Another source of mobile broadband revenue has reared its head today, with 3 UK's agreement to host advertising on its mobile broadband dashboard, i.e. the sign-in and status screen.Yell has been signed up as the first advertiser. 3 UK advertised for partners in July. It has been successfully run in Austria with advertisers such as Honda, Suzuki and VW (yes, curiously automotive-oriented isn't it).
I'm a 3 subscriber and frequent, often frustrated, user. So I'll keep you posted on what it looks like and what the impact, if any, is on the service.
Oh, and before you ask, "Received Top" of 173.6kbps (on the graphic, left) after 15 mins is actually pretty good for where I live...in Central London.
Posts
173.6 kbps in Central London? Last week I was in Cornwall, a few miles form Newquay, and on Three, with a signal strength of no bars at all, I got rates varying from 100 kbps to 200 kbps. I was grateful to 3 for that, because all I could get from Vodafone, O2 and T-mobile was painfully slow GPRS. Three is a bit of an oddity, but quite often I find it's my salvation outside built-up areas.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the proposed advertising, I imagine that at some point when connecting to 3 we'll get a text message saying there's a software upgrade - or is the existing software capable of carrying ads? If new software is required, can one refuse the upgrade and continue to use the old software and be spared the ads?
ReplyDeleteAnd who pays for the download of the ads? Does it count towards one's 1 GB allowance?
I'll see if I can rustle up someone at 3 to discuss this with.
ReplyDeleteAnother question for a representative of 3 is what on earth one can do with the free text messages you are generously given by 3 if you have a mobile broadband account. You can't use them to send texts from the dash board, although that would be very handy. Presumably you could put the SIM into a 3G phone, but what a palaver that would be. I only have a 2G mobile phone anyway, because you get better coverage in remote areas.
ReplyDeleteWorse part of mobile is excess advertisement. I never received advertisement on my basic phone while I receive sms or advertisement at 5 to 10 minute interval.
ReplyDelete