Earful had a chance this past week to review third-generation (3G) mobile-phone services from SmarTone Telecommunications, using a Motorola E1000 handset.
The initial impression: the 3G charges might be too high to warrant upgrading from 2.5G. In addition, the service was a bit clunky; downloading information to the E1000 required time and patience.
Also, navigating SmarTone's portal is awkward, requiring too many thumb clicks, and the video streaming could use improvement.
But in these areas SmarTone is no different from other 3G service providers, such as Hutchison Telecommunications, which are working to provide a smoother multimedia experience.
Users of SmarTone's 2.5G services, called SmarTone iN, will be instantly familiar with the company's 3G interface as the service has been grafted onto its existing platform.
Content services that work with 3G are denoted by a special icon, while everything else is available to both 2.5G and 3G users. SmarTone might be trying to send a subtle message to its 2.5G subscribers: the newest content is available on 3G, so you better upgrade.
