PR releases

Vodafone's 'At Home' product family offers low-cost alternatives to the landline network

by Staff Writer | posted on 26 March 2005

Vodafone At Home: for simple, convenient and low cost calls from home

Vodafone At Home Web: high-speed and inexpensive internet access via UMTS

Vodafone At Home Talk & Web: a combined solution for low-cost calls and high-speed internet access to be launched in Q2

Vodafone is testing all products with landline numbers from Q2 2005 onwards

Hanover, 10 March 2005. Vodafone customers will soon be able to profit from the simplicity and flexibility of mobile communication solutions at home. To make this possible, Vodafone is launching an inexpensive and uncomplicated alternative to the landline network at CeBIT. It's called 'At Home' or "Zuhause" in Germany.

The 'At Home' concept comprises three modules that satisfy different customer requirements: 'Vodafone At Home', the telephony module, has performed very well in trials since November 2004. 'Vodafone At Home Web', which is being launched today, offers high-speed home surfing at a reasonable data tariff with the UMTS data card, and 'Vodafone At Home Talk & Web' is the simple and low-cost combined solution for telephony and high-speed internet that will be launched in Q2. All fixed network devices, such as phone, fax, answerphone and PC, are connected up to a special box.

These flexible Vodafone At Home solutions are the low-cost alternative to the classic fixed network service. Vodafone believes that considerable growth potential exists, not only in the voice telephony market, but also in the area of home internet access. "Almost 90% of total call minutes are still made via the landline network. At the same time, demand for broadband internet access is growing fast. We want to profit from both these developments," said Friedrich Joussen, Chief Operating Officer of Vodafone D2.

Low-cost rates for calls to the landline network and a rate per minute of 25 cents German mobile networks are cornerstones of the 'Vodafone At Home' tariff, which has been available on a trial basis since the end of 2004. The monthly package price for 'Vodafone At Home' of only € 20 includes 1,000 minutes of free talktime for calls to the German landline network1/2 and there is no basic charge. From Q2 2005 onwards, Vodafone will be testing the allocation of landline numbers to Vodafone At Home customers. As is the case with fixed network numbers, the prefixes will depend where the user lives. For example, users in Düsseldorf will have the 0211 prefix, and users in Berlin 030.

When CeBIT opens its doors on 10 March, Vodafone will have launched 'Vodafone At Home Web', a special data tariff for the use of the Mobile Connect Card UMTS in the 'At Home Zone'. The monthly package price includes an online volume of 60 hours3 or 5,000 MB3 and the Mobile Connect Card UMTS gives Vodafone customers 100 percent online mobility at home: at their desk, on the sofa or even in the garden. The advantage over traditional landline connections is that the data card can also be used outside the 'At Home Zone'. Customers have the option of additionally booking the Vodafone Time and Vodafone Volume data tariffs.

From Q2 onwards, Vodafone's 'Vodafone At Home Talk & Web' will offer customers diverse mobile communication applications in the At Home Zone for especially attractive prices. Existing landline devices such as desk or cordless phones, fax machines, answerphones and PC can be connected up to the box. Customers can simultaneously make a mobile phone call and surf the internet via UMTS at speeds of up to 384 Kbit/s. Vodafone already offers UMTS network coverage in 700 German towns and cities. It's incredibly simple: just plug the box into the mains and connect it up to the existing devices. The home connection between the box and the various PCs or notebooks can also be established very simply via WLAN.

Facts & figures

I. Vodafone At Home¹

Monthly free talktime²
Calls to the national landline network or to other Vodafone At Home users

1,000 min.

Basic monthly charge

None

Monthly package price Billing increments 60/60³

€ 20

Standard price per subsequent minute²
Calls to the national landline network or to other Vodafone At Home users

€ 0.04

Rate per minute for calls to all German m

networks²

€ 0.25

National text message price⁴

€ 0.20

Calls to the mailbox or customer hotline

Free

One-time connection fee

€ 24.95

1
One-month minimum term; subject to a two-week term of notice. The contract may be terminated by the customer on expiry of the minimum term or by Vodafone once only as of 31.05.2005. If the contract is not terminated with due notice, it automatically extends by one further month. Outgoing connections may only be made from the customer address that is registered with Vodafone D2. Incoming connections, as well as outgoing and incoming text messages, can be made until further notice within the Vodafone network; Vodafone D2 reserves the right to also restrict these services to the customer's address. The use of GPRS and UMTS and thus also the use of the services based on these technologies (e.g. MMS, videotelephony, logos, ring tones, ring-up tones, MyAddressBook etc.) is not possible. Other data connections cost € 0.40 per minute. Further rates, particularly the rates for connections/text messages to special-purpose numbers in foreign networks, will be charged at the rates for the Vodafone 50 tariff as per the price list for Vodafone MinutePackages. The Vodafone SecondCard, Foreign Network, Happy tariff options and SMS Packages are not bookable. The customer may not switch to another mobile communications tariff. The offer is limited until 31.03.2005.

2 National calls from the Vodafone D2 network not including data connections or calls to special-purpose numbers. Unused free talktime minutes cannot be transferred to the subsequent month. 60/60 billing increments (see 3.) when the free talktime minutes have been used up.

4 Text messages sent from the German Vodafone network to all German mobile networks with the exception of text messages to special-purpose numbers or premium services and providers. With 60/60 billing increments, each fractional minute of the call is billed as a whole minute.

II. Vodafone At Home Web

Vodafone At Home Web

Prices in euro, including VAT

Volume^1,4

Time^1,4

Basic monthly charge²

16.99

Inclusive price²

16.95

Credit within the Vodafone At Home zone

5,000 MB

60 h

Rate^{3 within the Vodafone At Home zone 5 when credit is used up}

0.25/MB

0.25/10 min.

Rate^{6 outside the Vodafone At Home zone}

1.86/10 min.

1.86/MB

Or as per additionally booked Vodafone Time/Volume tariff options

1. Only for use with a GPRS/UMTS-capable terminal device. This tariff option with a 24-month minimum term is only available to customers with a Vodafone BusinessDataPro6 data card (not for voice services) subject to the following terms: one-time connection fee of € 24.95, 24-month minimum term from the date when the tariff option is booked, basic monthly charge €6.96 or, if the tariff option is not booked, € 5.80 minimum volume (valid for national connections/text messages/MMS messages, not including special-purpose numbers). The tariff options and data card can be cancelled with 3 months' notice. Notice of termination can only be made to the end of the second year of the contract. Unless notice of termination given, the tariff option or data card contract automatically extends for a further year. Other rates are shown in the data card price list.

2. The basic monthly charge and inclusive price do not include the data card charges (see 1.).

3. Valid for national incoming and outgoing data packages in the Vodafone network via APN web.vodafone.de to the customer address that is registered with Vodafone D2 (as the Vodafone At Home Zone). Unused free data volume/ talktime is no longer valid after the expiry of the billing period. Billing increments for data volume/ talktime and subsequent rate: for Vodafone At Home Time, 10-minute increments, for Vodafone At Home Volume, the volume is rounded up to the next full MB data block at the end of each connection and at least every 24 hours.

4. The Vodafone At Home Time and Vodafone At Home Volume tariff options can be booked until 30.09.2005.

5. After each data connection, Vodafone D2 checks whether the customer is within or outside the At Home Zone for billing purposes.

6. Valid for national incoming and outgoing data traffic and for terminal connections to APN web.vodafone.de, wap.vodafone.de and corporate.vodafone.de. Billing increments as per 3.

7. Vodafone Time or Volume data tariff options can be booked in conjunction with a Vodafone BusinessDataPro5 data card (see 1). 24-month minimum term, monthly inclusive price € 9.86/34.80/69.90/110.20, national volume of free credit 2/10/30/100 hours or 10/50/150/500 MB. Use-dependent charges will be incurred when the free credit has been used up for data packages of € 1.86/1.28/0.93/0.82 per 10 minutes or per MB, precise billing at the end of each connection per 10 minute or 100 KB increment and at least every 24 hours. The Vodafone Time XXL 100 and Vodafone Volume 500 tariff options can be booked until 31.03.2005.

III. Vodafone At Home Talk & Web box 3 adapters for analogue telephone, fax and answerphone
Ethernet port (10/100BaseT Ethernet) for the connection of a stationary PC
WLAN router for wireless connection of laptops etc. as per 802.11g and b with speeds of up to 54 Mbit/s
Data connections with up to 384 Kbit/s (if UMTS network coverage is available)
Full WLAN access point functionality: user administration, NAT, firewall, routing, IP filter, PN, VPN pass through, TCP/IP protocol stack, configurable SSID
USB 2.0 printer port with printer server
Configuration of internet options on the PC with Configuration Wizard
LED status displays for power on/off, WLAN on/off, UMTS reception strength
230 volt mains adapter
Connection for optional, external UMTS antennae
This press release is available in PDF format on the Vodafone site.