Hutchison’s 3 Group announced plans for flat-rate mobile broadband yesterday, and it seems to have received a warm reception from the analysts—with the caveat that a lot depends on the price.
”A spokesperson for 3 told ZDNet UK on Friday that pricing details would be made available closer to the UK launch date of 1 December (other countries will get the service next year). What is known is that the full service will be priced lower than £18 a month (on top of the user’s standard mobile subscription) a figure roughly equivalent to that of entry-level fixed-line broadband.”
Andrew Orlowski at The Register started by saying that “it’s not often the press gets an opportunity to say nice things about a mobile operator”, but 3 was in the unusual position of being praised..."3 yesterday promised to do everything critics have asked a mobile operator to do for years - enable VoIP, IM, and the full web - and added what may be the clincher, access to the user’s own home media via the handset.” He goes on to take a dig at Google, comparing Orb’s offering with the Verizon/YouTube deal. “YouTube would add “50 to 100 of its most popular videos” to its V-Cast service. By contrast, Orb not only offers the entire YouTube catalog - for better or worse - but makes the metadata (such as tags) searchable, and also makes it easy to subscribe using RSS feeds...That makes Verizon’s news sounds like Dr.Evil holding the world to ransom for “one million dollars”. He goes on to say that while Google’s individual mobile efforts are great, it’s only a piecemal strategy. “Infrastructure plays don’t just spontaneously “emerge”, and Orb has just eaten Google’s mobile infrastructure strategy.”
Bill Thompson at the BBC gives the effort the thumbs-up, though with a few reservations about the details—which he said aren’t really important. “Their success is less important than the fact that a mobile phone network has finally realised that the future lies in making the mobile network a genuine extension of the internet rather than a separate gated community...Now that someone has admitted it, other networks may decide to follow the lead.”
TechDirt has questioned why—if 3 is opening its network—it needed to sign so many deals with web companies. “It’s not at all clear why 3 would need to announce support from these companies if all they’re offering is a data connection. Once that’s there, it’s up to the users who they work with, whether it’s Google, Yahoo, Sling, Skype or someone entirely different.”
Bena Roberts at BKI Media is disappointed with the fine print: “Free calls only if you are not roaming...Flat rate Internet but only within “fair usage limits”...This puts a wet cloth on the X-Series immediately...Terms such as “free” or “all-inclusive” don’t work on mobile and don’t exist. Any mobile operator that touts them will be shooting itself in the foot.”
Ian Fogg at JupiterResearch also had something to say… mostly positive, but he did point out that “many of the solutions discussed and demo’ed today were not especially revolutionary or exclusive”.