3GScottishUser
5th October 2005, 11:22 AM
LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - T-Mobile UK, the British arm of Europe's second-largest cell phone operator, said on Wednesday it expected to woo hundreds of thousands of customers onto its new mobile Internet devices over the next couple of years.
Managing Director Brian McBride said he was confident that the launch in Britain of T-Mobile's "web'n'walk" consumer Internet brand on eight devices by Christmas would bring the full power of the Internet from computers onto mobile phones.
He conceded that Internet services on mobile devices to date had proved slow, difficult to navigate and expensive. But he said T-Mobile's approach was for fast, simple and affordable services and products that would one day carry more Internet traffic than fixed-line computers or phones.
"We're all about the full Internet, not quasi Internet...not a walled garden. We kick off with (search engine) Google on your front page, click one button and you're away," he told a conference call with journalists.
Most mobile Internet devices target professionals using email and surfing the Web and are designed to synchronise with corporate e-mail accounts.
But Deutsche Telekom-controlled T-Mobile (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) has been one of the few to also focus on non-professionals with widescreen products with integrated cameras that make Web browsing and instant messaging easy and fast by beefing up browsers and software.
Backed by a marketing and advertising campaign running into high, single-digit millions of pounds, the company is selling three tariff bands priced at 30-55 pounds ($53-$97) per month for customers who are willing to sign up for 18-month contracts.
The deals include 100, 200 or 400 inclusive call minutes and each provide 40 megabits of data usage -- equivalent to about 2,500 average emails or 500 average Web pages. Calls outside inclusive minutes are charged at between 10p-25p per minute.
T-Mobile has been integrating its second-generation, new higher-speed third-generation (3G) and local wirefree (WiFi) area networks to allow its handsets to offer high-speed, broadband mobile data services.
Its Web service will be available in the UK on products such as its "MDA" devices, some of which are 2.5G, 3G and WiFi compliant and are made by Taiwan's HTC, the new Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) N70 and N6630 handsets and its Sidekick II, with enhanced email, messaging and calendar capabilities.
"I think it's realistic to expect over the next couple of years that we're going to get hundreds of thousands of people on this," McBride said.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2005-10-05T093417Z_01_L05215023_RTRIDST_0_TELECOMS-TMOBILE.XML
Managing Director Brian McBride said he was confident that the launch in Britain of T-Mobile's "web'n'walk" consumer Internet brand on eight devices by Christmas would bring the full power of the Internet from computers onto mobile phones.
He conceded that Internet services on mobile devices to date had proved slow, difficult to navigate and expensive. But he said T-Mobile's approach was for fast, simple and affordable services and products that would one day carry more Internet traffic than fixed-line computers or phones.
"We're all about the full Internet, not quasi Internet...not a walled garden. We kick off with (search engine) Google on your front page, click one button and you're away," he told a conference call with journalists.
Most mobile Internet devices target professionals using email and surfing the Web and are designed to synchronise with corporate e-mail accounts.
But Deutsche Telekom-controlled T-Mobile (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) has been one of the few to also focus on non-professionals with widescreen products with integrated cameras that make Web browsing and instant messaging easy and fast by beefing up browsers and software.
Backed by a marketing and advertising campaign running into high, single-digit millions of pounds, the company is selling three tariff bands priced at 30-55 pounds ($53-$97) per month for customers who are willing to sign up for 18-month contracts.
The deals include 100, 200 or 400 inclusive call minutes and each provide 40 megabits of data usage -- equivalent to about 2,500 average emails or 500 average Web pages. Calls outside inclusive minutes are charged at between 10p-25p per minute.
T-Mobile has been integrating its second-generation, new higher-speed third-generation (3G) and local wirefree (WiFi) area networks to allow its handsets to offer high-speed, broadband mobile data services.
Its Web service will be available in the UK on products such as its "MDA" devices, some of which are 2.5G, 3G and WiFi compliant and are made by Taiwan's HTC, the new Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) N70 and N6630 handsets and its Sidekick II, with enhanced email, messaging and calendar capabilities.
"I think it's realistic to expect over the next couple of years that we're going to get hundreds of thousands of people on this," McBride said.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2005-10-05T093417Z_01_L05215023_RTRIDST_0_TELECOMS-TMOBILE.XML