Having just dragged my mobile phone kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Clive Akass' interview with Dr Martin Cooper, the man who made the first cellular phone call in 1973, caught my eye.

Modern mobile phones are packed full of great features (if you can find them) that use data services, but most people are put off by the opaque pricing schemes and perceived high cost of data calls. The fact that configuring data services on some phones is still a black art doesn't help either.

With the prospect of 120Mbits/sec 4G services and Wimax just around the corner, the phone operators need to actively encourage people to use mobile data services if they are to gain traction. 3G-enabled laptops and USB dongles are great, but if they're perceived as an expensive alternative they will be shunned

As ever, the simplest way to get people hooked is to make the pricing clear and, more importantly, affordable.

Kelvyn Taylor, Editor in Chief, Online
www.pcw.co.uk

P.S. The bumper 30th anniversary issue of Personal Computer World hits the newsstands on Thursday 21 February, so mark your diary to make sure you don't miss this very special issue!