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T-Mobile unveils pay-as-you-go Android phone

The Pulse is the first such handset to go on sale in the UK and marks manufacturer Huawei's entry into the British market.

David Meyer Special to CNET News.com
The Pulse
T-Mobile's Pulse (click for full slideshow) ZDNet UK

T-Mobile has demonstrated the first pay-as-you-go Android handset to go on sale in the UK.

The Pulse, which is manufactured by Huawei, was announced on Thursday. Huawei is best known in the UK for manufacturing mobile broadband dongles for operators such as T-Mobile, and the Pulse marks its entry into the British handset market.

"The T-Mobile Pulse represents another Android milestone from T-Mobile," said Nicola Shenton, who currently heads the operator's handset business in the UK, in a statement. "We introduced the first Android handset, the T-Mobile G1, to the UK back in October 2008, launched our second handset, the G2 Touch, earlier this year and now we're opening up Android-based smartphones to a whole new type of mobile user with the first handset on pay-as-you-go."

"We predicted back in June that we expected one in five T-Mobile mobile internet users will have Android-powered devices by the end of the year, and the launch of the T-Mobile Pulse is a major step in making this a reality," she added.

The pay-as-you-go T-Mobile Pulse will go on sale in the UK in October at £180. Contract pricing is yet to be announced.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.