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T-Mobile puts WiFi on the phone bill

T-Mobile has dealt a dreadful blow to the hopes of investors in 3G phone networks by making WiFi networking part of the bill. You have a T-Mobile account? It covers mobile data as well - in the US, at least, for now.

T-Mobile has dealt a dreadful blow to the hopes of investors in 3G phone networks by making WiFi networking part of the bill. You have a T-Mobile account? It covers mobile data as well - in the US, at least, for now. The company announced, today, that adding hotspot WiFi was "as simple as adding a new $20-a-month feature to their existing wireless plan" for T-Mobile customers.

T-Mobile has probably the largest network - 2,300 hotspots - of wireless LANs in the US. It bought the Starbucks pioneering network, which it operates. It has several experimental public access points in various UK branches of Starbucks, too; these are due to go "live" in the near future. And it will be using this growing network to provide many of the services which otherwise would have required a vastly expensive 3G network.

The $20 price is a noticeable discount on existing WiFi-only rates. The special rate can save customers 50%, says T-Mobile, compared with what it would cost to use Starbucks hotspots alone.

Standard pay-as-you-go options aren't changed. Neither are the normal subscription charges. But the option of getting half-price WiFi may well attract phone subscribers from other networks.

"Today's announcement marks an important step in executing on T-Mobile's HotSpot strategy -- to offer reliable, high-speed wireless Internet access as part of the company's overall Get More service offering," said the company. "With integrated billing, T-Mobile is breaking down the barrier for people to access the service and experience the benefits of WiFi connectivity."

Joe Sims, vice president and general manager for T-Mobile HotSpot said: "With more than 10 million customers, T-Mobile is uniquely positioned to drive awareness about the convenience and reliability of WiFi to a broad group of business customers and consumers alike."

T-Mobile will promote the new Wi-Fi feature to its customers in T-Mobile stores and to its existing customer base through direct marketing.

T-Mobile launched HotSpot service just eight months ago. It's now accessible in more than 2,300 locations including Starbucks coffeehouses, Borders Books and Music, airports and American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines clubs and lounges. And Kinko's locations nationwide plan to offer the service by the end of the year.

The next big step will be when the service provides roaming. That is, an integrated GPRS and WiFi service "that allow customers to move between the two networks to access the most appropriate speed for the applications they want to use," as the company puts it.

More importantly, it will allow customers to decide what rate they are paying; WiFi access, once you subscribe, is flat rate, and GPRS, even if you subscribe, is costly per bit.

In the UK, T-Mobile took over the national 1800 MHz One-2-One network (which carries Virgin traffic) but in America where most networks have started out with CDMA networks, it leads the innovation stakes with a GSM/GPRS 1900MHz network.