Have we got to the magic million phone users for "3" in the UK yet? Hutchison, owner of "3" says yes. Nine months late, of course...

They're having to give away the farm to get it as well....

Saw that a friend of mine had a nice, shiny new LG U8110 yesterday. Turned out he'd got, on 3, under one of their retailers' current deals: £5/mo for 6 months, then £12.50/mo, for 500 minutes a month. The phone itself was free: I'd guess that's a $3-400 phone wholesale, subsidised down to zilch.

His intention? Well, he sends about 2 SMS's per week & won't go near the walled garden video/info services. It's for voice. The only other service he wanted was to pick up his (Yahoo) email, which, of, course, 3 won't permit.

But he's OK, as he's cancelled his previous phone contract, which was at £30 a month. And with the £200 he's saving this year, he's going to buy a Blackberry on one of the other operators instead......