.

Some content courtesy of SMS Text News.

3 have made a number of changes to their mobile broadband USB modems today. The new USB Stick Modem is now the same price as the other USB Modems if you take out a contract (ie free on all contracts except Broadband Lite 12 months). 3 have also dropped the PAYG price of the E220 and ZTE modems by £20, although the USB Stick Modem stays at the same price. When we checked, the pricing was yet to appear on the website, but should do soon.

Even more reasons to go and buy one today….

Update: The PAYG price change will happen on 1st May, although the contract price changes are already up on the 3 website.

Well, a week after we first mentioned it, we have one of the new 3 USB Stick Modems here. As with some other people, the first laptop we tried wouldn’t accept that the device was there, but on a second laptop it worked just fine (some software conflict that Huawei really need to find and resolve, or at least offer advice on).

In terms of speed, we’ve mainly seen connections at 3.6mbps, which is faster than our broadband. As well as offering a data connection, the software allows you to send and receive SMS text messages.

For those times when you are on the train, or have limited room for the stick modem to point straight out, it also comes with a short USB extension lead, but for most uses, it’s a straight plug in and work setup. The device also features built in storage where the software and drivers are stored, meaning you don’t even need to carry around an install CD.

As part of the launch of this new modem, 3 are offering some innovative pricing deals: for a start, if you are an existing customer, you can get the Mobile Broadband service for half price. Also, they have recently announced some very competitive tariffs, where you can get a free phone, pay a fairly reasonable monthly cost, and get a fair few minutes included as standard, yet also get unlimited texts.

Now, that means if you took the free phone, and then applied for mobile broadband, for a combined monthly cost of just £32.50 would get you a free phone, 500 minutes, unlimited texts, and mobile broadband with a 3Gb a month allowance. Note: the phone contract may be only 12 months (a bit of a rarity nowadays), but the mobile broadband contract has to be at least 18 months to benefit from the half price deal, although you still get the choice of all the USB modems (although the new USB Stick Modem will come with a one off charge to purchase unless you take a 24 month Broadband contract). This offer is only valid until the 31st May, so worth thinking through these options right now.

Although we’ve yet to try it, if you are roaming onto one of the 3 networks around the world, you still get the same deals and benefits - which means mobile broadband at no additional roaming costs.

Head over to the 3 Store now to look and order all these offers for unlimited texts and USB Modems.

Further to our announcement of the 3 USB Stick Modem yesterday, 3 have confirmed that they plan to offer the modem on a wider range of tariffs (12 month contracts and on Broadband Lite (1Gb)). These options are all likely to incur a small charge to buy the device, and aren’t available yet.

This new USB Stick Modem has been released by 3 today. It’s currently available for FREE, but only on the two higher Broadband contracts (Broadband 3Gb 24 months and Broadband 7Gb 24 months or 18 months); there’s no word as to whether it will be available on PAYG.

T-Mobile (through T-Mobile Venture Fund) has invested an undisclosed sum into Ubiquisys, a femtocell manufacturer. A femtocell is a home base station for your mobile phone, ensuring you get 3G data and good signal strength, which usually utilises the broadband connection to route the mobile phone data and calls back to your network operator. This bodes well for the future, and we should expect to see femtocells becoming a lot more common over the next couple of years.

Story courtesy of SMS Text News.

Today, from 10am, 3 are running a promotion. Buy a phone on a monthly contract (or a mobile broadband monthly contract) and you will be entered into an hourly draw to win a Nintendo Wii. The promotion runs for 24 hours, so any order must be placed by 10am tomorrow (Friday). With 3’s next day delivery (if ordered before 1pm), you may have missed Valentine’s day, but you can at least give your loved one a new phone tomorrow, and you never know, you might also soon be the owner of a new Wii.

Virgin are apparently about to start the process of upgrading (for free) it’s broadband customers from 4Mb to 10Mb. This upgrade process will start in February, and take until the Summer to complete. As part of this, they are also upgraded the upload speed to 512Kb. More information here.

Story courtesy of TechDigest.

3 have released a couple of limited edition versions of their USB Modem. The hardware and mobile broadband plans are the same, but the modem is now available in pink and black. These two new colours are available now, and at the same price as the original white.

As a bit of light hearted relief for a Friday afternoon, we’re going to try a special article each week on a Friday, and highlight some gadget not available in the UK which we think should be!

This week, the Vudu HD Movie Streamer…

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