T-Mobile US bundles Wi-Fi, GPRS, phone
Published: 08 May 2003 16:16 BST
T-Mobile US, the wireless phone company announced that customers can now consolidate charges for its hotspot Wi-Fi service on their monthly cellular phone service bills. The company will do the same for subscribers using its new General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) cell phone network in the next few months, it announced.
T-Mobile said customers can add a monthly $19.99 (£12.46) unlimited access Wi-Fi service to their monthly wireless bill. The charge is at a 50 percent discount over the company's regular hotspot rate plans. The service also will continue as a stand-alone offering by subscription or on a pay-for-use basis.
Wi-Fi networking technology is used to create Internet access through the air within a radius of about 300 feet from a device. US cell phone service providers, trying to find new sources of revenue, began selling wireless Internet access inside airport executive lounges, hotels and coffee shops about two years ago.
T-Mobile said the announcement marks an important step in its Wi-Fi strategy of offering a variety of services -- such as high-speed wireless Internet access and voice and data services -- under one umbrella.
Other telecommunications companies such as Verizon and SBC have been bundling DSL (digital subscriber line) Internet access, local and long distance, and cellular into all-encompassing service plans.
Most people -- including customers of the Wi-Fi services sold by Verizon and AT&T --still subscribe to Wi-Fi and cellular calling plans separately. While billing for bundled services seems a mere administrative issue, wireless carriers have maintained the feat is technically demanding. That difficulty has stood in the way of other real national rollouts of such bundled services.
T-Mobile US is part of T-Mobile International, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom controls over 2,300 hotspots -- public places that give people wireless access -- in the US and expects to expand that to 5,000 locations by the end of the year.
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