Gossip

An offer you should refuse... O2 data bargain will cost you!

A "special offer" is being sent out to GPRS mobile data users from cellphone operator O2. Our sources at the Billing Systems show say: "Turn it down!"

According to data sniffed from unauthorised sources at the show this week, the new deal looks like a bargain - you can up your data limit to 20 megabytes for a trivial extra payment.

In a sensible world, it would, indeed, be a bargain. Sniffer is reliably informed, however, that the reason for the deal is to get money which would otherwise stay in your pocket, because the mobile data billing system which calculates your "excess" data is broken.

"Go for the lowest data rate on their web site," said our accountant at Olympia. "It doesn't matter how much more you use. They can't keep track of it, and won't bill you for it."

Can this possibly be true? It's just one of many stories from the show suggesting that data billing is in a parlous state, so it could well be.

Our source is sufficiently sure of his facts to cancel his Vodafone data card subscription, and switch to O2 for mobile data.

Meanwhile, at Orange, the 3G data card for laptops struggles to make friends, and behind the scenes, Orange People are quietly queuing up for the new Sanyo 3G phone.

It's a nice phone, with really quite a good megapixel camera - and it links, via Bluetooth, to your laptop. Very much more easily, it has to be said, than plugging in a data card, and trying to make it stay connected...