Hutchison reveals 3G pricing for UK

Hutchison reveals 3G pricing for UK

14:36 Tuesday 10th December 2002

Although it has not yet confirmed when its 3G service will launch in the UK, Hutchison has announced its UK pricing plans

Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd announced UK pricing plans on Tuesday for its delayed 3G service, aiming to keep the buzz going for Europe's debut third-generation mobile network.

Hutchison, which has not yet said when it will start offering its fast mobile telecoms service -- "3" -- which was delayed from September, unveiled two subscription plans for its British customers.

A bundle of voice calls, video calls, messages and Internet content can be purchased for either £59.99 or £99.99 per month. Consumers will also have to buy a new handset, either from Japan's NEC or US-based Motorola and starting at £399 apiece.

But the company declined to give details of how many minutes of calls would be included in each bundle. Analysts said the lack of detail suggested Hutchison 3G is attempting to grab consumers' attention while it is slogging 24 hours a day to make the service reliable enough for commercial usage.

"They are trying to keep awareness going," said analyst Ben Wood at market research company Gartner Dataquest. The Hutchison deals were aimed at a small group of potential customers, as only 6 percent of British mobile phone users spend more than £50 a month, according to a financial analyst in London who declined to be named. "This is for heavy users who will sign up anyway," he said.

Hutchison said the offer would be available to the first 20,000 "founders" customers in Britain. Hutchison has already announced some pricing plans for 3 in Italy where it also has a licence to operate a broadband mobile phone service.

Subscription offers for other, more moderate consumers would become available closer to the commercial launch, said Hutchison 3G spokesman Matt Peacock in London.

Hutchison, whose businesses span ports, property and retail, said it is weeks away from launching 3 commercially in the United Kingdom and Italy, following a low-scale rollout to "friendly" users that began in October. But analyst Wood said he believes it will wait for the third of March -- offering it the 03-03-03 marketing hook.

Hutchison UK also launched a revamped 3 Web site, www.three.co.uk, offering demonstrations of its mobile services such as videoclips and video calls.

The company aims to enlist one million customers in each of its European countries by the end of 2003, although many company watchers regards those goals as aggressive.

Only Japan's NTT DoCoMo has thus far launched commercial 3G service with the WCDMA standard that Hutchison will use. Although difficult to compare, 3's pricing levels appear similar to NTT DoCoMo's which has been confronted with disappointing customer response.

For Hutchison's Italian 3G service, customers will pay 85 euros (about £54) per month under one plan, for 40 hours of voice calls and 40 hours of video calls, plus about 400 content downloads, far more than most contract customers there now pay for conventional mobile services

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