Rattling home on the train yesterday afternoon, it occurred to me that I could have really used one of those expensive 3G phones being sold by 3, the mobile brand owned by Hutchison, which is launching tonight.

I was surrounded by Arsenal fans returning from their game against Charlton in London, and we were all keen to find out what had happened in the Worthington Cup final in Cardiff. With one of those spangly new mobiles, one of us could not only have found out the score, but downloaded the goals. We could have seen the ball spin off David Beckham's foot for Liverpool's first, and Michael Owen punching the air with delight after scoring the second. And what a happy bunch all those Gunners would have been.

Or would they? We'll overlook the fact that 3 only owns Premiership highlights, which would probably have denied us the goals even if one of us owned a 3 handset (the complexities of sports rights in the digital world merits its own book). After all, we could just have easily been interested in a league battle of the reds. And we'll ignore the fact that handsets still aren't available for purchase, despite tonight's launch.

What might be of more interest to the mobile phone companies was that we still managed to sate our curiosity - by resorting to the much-derided Wap service on my backward, old, black and white-screened Nokia. We all got back home in time for the highlights, and inevitable extended "analysis", on the telly.

In the meantime, we were all contented - the Arsenal fans, especially so - with learning the basic details via the 100 word report on my tiny screen. Indeed, the bloke opposite me was still punching the air half an hour after we got the result.

What would it have cost to further enhance his celebrations with some multimedia? With 3's kit and caboodle deal a handset will cost £399, with monthly running costs of £59.99 or £99.99, depending on usage. A "3toGo" package removes the regular monthly commitment and charges for content on an a la carte basis, with phones costing the same as before. So just getting set up, before downloading anything, would cost more than most football league clubs charge for a season ticket - in the best seats.

The nearest comparable service is the less technologically advanced, but more widely available Vodafone Live! It has been running since November - you might have seen the ads starring David Beckham - and already 200,000 handsets have been sold. Although reduced in price they are still not cheap at £149.99, and Vodafone's pricing structure is less transparent than 3's. But the service is still much cheaper than 3's.

But can they really be compared? After all, this battle should be a complete mismatch: powerful new 3G versus tired old 2.5G. But the fact is that Vodafone is doing a good job of squeezing the last utility out of 2G while it waits to launch its own third generation services sometime next year.

This is exactly what some were predicting would happen almost three years ago: newcomers will find it tough because incumbents such as Vodafone would get the most out of existing 2G services, attempting to persuade their customers to sit tight until they launch even more enhanced services, or even their own 3G offerings.

Late last year, at the time of Live's launch, Vodafone boasted the service was about a lot more than just picture messaging, incorporating a range of Wap-based services, games, ring tones and the like. It certainly beat the half-hearted picture messaging efforts of the other 2G mobile companies.

And, as reported on Guardian Unlimited last week, the company is now further souping up its content in response to 3's arrival.

All this means is that 3's strongest selling point will be video calls - for those in the largely urban areas served by 3's high-speed network - and the ability to send video clips. That's not a huge advantage, given the prices users are expected to pay and the fact many are still to be convinced of the merits of plain old (static) picture messaging.

Meanwhile Vodafone Live! might, technologically, be nothing new. The raw stats of 2.5G, even with added Beckham, don't set any telecom geek's pulse racing. But then it's not aimed at them. This is a collection of services beautifully marketed into a cohesive whole, pitched at a mass market more concerned with fashion and fun than being on the technological cutting edge. It represents an evolutionary step up for most of today's mobile phone users.

And if it comes down to a battle between technologically more advanced but expensive 3, against a slow but glitzy, Beckham-enhanced Vodafone, I know who I'm putting my money on. Even if he did lose on Sunday.