3 gives customers money for having mates

Third-generation mobile operator 3 has announced it will start paying its pay-as-you-go customers to accept phone calls and text ads.

Under the WePay tariff, popular 3 users will get credit to use towards their phone bill whenever someone tries to contact them - 5p per minute for calls and 2p per text read – in a bid to lure heavy pay-as-you-go users to the 3 network.

A 3 spokeswoman told silicon.com that the move is also designed to get data-shy users to experiment with new content using their credit. She said: "Traditionally pre-paid customers are lower spending and this is about encouraging them to use 3G content."

The tariff will be available from February.