UK operator 3 seems to be always testing new things and shaking things up.
If I am not mistaken, they are a 3G-only operator. Last year they had an interesting video campaign, where folks could download other folks’ videos and the creator got a few cents. Of course, soft-porn got all the attention – a lady made a pretty penny with a video of her boobs or something.
Now they have a flat-rate plan, throwing in Skype, MSN, Orb, and Slingbox, to boot. Yet, I don’t think that anything 3 has done has ever affected other operators, even in the UK. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
In any case, even after such an announcement, people still winge about operators (see below).
Operators have typically restricted what mobile users could access online, often by only allowing access to Internet services within their own portals. While some operators have begun to open up in that regard, few in Europe have moved to unlimited data plans. That means customers are often reluctant to use Internet-based applications because they’re unsure about how much it might cost them.
Flat rate plans rock. Beginning of the year Base (a sister of ePlus) here in Germany started their Phone Flatrate and now T-Mobile followed (though with 35 instead of 25 EURs). Now you can also get a UMTS Flatrate from Base (again for 25 EURs) and I think the others will follow.
I now pay 50 EURs a month for a UMTS Data and Phone flatrate.
Very good indeed. Makes the already mentioned (in another comment) Podcasting app a joy to use, even if it downloads 38 MB.
Oliver