T-Mobile International is planning to extend the push e-mail service to the consumer market. This initiative follows a successful rollout of the service to its enterprise customers. T-Mobile has big plans to take the consumer market by a storm, launching a number of new “community” services.
“We plan a new service that will push e-mail to consumers; this could become a very huge market,” Akhavan T-Mobile International CEO said.
As T-Mobile rolls out new social networking services such as myFaves in the U.S., the operator also plans new “community” pricing plans. For example, myFaves users can establish a community of up to five people who receive a discounted rate on services (voice calls, text messages, and more).
According to Akhavan, user-generated content, photos and videos, is another social networking service already generating lots of buzz, according to Akhavan.
“It’s still early days for social networking services over mobile networks but they will drive growth,” he said. “I believe the mobile Internet will have a bigger impact than the Internet itself.”
The company is looking at the new Windows Mobile 6.0. “I don’t know yet if our Windows Mobile 5.0 handsets can support 6.0,” he said. “If so and if we can use our Web site to allow customers to download the new operating system, then maybe this will be a possibility. I guess the answer is if we can upgrade easily, then yes.”
According to Akhavan, T-Mobile is moving ahead on its 3G (third-generation) rollout in the U.S.
Akhavan said he wasn’t concerned about the threat of municipality Wi-Fi networks. Users want quality service, “which requires networking expertise — this is something municipalities don’t have,” he said. “Governments, you may recall, used to run telecom networks and then decided to get out of that business.”
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