Yes they discourage VOIP by releasing crippled firmware (e.g. N95)

Whats it with all ISPs when they offer unlimited but mean limited. I mean I can download a song in 20 seconds instead of a few minutes before due to high bandwidth. Yet worry about exceeding download limits at 20 times the speed.

In fact this whole business model killed WAP in the first place in wanting to charge per unit of Data. Was doomed from the start!

I can foresee a repeat scenario with mobile internet being charged by the data amounts. Why cant they just focus on providing unlimited (if they mean that) and concentrate instead on a "REALLY" good content delivery experience instead, which they so much gloat about? What are they indeed trying to limit? User experience then ?

The analogy is like the famous bull run in Spain, a few peole trying to grab the horns, when the whole internet experience is supposed to be the bull but operators trying to shield the view and charge for a peephole view of a striptease(Bull) show!

Remember when Time/Aol merged promising "Content" to the whole world in Dialup days. Couldnt do that. Now the delivery vehicles (Broadband) is there but content (Voip/Videostreams)needs to be rationed!

Corporate greed at its best, anyone?

GT

According to other reports the �8 a month anytime offering wont be available until Q4 2007.

The T&Cs will be crucial. If they go with the same "no modem access for computers" (they almost certainly will) they'll effectively be offering 1GB a month but making it damned hard to get anywhere near that figure since they'd only allow handset browsing.

They could be even sillier. In the past Orange advertised an "unlimited GPRS" offering which was WAP only and with a 10MB limit.

Also this is likely to be limited to certain tariffs. On Orange the minimum current tariff is around �20 a month. So if you just want internet browsing you'd have to pay �20 for something you don't want in order to pay �8 for something you do.

PAYG would be better but, surprise surprise, the �8 offer isn't available on PAYG.

How come UK's providers are always playing with those fair usage policy without specify the definition of fair and unlimited. I would say, in the near future, we will see a lot of tariff claiming "UNLIMITED" but actually limited and even worse than those limited plans.

Now, we got unlimited limited broadband, unlimited limited mobile internet, unlimited limited landline call and what's the next? May be unlimited limited utilities supply!!!! lol!

T-Mobile offer 3 tiers of "unlimited" browsing - £7.50 for Web 'n' Walk, £12.50 for Web 'n' Walk Plus, but Web 'n' Walk Max which I forget the cost of, but "allows" VoIP.

Anyway, the former two are 1GB and 3GB "Fair Use", and the latter also allows modem use.

I have the former.

It came with a T-Mobile Ameo, which to all intents and purposes is pretty much a computer. When I needed to download a new version of VLC for my Mac, I downloaded to the Ameo's 8GB HD and copied it over ;)

A true UMPC would make this whole "no modem use" laughable.