Vodafone unveils interactive cellphone
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Cellphone giant Vodafone AirTouch Plc said on Thursday it was throwing its customers a lifeline by launching a range of interactive services and becoming one of rising wave of free Internet service providers.
The group vowed Vodafone Interactive, which is available to all customers, would make a busy life easier to manage and give customers the freedom to do whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted -- as long as they used their handsets.
Services include personalised, up to date news, share prices, weather and entertainment information, a virtual personal assistant to remind users of important dates and to send, receive and store text messages and a full e-mail service.
``Vodafone Interactive is a virtual life support system, and is the first of its kind in the UK,' said Alan Harper, the managing director of the group's Vodafone Ltd division.
``As the technologies converge, it will become invisible to our customers how they run their business and personal lives -- Vodafone Interactive will make it happen.'
Vodafone Interactive will be available free of charge to all mobile phone users. Calls made when using the service will be charged at standard tariffs, whether they are for voice or data services.
Vodafone.net, the new ISP, is designed to complement Vodafone Interactive. Round the clock customer support calls will cost around 50p per minute from a fixed phone and around 78p per minute from a mobile.
Partly out of a reluctance to allow Britain's biggest Internet service provider Freeserve Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: FRE.L) to control mobile phone users' access to the Internet, Vodafone rivals BT Cellnet (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BT.L) and Orange Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ORA.L) have already establised their own Internet services.
One2One (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: DTEG.F), the fourth operator, has teamed up with entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group [VA.CN] Internet division.
Freeserve stormed the market with the first free Internet access service last year. But IT experts now estimate there could be as many 300 Internet access providers, of which at least 100 are subscription free. |
