Vodafone 3G covers 'half of UK'
MOBILE phones giant Vodafone has launched its 3G - third generation - service amid criticism about the range of its coverage.
The system allows video calls, plus high-speed access to the internet, music and video clips, games and highlights from Premier League football matches via the phone.
But even at the launch of a marketing blitz that will include David Beckham, the firm admitted that, geographically, it will cover less than half of Britain.
At the same time, the Government announced a series of inquiries into the safety of 3G transmissions.
Vodafone is the first major company to launch the new service, although 3UK has been offering the technology for about a year.
Rivals T-mobile and Orange will also be cashing in on the must-have Christmas present market.
'Customers want communication, organisation, entertainment and information on the move and they will increasingly turn to one device to deliver these needs - their mobile phone,' said Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin at the launch.
His 3G handsets will be free to some users and cost up to £300 for others, depending on the type of contract taken up.
Handsets in the UK include Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.
There are two main pricing packages. Paying £40 a month will provide a bundle that includes 500 minutes of voice calls, 100 text messages and 50 minutes of video calls. It will cost 60p to send each pre-recorded video message.
It also includes free highlights of Barclays Premiership games, breaking news, Top 10 film and DVD trailers and, until next February, three full-track music downloads a month. Tracks cost £1.50 each after that.
Vodafone, which paid about £ 6bn to the Government for its 3G licences, is desperate that the technology is a success. But it will have to overcome concerns about the lack of coverage and the health effects.
At the moment, its masts cover 60% of the population - but this is mostly in the South East and major cities, so geographically the coverage is much less.
Many of the key features such as video calling and high- speed Internet access will not be possible over much of the country.
Outside the network's coverage, the handsets will operate with the same limitations as existing phones.
Meanwhile, new research into the safety of 3G signals was announced yesterday by the Mobile Telecommunications Health Research programme, which is jointly funded by the Government and industry.
A study in the Netherlands found that human volunteers exposed to 3G radiation experienced headaches and nausea.
Now the research programme aims to investigate suggestions that thousands of new masts being erected to carry the 3G signals could trigger health problems.
