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T-Mobile is raising its UK game to try to attract customers in the run-up to Christmas, launching a Game Club that tests out an advertising funded approach to the difficult mobile gaming market - and reducing the amount customers have to spend each month to get an Android G1 for free.

Suscribers to T-Mobile's web'n'walk mobile internet service can get at least one game a week for free, with the carrier being the first to test out an advertising-funded free model in this sector. Some mobile operators like Virgin Mobile have already tested the demand for other forms of content, or even voice minutes, provided free in return for the user accepting ads on their handsets, but this is the first time a UK carrier has done the same with games.

The T-Mobile Game Club will launch with the title 'Poker Million II', sponsored in part by Paramount Pictures' new movie 'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa'. This takes one step further the common marketing tactic of tying major film releases into mobile phone content, as seen with the Batman and James Bond franchises.

Each free game will include two full screen, targeted advertisements before play begins, and two more after the game concludes. T-Mobile said it would not limit the number of games a consumer downloads or how many times each game is played.

Ad-funded digital entertainment firm Digistores will host and manage Game Club and plans to launch titles over the next few weeks including 'IQ Booster', 'Pro-Bowling', 'Pool Star' and 'Einstein's Brain Game'. Digistores will only offer subscribers games that are compatible with their handsets.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile is also looking to stimulate increased interest in its most high profile phone, the G1. When this launched in the UK this autumn, customers need to pay a hefty £40 a month on a data plan that would bag them a free handset, but this has now been reduced to £30 a month.

The operator denied this was down to disappointing sales, though analysts believe the G1 has had less impact in Europe than the US, where it has been more heavily marketed by T-Mobile and where Google's Android has caused more of a stir so far (and where US consumers on GSM/HSPA networks have a sadly limited choice of sexy phones). But the UK carrier did say it had chosen to "offer the device free with a £30 contract to make the pricing more competitive in light of recent device launches", despite being "well on track to achieve sales forecasts."

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