T-Mobile USA offers EDGE across 90% of GRPS network @ Dave's iPAQ

T-Mobile USA offers EDGE across 90% of GRPS network @ Dave's iPAQ
T-Mobile USA offers EDGE across 90% of GRPS network

By David Ciccone, posted Thursday, Sep. 1st, 2005
Reader Comments: 16

T-Mobile USA Inc. said it has launched EDGE services across 90 percent of its GPRS-enabled network and that the higher-speed wireless data service now is commercially available to customers with EDGE-enabled devices. The carrier was expected to launch EDGE earlier this year, but delayed the service due to a lack of compelling devices.

T-Mobile USA currently offers a pair of EDGE-enabled handsets from Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. A company spokesman said customers can continue to access the EDGE services for the same price as their current GRPS rate plans, but that the carrier would begin looking at possible EDGE-specific pricing plans sometime in the future.

Cingular Wireless L.L.C. currently offers EDGE services across most of its network and plans to offer higher-speed UMTS/HSDPA services in at least 15 markets by the end of the year. T-Mobile USA's parent company Deutsche Telekom AG said it was waiting on additional spectrum before announcing additional network upgrades.

DT also announced that its T-Mobile International operations signed Wi-Fi roaming agreements with Swisscom Mobile and Telecom Italia covering 1,000 hot-spot locations in Switzerland and 800 locations in Italy. The agreement is available to T-Mobile wireless customers in Austria, The Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

DT noted it was the leading transatlantic Wi-Fi provider with more than 13,000 locations in Europe and the United States, and it offers Wi-Fi at more than 35,000 locations around the world through roaming agreements.