Network costs harm mobile web

Britain's failure to embrace the mobile web has been blamed on a lack of transparency about costs from mobile phone operators.

Although the technology is at hand to let people readily access the internet via their handsets, especially with the arrival of affordable 3G phones, an industry body said that there is reluctance to log on to the net because of cost issues.

Research from the Mobile Data Association (MDA), a not-for-profit data collection body, found that 25 per cent more people are using the internet on their mobiles than they were two years ago.

However, the MDA said growth is being hampered by a lack of openess on behalf of the operators.

"We are calling for greater price transparency on the costs associated with using the mobile internet," Steve Reynolds, the chairman of the Mobile Data Association, said.

"The findings of this report suggest a real consumer appetite, but confusion and fear over costs may be holding back growth," he continued.

The latest figures from the MDA show that about 17 million people in the UK access the internet via their handsets.

But the real growth area in mobile communications continues to be in text messaging. About 4.1million text messages are sent every hour in Britain and UK mobile phone users send about 1.4 billion a week.

Do you access the web from your phone? Do you know how much your mobile phone operator charges for this service? Let us know in the Web User forums.

www.themda.org