Now that British mobile phone companies are offering unmetered internet access, what kind of power will our mobile phones start to have?

In a Cyberclinic column nine months ago, many of your emails poured scorn on the pathetic internet capabilities of mobile phones, and how it cost an arm and a leg to tease out a trickle barely decipherable data. But things have changed. Some nifty mobile applications are starting to make the best of small displays, and flat-rate internet access plans from T-Mobile and 3 mean we no longer have to grit our teeth at the prospect of an enormous bill every time we log on. Some commentators have compared these new flat-rate plans to the birth of broadband, and some of your emails certainly suggest a loosening of the shackles. “T-Mobile’s web’n’walk might not allow high-bandwidth usage,” writes John McMillan, “but it’s not as if the speed of mobile connections encourages that kind of thing anyway. It’s really handy.”

So, how to take best advantage? Opera Mini is a great all-purpose mobile browser that makes argument-settling visits to Wikipedia a breeze, while Fring – still in beta but available to try at fring.com – brings the world of internet telephony, or VoIP, to mobiles with sufficiently speedy connections. Until now, mobile networks have been unwilling to allow VoIP, mainly as it would expose their call charges as being crippling by comparison, but 3’s recent flat rate announcement includes provision for Skype, a popular VoIP program. However, it’s Google who are at the forefront of development for net-surfing mobiles. “Their new Gmail application is brilliant,” writes Sara Todd. “It looks great on my Nokia, it’s easy to use – totally essential.” In addition, a phone-based Google Maps is putting a neat little worldwide map into our back pockets; the rumours that Google are working with Orange to build a mobile for release next year are almost more mouth-watering than the long-touted prospect of Apple’s so-called iPhone.

What about long term? Symbian, who make the operating systems for many high-end mobiles, suggested in October that bigger mobile displays with increased resolution and which can be bent or folded will eventually mean the death of the PC. Mike Couture from Amdocs, a company that works with UK mobile networks on convergence technology, sees an increase in connection speeds as the key. “Your movie or music collection could be stored at home or on an outside server, allowing you to access it via your phone while on the road. And there are endless other possibilities – being able to see that your children are OK, checking the contents of your fridge or programming your washing machine remotely.” In fact, the only aspect of technology that might struggle to keep up with mobile innovations is the battery power needed to keep it all running.