Of the three mobile carriers attempting to lure customers to their next-gen mobile service Vodafone has the slowest data speed, but probably the best content.

Vodafone Live works on a speed of just under 100 Kbps, slower than Telstra Mobile Loop at 144 Kbps and a lot slower than Hutchison's 3 which has a theoretical speed of 386 Kbps. However, Vodafone can lay claim to being one of the largest mobile carriers in the world with more than 112.5 million users (and more than one million already signed up on Vodafone Live) worldwide, and this comes through with the easy-to-use interface and the large quantity of content.

One of the cool aspects of Vodafone Live is the way the service is integrated into the mobile, in our case the Sharp GX10. As well as softkey access to the opening page of Live, menus within the phone link directly to the Live site -- for example, the games menu includes a Download Games option that takes you to the relevant site on Live.

The opening screen of the service has eight icons on it leading to various aspects of the site. The icons include New, Messages, Chat, Downloads, Games, More, My Vodafone and Help.

Some of these options are fairly simple: Messages gives you access to Vodafone Mail and other e-mail accounts, as well as sending PXT (MMS). The Chat section takes you to a couple of chat sites -- Oz Chat and World Chat -- both containing several chat rooms. Some of them seemed fairly busy, but as with any chat room, it will take you a while to get used to the lingo.

Perhaps the greatest example of the breadth of Vodafone Live's content is the Game section, which launched with 60 games available and more promised later. There were the standard solitaire-style and flying fighter plane games, but we were particularly pleased to see old classics included. It's about time we were able to get Bubble Bobble on a mobile, and other people will feel a burning need to download Pacman and Space Invaders. Games cost between AU$3-7 to download.

The New section contains all the new services added to Live as they appear. At the moment it houses Radar Weather, Sports Day, TV guide, ready made PXT and World Chat. As services stop being "new" they are automatically integrated into contextually relevant menus.

The Downloads menu lists all the subcategories available for download, from games to backgrounds to polyphonic ringtones. In another example of the sheer breadth of content available on Live, the number of background pictures is amazing, with images ranging from various photos to cartoon slogans to pin-ups. The pages load first with the names of the pictures, with thumbnails sent progressively. You can view the full image, and buy it for AU$3.30 if you want.

Likewise, the selection of polyphonic ringtones available for download (for AU$3.30) is formidable, and is divided into categories such as POPS70s, POPS80s, Dance/Techno, Movies, Oldies and so on. With such a large selection you're bound to find something you think is cool, or at least tacky enough to use as a ringtone.

The "More" menu takes you to Mobile Internet, which has a lot of useful features. Find & Seek, allows you to see a map of a location in Australia, which can be very useful. This is also the location of News, Sport, Horoscopes, Weather and Finance. These can be accessed at 50c a pop, $1 for a week's subscription or $3 for a week's subscription to every News category.

There is also a movie guide with details of what's showing in each cinema, which is the sort of content that should be available on a mobile. The Music menu shows the Top 20 charts, as well as a subscription service to "This Day in Music".

Another menu, Love & Life, offers access to things such as Lovescopes, Humour and Trivia. Humour offers Joke of the Day, Karajoke, Insult of the Day and Pickup Lines. Some of the jokes are funny, some less so. Trivia offers things like Word of the Day, Inspirational Quote and, of course, Trivia, for 50c per request. These features will appeal in different ways to different people, and few people are likely to use all of them. However, the fact that they are offered is impressive.

The Live service is particularly easy to navigate, with links at the bottom of every page to the Vodafone opening page, as well as any major upstream menu. Data is charged at a rate of 2c/Kb on the service, and these charges are added to the cost of any download. You are warned of any additional charge before downloading any item. Vodafone has a few examples of download costs.

We found the Vodafone Live service to be easy to use and -- perhaps more importantly -- stuffed to the gills with useful content. The prices are fairly reasonable, but you wouldn't want to go overboard. After you find a ringtone and background that you like, and a few games you enjoy, you'll have a personalised phone that you enjoy using.

Vodafone Live
Company: Vodafone
Price: Dependant on plan
Distributor:  Vodafone Stores
Phone:  1300 650 410

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