Third generation mobile technology (3G) is finally here. Almost four years after the telecoms regulator laid down a framework to open the Irish market for the new technology, Vodafone is offering a service to the public.

The firm's 3G data cards will enable people using a laptop to connect to the internet at speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second, about eight times faster than existing cards which use second generation mobile technology.

The higher connection speeds will enable users of the 3G data card to receive emails, attachments and open Web pages without having to wait for several minutes to download them.

Users will also be able to send emails and attachments at speed of just under 100 kilobits per second, although connection speeds will vary depending on radio interference and how many other people use the 3G system.

"This is all about delivering information faster and more efficiently," says Mr Paul Donovan, Vodafone chief executive. "The changing nature of work habits in Ireland has resulted in changing needs from our customers."

Vodafone will market 3G initially to business customers by emphasising the productivity gains that can be achieved by frequent travellers or sales representatives out on the road. One of the selling points of the firm's 3G service is that it enables employees to access their corporate networks while travelling.

The service will probably prove too expensive for the ordinary consumer, who would have to pay a minimum subscription of €25 excluding VAT per month and a once off payment worth €350 to buy the 3G data card.

The geographic reach of Vodafone's 3G service will also be limited to major urban centres for some time to come. The firm says its coverage now extends to 45 per cent of the population covering greater Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. The economics of 3G will probably mean that the service will never be extended to rural areas, says Mr Donovan, who claims that Vodafone will spend more than €1 billion on building its 3G service.

The data card will get around this problem of limited 3G coverage by connecting to Vodafone's existing general packet radio service (GPRS) network, which offers lower connection speeds of 56 kilobits per second.

But this type of roaming between GPRS and 3G networks will not occur seamlessly as a data card user will have to log on to each network separately. This is because of a well-documented technical problem with handing over 3G calls to 2G networks.

Mr Donovan says the firm has sold 5,000 GPRS data cards since it launched them in March 2003 and insists he is confident that Vodafone will make a return from its massive 3G investment.

A consumer launch of 3G is scheduled for the autumn when a range of mobile handsets will become available, making it more attractive for consumers, he says.

But not everyone is convinced that 3G will be a commercial or technical success. Meteor, the State's third mobile phone firm, balked at paying the €110 million 3G licence fee in the Republic, even though this was among the lowest fees charged in Europe.

"From our point of view we still really haven't seen the killer applications to make 3G a success that everyone thought there would be," says Mr Andrew Kelly, Meteor's director of regulatory affairs. "At this point I wouldn't call it a white elephant, rather an unproven technology."

But despite major technical difficulties in getting 3G technology to work and the huge financial write off absorbed by 3G firms across Europe, Meteor has not ruled out buying a 3G licence.

"We haven't turned our back on it on any shape or form... There is a still a fourth 3G licence on the shelf in Ireland that we could bid for or we could enter the 3G market as an MVNO [mobile virtual phone operator]," he says.

The 3G pioneer in Europe is Hutchison Whampoa, who have already launched commercial services in a range of European countries including Britain and Italy.

The firm was awarded an Irish 3G licence at a cost of €50 million and has been granted the biggest single slice of radio spectrum for its services.

Hutchison must roll out a 3G network capable of providing services to 80 per cent of the population and also enable other firms - so- called MVNO - to piggyback on its own network.

Preferring to concentrate on its larger European markets, the company is behind schedule in the Republic where it is still only offering partners a limited service.

Mr Edward Brewster, head of communications at Hutchison, says its full commercial 3G launch would depend on the roll-out of its network. But he said it would offer exciting mobile services similar to those in Britain.

"We offer high quality video clips that can either be downloaded and played or played directly from the handset through streaming," he says. "We offer up to eight minutes of streaming video clips and a range of services such as ITN news bulletins, clips from the latest blockbuster videos and sports clips."

Hutchison's service, which is branded "3", runs at speeds up to 364 kilobits per second, although it depends on the size of the content that is being transferred, according to Mr Brewster.

Video calls have been one of the most hyped 3G services since Hutchison launched in Britain, although this service has been slow to take off as it needs widespread adoption by a lot of users.

Another content area that Hutchison has embraced is the supply of adult services. It currently offers slide shows and videos from Playboy, Mayfair, Escort and MenOnly to subscribers over the age of 18 who sign up for a special PIN code to access it.

Mobile pornography is already a huge business that will be worth $4 billion by 2006, according to a report by the British research firm Visiongain.

In Japan and Korea, the first countries in the world to launch 3G services, uptake of adult services has been particularly strong.

Access to adult services in the Republic is likely to be restricted to people over the age of 18 and Mr Dermot Ahern, the Minister for Communications, has already specified that all 3G handsets will have to be registered in Ireland.

But most experts agree that it is new services - such as SMS in the 2G world - that will make or break 3G.

And finding a "killer application" is now the holy grail for a European mobile industry saddled in debt after spending billions on the big 3G gamble.