By David Field -


The 3 Group is preparing to launch a new internet via mobile broadband service worldwide.

The mobile operator has agreed a number of partnership deals with top internet names, including Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo!, Nokia, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Orb and Sony Ericsson, in order to provide consumers with a range of new high-speed internet services such as cheap internet calls.

Announced by 3 owner Hutchison Whampoa, the new X-Series from 3 service extends a range of core application and used of the broadband internet to mobile handsets.

A new pricing model will offer customers unlimited calls from their mobile using Skype and marks the first time that voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services have been freely available on mobile phones.

Commenting on the launch of the X-Series broadband internet via mobiles service, Robert Kenley, head of mobiles at price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, said: "This is a welcome move by 3 as it shows innovation, marking them as a dynamic player within the mobile broadband industry. However, the full value will not be apparent until we know the cost to a 3 customer."

Mr Kenley added that the "most compelling" aspect of a new package of services that includes television via mobile using Sling, remote home PC access through Orb and internet and messaging from Yahoo!, Google and Windows Live Messenger, was the Skype agreement.

The arrangement between 3 and Skype will enable customers to make free online phone calls to other Skype subscribers and Skype 3 mobile customers across the globe from their mobile handset.

There are now an estimated 136 million Skype users worldwide and Skype chief executive Niklas Zennstrom has described the company's new partnership with 3 as a "milestone".

However, Mr Kenley cautioned that, as many 3 subscriber contract already provide free minutes, customers using Skype could lose out unless they use the free minutes included as part of their tariff.

The X-Series will be priced in a similar way to fixed line broadband, providing mobile internet services at a flat rate, regardless of time used.

Available in Britain from December 1st 2006 and other world markets from early 2007, the X-Series is compatible with two top of the range handsets.

Launching the new service, Hutchison Whampoa group managing director, Canning Fok, said: "This is the internet as it was meant to be and what people have been waiting for. Mobile broadband is the natural next step for mobile services, extending the full power of the internet to mobile handsets."

The company's group finance director, Frank Sixt, predicts that providing customers with the "favourable economics of the broadband world" will attract new subscribers to the 3 network, creating a new move away from unit charges.