One-year anniversary of web’n’walk: T-Mobile sets standards for mobile data communications

- Over half a million data options marketed
- More speed: T-Mobile is the world’s first operator to offer data speeds of up to 3.6 megabits per second

Forget the closed portals; go straight to the open Internet. In a nutshell, this was the message for customers used by T-Mobile a year ago to launch the web’n’walk data service. When T-Mobile launched its mobile Internet service in Germany and Austria in July 2005 and thus became the first provider to enable “real” mobile surfing on the World Wide Web, the company heralded a new era for mobile data services. T-Mobile customers are now able to use the mobile Internet service in six countries. The product is available not only in Germany and Austria but also in the UK, the Czech Republic, in the Netherlands, and Hungary. In the meantime the total amount of web’n’walk data options sold has grown to over half a million.

“Last year, we used web’n’walk to lay the foundations for our growth opportunities in mobile data communications,” says Ulli Gritzuhn, CMO at T-Mobile International. “We realized early on that the previous market models - i.e. focusing on closed portals - would no longer be sufficient to develop the market and have therefore used our open, mobile Internet service to launch a promising new initiative.”

The T-Mobile product range already comprises 15 devices that include a web’n’walk browser. This means that Gritzuhn’s prognosis at the start of the mobile Internet service, that over the next five years all new mobile data phones will be web’n’walk-enabled, seems to materialize even earlier than planned.

Further momentum for data growth with web’n’walk is provided by T-Mobile in form of additional features - for example, the web’n’walk box which can now be used to connect the home PC to the mobile broadband network. In Austria, the box is already available. The product launch in Germany will follow shortly.

With the implementation of HSDPA in the T-Mobile networks in Germany, the UK, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Netherlands, T-Mobile has already laid the foundations for ultra-fast mobile broadband surfing. As the world’s first network operator, T-Mobile is able to offer download speeds of up to 3.6 megabits per second (mbps) via HSDPA even today. In large parts of Vienna, the download data rate in the network has now increased from 1.8 to 3.6 mbps. It will be gradually extended to the rest of Austria. In Hungary HSDPA network capabilities have also been increased to the speed of 3.6 mbps in parts of the country.

About T-Mobile International
T-Mobile International is one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. As one of Deutsche Telekom’s three strategic business units, T-Mobile concentrates on the most dynamic markets in Europe and the United States. By the end of March 2006, nearly 88 million mobile customers were served by companies of the Deutsche Telekom group. And all that over a common technology platform based on GSM, the world’s most successful digital wireless standard. This also makes T-Mobile the only mobile communications provider with a seamless transatlantic service.

T-Mobile also is partner of FreeMove, an alliance formed by four of Europe’s leading mobile companies – Orange, TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), T-Mobile, and TeliaSonera – to help their customers communicate as easily while travelling abroad as they do at home.

Contact Information

Klaus Czerwinski

Press Spokesperson

T-Mobile

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