T-Mobile Hotspot has 2,200 locations nationwide, including 15 airport gates or terminals, 2,100 Starbucks in 23 states and 75 Borders Books and Music locations. T-Mobile says it plans to serve 2,600 Starbucks in 27 states and 400 Borders stores by year's end. Internationally, the service supports 200 Starbucks in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
Pricing is $29.99 per month for unlimited use with a 12-month contract, or $39.99 without a contract. Prepaid plans are $50 for 300 minutes, and metered plans run 10 cents per minute with a 60-minute minimum. Enterprise customers can obtain discounts and plans that combine hotspots with GSM/GPRS service. T-Mobile says it intends to integrate its nationwide GSM/GPRS network with its T-Mobile Hotspot service, tying together billing and authentication mechanisms. The company also intends to support the IEEE 802.1x network security framework. These developments are planned for later this year.
The network uses 802.11b, but T-Mobile did not state which WLAN technologies it plans to support in the future. Authentication is via a secure Web page, and hotspot locations are listed on the T-Mobile Web site. The company is also developing client software, which will include a location directory.
While other cellular carriers such as AT&T Wireless are also deploying hotspot networks, T-Mobile is in the lead, in a strong position because of its large base of existing subscribers who may wish to augment their GSM/GPRS accounts with broadband capability. With respect to the RFI, T-Mobile had attractive pricing and an impressive network, but could not provide as many locations as the aggregators.
T-Mobile USA, (800) 981-8563. www.t-mobile.com
