[miffed]

My wife has just progressed onto her first 3G phone - (well , actually it is my old 6280 I stumbled across firmware 6.43 on t'internet , loaded it up , and it seems to work really well - so It has come out of retirement :D )

anyway , I thought I'd demonstrate the joys of video calling to her - so I rang her from my N80 , and I have to say I was amazed by the quality !

I think the last video call I made was T-mobile to orange (or 3) and the picture didn't appear for about 25 second , then , when it did , it was all pixelated & choppy with echo-ey sound - generally a crap exoerience

However , this latest t-mobile to t-mobile call was brilliant ! , crystal clear ,nice smooth video , The sound even appeared in sync with the pictures

Is all Video calling like this these days ? It could even prove useful if it is , such a pleasant experience compared to my previous ones of this feature

[Hands0n]

I've always found Videocalling to be of fairly good quality - the occasional break-up and pixellation are to be expected with the technology. But it does seem that the network improvements over the years is helping reduce those inccidents.

I used to often Videocall cross-network (Vodafone to 3 and occasionally to T-Mobile, Orange and rarer still Vodafone!). It all worked reasonably well.

The key is not to expect broadcast quality - accept that it is portable, person-to-person and that it will not get a huge amount better and you'd not be disappointed. And it is kinda fun seeing the person at the other end.

[Ben]

I haven't tried it for a long time either. In all honesty, having to talk and animate my face at the same time is a bit of an effort, but I'd like to check it out again one day to see if there really has been a marked improvement.

Last time I used it for any length of time was to consume Orange free video calling minutes in the hope of encouraging updates to local coverage... didn't work :(

[getti]

I video call all the time lol.

Some people think its a gimmick which i do understand but there are times when a video call can be really good.

My mum every 2 weeks goes on the webcam to see her grandkids in London. I bought a Vista (s**t) computer and we tried webcam on there..... it was totally shocking how poor it was.

All was not lost though. Out came my phone on 3 and i videocalled him at home. 30 minutes they were chatting on the phone to each other with the kids which was great to see an it was free as i get 50mins free a month in my deal

Now that is a good use of video calling i have to say.

[Ben]

All the networks need to whack a free video calling allowance in every single 3G contract - xnet - so more folk can experiment. Then they can do what they want with the prices, but give the technology a chance!

[SuperFlyTmobileGuy]

The problem is video calling has turned out to be the Arsenal of mobile technology - promised loads but invariably performed poorly and ended up on it's butt.

As a tmobile employee I get 30 free video calling minutes a month and I barely dip in to them. It's a good novelty but it wears off quickly.

[Hands0n]

I think that to boost Videocalling the networks have to do a lot more than they have at present. Vodafone, for example, does not have a single tariff with inclusive VC minutes at the moment. They did have in Dec 2005 (I know, I still have it), but dropped it in early 2006. T-Mobile ignore it, no inclusive VC at all. O2 [used to, I'm not sure if its still there] didn't bundle it but charged the same as voice. Orange I don't know ... 3 have some inclusive.

So there you have it - a rather lacklustre support for VC by any measure. Hardly surprising then that the public adoption of it is marginal.

That said - I do observe that a few of my daughter's peer age groups use VC quite a bit - they're 3 consumers too!

The practical uses of VC are untapped yet - quite apart from the "fun" aspect there can be serious use for it, even with its low quality. I well remember the month that 3 launched (3/3/3) I met a pair of builders returning their 3toGo handets because their could not get reliable VC coverage. Their intended use was to reduce the need for the Supervisor/Foreman travelling around site-to-site to do work inspections. They figured that the VC was good enough quality for that - but the network availability killed the idea at that time. I can only imagine that they are making full and practical use of it nowadays.

There must be a squillion practical applications for VC as yet untapped. Or are they just quietly going on and we simply do not know about it.

Please post your observations on this thread - lets try and get a notion of how VC is being used today.

[getti]

I'm sure people know my view on video calling... i love it!. 1 of the main benifits of 3G in my view.

I agree through the problem has been pricing. On most deals, 3 offer either 25 mins or 50 mins of free x-net video calling a month.

Orange are giving 30 mins a month free video calling for 2 months on new deals but after 2 months there is no free allowance.

T-Mobile dont include video calling in Flext and the only 2 options you have are pay per minute or £2.50 for a 10 minute bundle. T-Mobile PAYG also does not support video calling.

As you said, if all networks were to give free mins away the service would be used much more.

Handy thing about 3 (and no not cause i work for them as this was the case from day 1), VideoMail is very handy. If someone video calls you and you cant get signal or phone is off its like a video voicemail.

Orange do something along the line by asking the caller to record a 10 second clip which gets sent as a MMS to the other person