3 tries to tempt mobile broadband buyers with MS Office

Free Office 2010 upgrade included

Mobile phone network 3 today said it will offer its mobile broadband customers a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 for a penny less than £60.

Microsoft's RRP for Office Home & Student is £100, but the software suite is widely available for a lot less than that - around the £60 price that 3 is charging, in fact, so it's hardly an unbeatable offer.

But buy now from us, the carrier said, and you'll get a free upgrade to Office 2010 when it launches in the summer.

Microsoft has said it will charge buyers £110 for Office Home & Student 2010, though it hasn't revealed whether it will make it cheap for existing Office users to upgrade.

Sorry, 3, but we'd suggest OpenOffice. It's compatible with the current Microsoft offering, it's free to download and you don't have to buy mobile broadband to get that low price.

Office 2010 is currently available to try in the form of a free pre-release bera version. The test release will become non-functional on 31 October 2010. ®