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Kevin Russell blows the "3" Skype deal news ahead of official announcement

The world's hax have been obediently keeping the lid on a deal due to be announced 11.30 today, giving Skype connectivity to mobile phone users with contracts or PAYG accounts with "3".

To the astonishment of (some) journalists and analysts, the story was given to the BBC radio programme "Today" at 7.30 this morning, with "3" boss Kevin Russell giving a personal interview on air, live, four hours before the embargo was due to lift.

The "big secret" announcement was originally supposed to be revealed first thing; but the PR office inside "3" has postponed its ceremony to near midday. At least, that was the impression given in the invite:

"At this event, Kevin Russell, Chief Executive Officer of 3UK and Michael van Swaaij, Chief Executive Officer of Skype, will be announcing a significant development in the companies' relationship to an invited audience," said a bulletin to VIPs sent out Friday.

That's not quite how the "3" publicity office sees it. "There never was any intention to embargo the announcement," said a corporate communications executive. "We're sorry if the full press release wasn't mailed to everybody, but it went out on the newswires at seven."

But the prospect of a rival PR event, organised by BT for 8.30, seems to have thrown the publicity engine of "3" into disarray. Journalists knew few PR crimes worse than officially blowing an embargoed story to a favoured media outlet ahead of the deadline, there were accusations that the Hutchison gang were backed into a corner on this one. That, say "3" staff, is "wrong" and "the time of this announcement was decided weeks ago." There were "other reasons" for delaying the briefing.

The deal, quite simply, gives "3" users the option of placing calls over the air, through the Skype VoIP network, calling computer users and phone users with Skype accounts.

Russell said that some three million UK Skype subscribers would now be contactable through "3" mobile networks.

Details of which handset would be used will be the main focus of today's announcement. That much, at least, was not revealed on radio this morning.