Wednesday October 6 5:19 AM ET
Microsoft, BT Plan Wireless Internet Launch
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and British Telecommunications Plc announced plans Wednesday to roll out wireless Internet services in Europe beginning with a trial involving about 1,000 mobile phone users.
The three-month trial, described as the biggest ever, will allow employees of five major companies in Britain and Norway to use their wireless phones to access electronic mail, calendar information and other data including content from Web pages customized for the small phone screens.
At the end of the test period BT and Microsoft expect a sizeable commercial deployment of the service in early 2000, according to a statement from the two companies.
The planned service is the fruit of an alliance between the two companies announced in February.
Under the relationship with BT, Microsoft's Exchange Server will be the primary messaging platform and its microbrowser Web software will be used as the interface for the mobile phones, said Jonathan Roberts, general manager of Microsoft's Windows CE business.
He said BT, the No. 2 wireless carrier in Britain behind Vodafone AirTouch Plc, likely would charge either on the basis of minutes used or amount of data transmitted and would pay Microsoft a fee for the service provided.
I love it. Microsoft never ceases to amaze me in how they are ripping off the consumer. Yet this points to the pitfall of wireless data. There is proof that everytime you hear about it, you have to ask what this going to cost us to use in the future. Microsoft obviously would love it to be charged by the bit, as they are notorious in wasting B/W.
Data will be sent using the GSM protocol, which is universal in Europe and allows transmission of both voice and data at about 9600 bits per second, which is adequate for the limited text that can be displayed on mobile phone screens, Roberts said.
Customers involved in the trial are British Broadcasting Corp., Credit Suisse First Boston, KPMG, Nortel Networks, and Telenor Mobil in Norway.
Handsets initially will be supplied by Sagem SA of France and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of South Korea.
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