The 3 Skypephone series was a range of 3G mobile phones made as a global project by the

Three 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

brand network. The project was initiated by the 3's global handset team, some of whom later went on to found the new mobile phone company INQ. The phones were sold in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, but the service has now been discontinued.When connecting to http://mobile.three.co.uk/help/net/skype from a Three phone (page not available from outside the Three network), the following message is displayed: Skype-on-Three has been withdrawn by Skype. If you try to log into Skype-on-Three you may see this message: "Sorry, we can’t connect you right now. Please try again later." Please ignore this message, Skype-on-Three has been withdrawn and will not be available later. 3 offered 4000 free

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debi ...

outbound voice minutes with the phones. Initially, the quota expired after 90 days (30 days in Ireland) unless the user purchased another topup or was on a pay monthly plan. This restriction was lifted by the network in 2009, where calls could still be made and received without the need to "top up" with credit. The service was advertised as "unlimited" in the UK; however, it is subject to fair use limitations, as in other countries. The Skypephone series of phones supported

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...

W-CDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Int ...

2100 MHz,

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

and

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Ins ...

(900/1800 MHz), as well as

HSDPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunic ...

with the 3 Skypephone S2. The Skypephone series used the normal 3G or GSM voice network for handling Skype calls, which permitted users to make Skype calls within 3's 3G network or when the user is out of range of the 3G network and is roaming on one of 3's partner 2G networks. The two Skypephone models were not unique in using normal

or 3G voice protocols for handling

: Three's

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

and

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top ...

-based Skype clients also did this, but they did also need a data connection for low-bandwidth communication with Three's servers while the voice call is being set up. All other mobile

applications (such as Skype for iPhone) use a

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

or 3G packet data connection to handle

. The

application used was native to the 3 Skypephone series and is a Brew application, whereas other mobile Skype clients are 3rd-party downloads and are either

based (the latter is now defunct). An advantage of using the standardized 3GPP circuit-switched (CS) voice protocols for handling calls is that it does not require a constant

, 3G or

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

data connection, all of which consume significantly more battery life than CS voice. The 3 Skypephone series used a USB connector for recharging and Phone-to-PC communication – allowing them to recharge when plugged into a computer. Phone-to-PC connections are also possible over

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

Devices

* 3 Skypephone S1 *

3 Skypephone S2 The 3 Skypephone S2 is a UMTS, GSM and VoIP mobile phone. The phone is the successor to 3 Skypephone and the second phone from the 3 Skypephone Series. iSkoot The 3 Skypephone S2 runs on the iSkoot for Skype platform to provide its Skype servi ...

Usage terms

Free Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messages were only available in the country where the phone was purchased, or while roaming on 3’s sister networks. Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messages were subject to a fair use policy of 4,000 minutes of outgoing calls and 10,000 instant messages per month (depending on country). For 3 Pay As You Go customers, the Skype functionality was subject to activating a minimum top-up (value depending on country) and valid for 90 days (30 days in Ireland) from activating their last top-up, but 3 removed the minimum top-up requirement on 1 May 2009.

INQ

The Skypephone project was a collaborative effort, with the 3's global handset team working closely with Skype and Qualcomm. According to Skype, the Skypephone series, if it were to continue, could possibly be continued on a different network from 3. In the Irish market, the phones have been discontinued since the introduction of INQ handsets in January 2009.

References

External links

Stephen Fry's blog and Guardian article about Skypephone 2

Victor Keegan at the Guardian on the Skypephone 2

Three Skypephone Portal
in English, Danish, German, Italian and Swedish
Three Skypephone

WAP WAP or Wap may refer to: Music * "WAP" (song), a 2020 song by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion Organizations * Weatherization Assistance Program, for US energy costs * Western Australia Party, a political party founded in 2016 * Western A ...

Portal in English, Danish, German, Italian and Swedish
Three Skypephone at three.co.uk

Three Skypephone Review at Gadgetvenue.com

Skypephone S2 on Skype official website

Video walkthrough of main features on YouTube

tonyblews.co.uk's review (part 1)
an
(part 2)
{{Three brand Amoi mobile phones 3 (company) Skype

Devices

Usage terms

INQ

See also

References

External links