The 3 Skypephone series is a range of 3G mobile phones made as a global project by the 3 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, but the service has now been discontinued everywhere except Australia, Ireland and the UK. 3 offers 4000 free Skype 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 is advertised as "unlimited" in the UK; however, it is subject to fair use limitations, as in other countries.
The Skypephone series of phones support UMTS/W-CDMA 2100 MHz, GSM and GPRS (900/1800 MHz), as well as HSDPA with the 3 Skypephone S2.
The Skypephone series uses the normal 3G or GSM voice network for handling Skype calls, which permits 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 are not unique in using normal GSM or 3G voice protocols for handling Skype: Three's Symbian and now-defunct Java ME-based Skype clients also do this, but they do also need a data connection for low-bandwidth communication with Three's servers while the voice call is being set up. All other mobile Skype applications (such as Skype for iPhone) use a GPRS, EDGE or 3G packet data connection to handle Skype.
The Skype application used is native to the 3 Skypephone series and is a Brew application, whereas other mobile Skype clients are 3rd-party downloads and are either Symbian or Java ME 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 GPRS, EDGE, 3G or WiFi data connection, all of which consume significantly more battery life than CS voice.
The 3 Skypephone series use 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.
Read more about 3 Skypephone Series: Usage Terms, Future Models
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