I firmly believe that in a few short years, the average user will be able surfing using hi speed flat-rate data plans through cellular carriers and that most UMPCs will come with the cellular modem built in. If I had a UMPC with a built in HSDPA modem I’d buy the 6GB ‘flat rate’ from Vodafone and leave that power-hungry and insecure WiFi turned off.
Data plans are starting to become more widely available and, apart from the roaming charges which are frighteningly expensive (I live within 1 hour from 4 other countries, roaming is almost unavoidable here – why should I pay 5 times the normal rate just one hour from home?) the monthly costs are acceptable. The biggest problem is knowing exactly what you need and what plan matches your needs. The marketing teams have created a real spiders web of options. Think of the average user. What exactly is 30MB? Why is there a limit on a flat rate fair plan? Why can’t I Skype but I can browse. What is a wap gateway?
T-Mobile has their web n’ walk plan which opened the doors up a bit but the provider 3 in the UK has just announced what appears to be a real ground-breaking deal. I’m a little bit suspicious due to the hi-end branding and marketing its being given but in general, it looks like a great deal.
TechCrunch UK said Is today the start of the Mobile Web? Well we’ll have to wait and see because the charges haven’t been revealed yet. IF the charges are reasonable you will get:
- Unlimited Internet access.
- Free Slingmedia client.
- Unlimited calls to Skype users.
3G also have partnered with Orb, Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger, eBay and Google. Presumably they will provide the clients for these services pre-installed on the phone.
The service will be available in early 2007 so it gives other providers time to release plans over the next two months. I suspect we’ll see new plans coming in from all the major players and I hope we’ll see subsidised UMPCs with cellular data capability being included. With HTC ready to pounce on UMPCs in 2007, the other UMPC manufacturers better tie up some deals quickly before it gets really tough out there.
Steve / Chippy.
