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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (20984)	4/1/2002 9:02:52 AM
From: slacker711	Respond to of 197214

AT&T Travels New Road To mMode wirelessweek.com By Brad Smith April 1, 2002 Wireless Week When AT&T Wireless rolls out its new mMode service in the next few weeks, the carrier will make a shift of sorts in its marketing strategy. AT&T Wireless is known for courting the mobile professional, something it emphasized when it started marketing its GPRS packet-data network last year. While its GPRS competition focused on consumers, the Redmond, Wash.-based carrier took its new capabilities to the enterprise market. But with its somewhat ambiguous mLife marketing campaign, launched during the Super Bowl, and now with its upcoming mMode launch, AT&T Wireless is more aggressively targeting the consumer market. Becky Diercks, wireless research director for In-Stat/MDR, which is owned by the same company as Wireless Week, says mMode and mLife are primarily consumer-focused services that will determine AT&T Wireless' financial success in the years ahead. "What we've seen is that it is more and more important to reach the consumer market," she says. "That's the market AT&T needs. It needs it to successfully compete against other carriers." Although mMode is influenced by NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, which has about 31 million users, don't expect to see cute cartoons downloaded to millions of AT&T Wireless phones. DoCoMo's 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless, which cost the Japanese operator $9.6 billion, doesn't give the carrier dictatorial power over AT&T's service. AT&T Wireless isn't providing a lot of details yet about what to expect from mMode, but spokesman Ritch Blasi says it will focus on messaging and access to information and entertainment. It all will be pulled together on an opening deck on the phone that will make the service quick and easy to use. AT&T Wireless executives revealed additional aspects about mMode and its pricing at a meeting with analysts at CTIA Wireless 2002 in Orlando, Fla. Analysts were told services will include e-mail, instant messaging, personal information management with desktop synchronization, a search directory and location content. Initially, mMode will use a WAP browser, but by the middle of the year, handsets will have dual browsers for WAP 2.0 and xHTML/cHTML. Basic mMode access will cost about $3 a month, with an additional charge for data traffic. One megabyte of data will cost about $5, 2 MB will cost $9.50 and each additional kilobyte will cost 1 or 2 cents. AT&T Wireless will launch mMode with four handsets from Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson and will add the Siemens S46 GAIT phone by the end of April. At least another half-dozen phones will be added during the year. Two other DoCoMo partners are in the process of rolling out i-mode services. Germany's E-Plus launched i-mode in early March and KPN Mobile of the Netherlands will launch this month. Unlike AT&T Wireless, both carriers pay a licensing fee to use i-mode. How successful will mMode be in the United States? You'd have to be a fortuneteller to know, but In-Stat's Diercks says AT&T appears to be on the right track. "Other than its somewhat complex pricing, overall we see a pretty good debut for i-mode in America," she says. Which would make folks in both Redmond and Tokyo smile.