The company's chief executive Robert Finnegan said the new services, for which 3 will charge a flat monthly fee, would be rolled out to Irish customers over the first three months of the year. The flatrate access fee, common in fixed-line telecoms, is a departure for the mobile industry where most operators charge their customers for the amount of data used while browsing the internet.

Finnegan would not disclose details of the price plans or the cost of the new handsets customers will need to purchase to avail of the service. "Certainly it will not be prohibitive in any way, shape or form, " he said.

In return for that monthly fee, 3 customers will have access to the internet on their phones, allowing them to browse a range of mobile internet sites at their own discretion. To date, most mobile operators, including 3 and Vodafone, have offered only limited mobile internet services. They restrict their subscribers to pre-approved sites that have signed content deals with the networks, creating what is often called a "walled garden".

Three's boast is that it has now dispensed with the walled garden. At a glitzy launch in London last week, 3's parent, Hutchison Whampoa, a private Hong-Kong based conglomerate, provided demonstrations of the new services that will be available in the UK in December prior to the Irish launch next year.

The main attractions include a voice-over-internet application provided by Skype which will enable users to make free local and international phone calls to other Skype users on PCs and mobile phones. Another service, provided by US company Sling Media, will allow 3 customers to watch programmes from their cable or satellite television service at home, broadcast live directly to their mobiles.

Finnegan said recentlycompleted upgrade work on 3's network would enable Irish customers to access the internet at speeds of 3.6 megabits per second, effectively three times as fast as many residential broadband services available in the Irish market.

The company is hoping that the new service will attract customers to the network, which launched in Ireland just 18 months ago. "We believe that actually the pull of this . . . with the pricing . . .

will provide a huge attraction for most people as we go through next year, " he said.