The end of the subsidised handset?

Some interesting news regarding 3's upcoming tariff structuring - it seems that this time round the tariffs are going to be quite blatantly structured around whether you're getting a free phone or not, and different grades of free phones, at that. In a way, it's the same way things work now, but without the assumption that you're getting that expensive handset for nada.

As Fone Logistics' Julien Parven is quoted as saying: "This is starting to put some value back into the handset. The idea of £300 handsets being given away is ridiculous."

No kidding - as Nokia is so keen to point out with its N95 marketing, the smartphone is not so much a phone anymore, as a mini-computer with phone capabilities built in. Nice idea to be giving those away (it sure made me switch operators when I managed to get my Vario II for next to nothing), but it's clearly a situation that couldn't last forever.