OT: T-Mobile 3G launch. WCDMA 15000 hotspotshttps://www.infoworld.com/article/04/03/18/HNtmobile3g_1.html
T-Mobile to launch 3G data and voice in May
Services to be available first in Germany, Austria and the U.K.
By John Blau, IDG News Service March 18, 2004
HANOVER, GERMANY - T-Mobile International, the wireless arm of German telephone giant Deutsche Telekom AG, will launch new voice and data services based on 3G (third-generation) technology in Germany, the U.K. and Austria beginning in May, company Chairman René Obermann said Thursday here at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.
The mobile phone company, Obermann said, aims to be the first in Europe to offer customers not only 3G mobile data cards but also handsets based on WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology.
Nokia Corp. will provide one of the phones, said company Chairman and Chief Executive Jorma Ollila, speaking at the T-Mobile news conference.
Rival German operator Vodafone D2 GmbH launched a 3G mobile card earlier this year, and O2 (Germany) GmbH & Co. OHG announced a 3G card Wednesday at Cebit. Neither operator, however, set a fixed date for the launch of 3G phones, which they say are still too big and consume too much energy.
Rival operators around Europe are closely watching operators in Germany -- the continent's largest mobile phone market -- as they role out new 3G services based on WCDMA technology. Their new services and fees could serve as benchmarks for the industry.
As part of its assault on the market for high-speed mobile communication services, T-Mobile plans a multimedia network service, called TM3, which will offer customers three access technologies: 3G, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and WLAN (wireless LAN).
Customers can move between the three networks, depending on availability, for the same fee, according to Obermann. Connection software in the device -- whether it's a mobile phone, PDA (personal digital assistant) or notebook -- will select the best possible connection. The initial 3G speeds will be up to 384K bps (bits per second).
T-Mobile will offer a wide range of both volume and time-based rates. For instance, for a monthly fee of €110 (US$135), customers can transmit up to 500M bytes. Of if they prefer a time-based fee, they can pay €35 for 600 minutes of online connectivity and €1.30 for each additional 10 minutes.
When T-Mobile launches 3G service in Germany, the operator will cover 200 cities, or 40 percent of the population, and expects to have 50 percent coverage by the end of this year.
In addition, the mobile operator plans to expand the number of WLAN hotspots worldwide from 5,000 at present to more than 15,000 over the coming months. Of the 5,000, more than 4,000 are currently in the U.S