3G handsets? Don't touch them with a bargepole, says Which?

Consumer magazine Which? has advised Christmas shoppers to stay away from 3G.

Which? has told consumers that for the moment, the cost of buying a third-generation handset is too extravagant because of the limited nature of the 3G networks outside London and the UK's other major cities.

The magazine also said the handsets were oversized and recommended the UK public stay with their old-school handsets for a while yet.

The mobile operators paid £22bn for their 3G licences and have been hoping a spate of pre-Christmas launches will encourage mobile owners to upgrade to third-generation functionality. So far, however, it's been the operators' business offerings - 3G data cards - that have been flying off the shelves, and analysts are predicting they’ll be the big star of the 3G portfolio.

At the moment, 1.2 million of the cards are in use - and analyst house IDC expects that number to grow to 5.7 million by the end of 2008.