Mobile phone group mmO2 gave the first indication of how much subscribers can expect to pay to use the next era of technology.

Trial prices for the Isle of Man will see a typical residential user charged £1.40 a day or £44 a month for surfing the web, downloading music or using email.

The company is the first in Europe to put a price on its third generation (3G) services, although it said the tariffs may yet differ for the UK.

The company's Manx Telecom subsidiary began testing its 3G network at the end of last year and will now gauge the reaction to its pricing structure among 200 customers on the island.

Manx Telecom's 3G service gives customers high-speed mobile access to the internet and a range of interactive options, video clips and games.

Mark Briers, director of 3G at mmO2, said: "The aim of the 3G trial is to find out what customers want and how much they are willing to pay for the various services.

"We have an initial pricing structure but will be testing a number of pricing strategies during the trial in order to look at price elasticities."

Four tariffs have been developed aimed at corporations, small and medium-sized companies, consumers and heavy users of the internet.

It is thought that mmO2's 3G service could be up and running in the UK, Germany and The Netherlands by the middle of next year.

Prior to that, mmO2 said it intended to enhance its text messaging capabilities with a new range of multimedia messaging services.

The service, due to be launched in the autumn, will enable customers to send a message featuring photographs, sound and text to another mobile or email address.