Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/01/24/out_come_the_gadget_freaks/

Out come the gadget freaks for Cellnet WAP service

Not for the price-conscious

By Stephen Thackeray

Posted in On-Prem, 24th January 2000 13:50 GMT

"Our customers won't be worried about the price. It's all down to what people spend their money on," a BT Cellnet spokeswoman said at today's launch of its mobile Internet service. "Some spend it on clothes, others spend their money on the latest gadgets." The service will cost 5p per minute until June when new pricing structures are introduced with the arrival of high speed GPRS connections. This will see the customer charged only when information is sent or received. As well as paying more, the first generation of WAP users will experience slower access using the GSM network. BT Cellnet is the second of the UK's four major mobile network operators to launch WAP services. Orange launched its flavour late last year, but there were some early glitches, as BT Cellnet points out: "We took more time (than Orange) over the launch of our WAP service to ensure that the service would work." In common with Orange, BT Cellnet is majoring on the Nokia 7110 as its preferred WAP-enabled phone. BT Cellnet's WAP customers will be able to have exclusive access to 36 partner sites and any WAP enabled site as well as unlimited length e-mail. Existing customers without WAP enabled phones will be able to receive e-mail from a transmitter in 160-character blocks -- the length of SMS messages. The service is based on Genie Internet, BT Cellnet's mobile ISP, which has 500,000 subscribers. ® Links Genie Internet The Nokia 7110