T-Mobile Unveils Hotspot @ Home Converged Service in Seattle

On October 24th T-Mobile introduced a market trial of Hotspot @ Home in the Seattle market. The trial is the first commercial deployment of converged WiFi/cellular service in the U.S.

Recommended Competitor Actions

► National competing carriers can point out that the underlying UMA technology that T-Mobile uses is transitional, whereas they are developing converged services based on a holistic network-wide architecture that will deliver the same capability and more with future-proofing in mind.

► All competitors should raise questions of call security, unknown battery life, and limited handset choice when customers talk about considering Hotspot @ Home service in lieu of standard voice plans.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Customers who want to replace their landlines and/or just use one number to make unlimited calls should consider Hotspot @ Home.

► Families who are considering Hotspot @ Home may want to wait and see if there is family plan pricing similar to that of T-Mobile’s family unlimited messaging plan. Otherwise, it looks to be $20 per line to take advantage of this service.

► All potential customers should be aware that emergency 911 services might not be reliable or available when using the service in a WiFi hotspot due to the nature of using the Internet. As such, user location cannot be easily discerned.

Verizon Wireless Launches ‘Per Day’ VCAST Access with New Offering

On October 20th Verizon Wireless announced the launch of a new daily access option for its VCAST video service. The new offering is available to all Verizon Wireless customers who have a VCAST enabled phone and are not already subscribing to the $15 per month standard VCAST service.

Recommended Competitor Actions

► National carriers like Sprint and Cingular who still charge non-monthly data customers by the kilobyte should take this opportunity to change their a la carte data pricing structures in a way that makes them much easier to understand. Even though $3.00 per day for the Verizon VCAST access is not cheap, at least the customer knows what he or she will be charged. With per kilobyte data charges, that is almost impossible for most to figure out.

► For national carriers looking to launch a similar daily pricing service targeted at non-data subscribers, they should make sure that if the service is targeted at one or two specific applications that it also includes basic Web access in order to give the customer access to a more full and open experience.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Verizon Wireless customers considering VCAST service should use the new $3.00 per day option at least once to test out the service first before committing to the $15 per month VCAST plan.

► The $3.00 per day VCAST access plan is perfect for customers who rely primarily on voice but on occasion would like to check out the videos being offered on VCAST.

Cingular Retunes Music Strategy with Subscriptions, but Still Needs Cohesion

On November 2nd Cingular Wireless launched a comprehensive subscription music service to include with XM Satellite Radio, Napster, Yahoo! Music and eMusic. In addition to subscription offerings, Cingular Music users may opt to download individual songs from Napster, Yahoo and eMusic.

Recommended Competitive Responses

► Competitors T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint should carefully monitor the success of Cingular’s music subscription services. It should also be in exploratory talks with music subscription providers to set the groundwork for this capability.

► Verizon Wireless and Sprint should tout the ability to offer OTA music download capability thanks to the growing nationwide availability of their EV-DO networks.

► T-Mobile should note that it also has agnostic MP3 playback music handsets available that also allows customers to sideload their music at will.

► Competitors should not that Cingular’s streaming radio services aren’t really $9 per month. While it appears this way, it’s really $29 since streaming media consumes a great deal of bandwidth and as such requires the customer to buy the $20 unlimited Media Max data plan.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Consumers looking to experience music in an unlimited fashion should look into Napster To Go or Yahoo Music Unlimited to go. However, they should understand that there are pricing differences in each service.

► For those music loving consumers who want the convenience of over-the-air download capability now, they should opt for Verizon Wireless’ VCAST Music, Sprint Music Store or even Amp’d Music.

► Any potential music phone customer should research the total bill to create a music listening experience. Aside from the phone itself, they need to understand if accessories such as headsets, USB cables (to enable sideloading), and relevant software are included in the purchase price.

Cingular Launches Its First Integrated GPS Application for Businesses

On October 25th Cingular launched TeleNav GPS Navigator, a location-based service, available for $9.99 a month or $6.99 for ten trips, on the iPAQ hw6920, 8125 Pocket PC, Treo 650, and GPS-enabled HP iPAQ hw6500. The service provides audible turn-by-turn directions, point-of-interest identification, and full-color maps.

Recommended Competitor Actions

► Sprint can still easily point to its lead in location-based services with its diverse 40+ bill-through applications for business process mobilization, many of which are GPS-enabled and most of which are now offered on both the PCS and iDEN networks on a wide variety of handsets.

► Verizon Wireless can also point to its two integrated applications, Field Force Manager and Fleet Administrator, both of which are offered as services and are GPS-enabled.

► Verizon Wireless and Sprint should also point out Cingular’s lack of managed services for such functions as device management, security, and file synchronization.

► Both carriers should also point out that Cingular still has no business devices that support UMTS/HSDPA and, therefore, the carrier is limited today in offering competitive services for the business community that can offer fast downloads and access to database-driven corporate applications.

Recommended End User/Customer Responses

► Businesses who have not yet cemented a long-term relationship with a carrier for business applications may assume that new services and high-speed devices are likely to be available from Cingular relatively soon. However, in the mean time, if they are looking for GPS enablement and a multitude of service offers, Sprint Nextel still leads the pack.

► Consumers looking for navigation from Cingular will still be frustrated, as the new service is only available on high-end business-focused devices.

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