Manx gets 3G
Britain's first 3G (third generation) mobile phone will be in action when Manx Telephone's pioneering trial on the Isle of Man goes live shortly.
Other telecommunications companies - who are desperate to get a return on the £22.5bn they spent getting 3G licences - will be watching the Isle of Man very closely (though, ironically, Manx Telephone got its 3G licence for nothing to encourage speedy exploitation).
The kit consists of a surprisingly lightweight NEC phone with internet access and a flip-open screen that can send and receive colour video clips of up to 20 or 30 seconds and enable users to play multi-role games such as Quake around the island.
The phone can be hooked up to a miniature video screen (which looks like a PalmPilot) with built-in camera for those interested either in seeing each other while they phone or videoconferencing. Even tually the screen and camera will be merged into the phone. The island hopes that its e-commerce ambitions will be given a boost by becoming a laboratory for 3G applications.
Third generation mobile phones can - in theory - transfer data at 384 kilobits (compared with 9.6 kilobits for a standard phone) but are not expected to reach that speed at first. People who have used them say the quality of video clips is surprisingly good.
Mobile phones in the Isle of Man can search for the strongest signal rather than be locked into one service provider (though they have to pay roaming rates for the privilege). Some services on the British mainland use their phones for rescue operations.
Triumph
The fizz may have gone out of the mobile market but the models themselves continue to improve. The new Trium Eclipse from Mitsubishi looks like a phone, rather than a PDA, but manages a colour screen with an impressive 12 to 13 lines of text. My model didn't have the GPRS (24-hour-always-on-to-the-web) facility which will be available shortly for BT Cellnet subscribers, but at least Wap looks better on a big colour screen after the usual delays.
Google's mobile search engine worked well and reading email is more practical on the big screen - though visibility varies a lot depending on the light source. It comes with regular features such as texting and an infrared port plus a variety of (loud) ring tones and games including ten-pin bowling plus a morning alarm signal that would awaken the dead. The size of the screen even makes a mobile diary feasible - though this one isn't intuitive.
It is lightish (at 110g) considering what it does and the manufacturer claims three hours of talk time or 180 hours on standby. The expected price is £149 with contract. www.trium.net
