The Blackberry 6510

T-Mobile Comes Out Fighting

CeBIT 2003 sees T-Mobile (Hall 26, Stand A01), Deutsche Telekom’s mobile arm, in an upbeat mood. A massive consumer advertising campaign is about to launch, backed up by aggressive price cuts. The company says this is designed to increase mobile data use in Europe by between 50% and 70%.

The price cuts, along with simpler tariffs, will be introduced early next month in all its European subsidiaries. In T-Mobile's home market, prices will fall from EUR 0.19-EUR 0.29 to EUR 0.09 per data block transmitted. It's also offering a flat rate fee of EUR 4.95 for transmitting around 300 e-mails and 1000 page impressions. A 1MB account should cost less than EUR 10 per month. The operator is also revamping its GPRS[1] tariffs.

In common with the other European operators, T-Mobile is putting a lot of faith in picture messaging. It is also looking to other content such as entertainment and information services. Apart from its commitment to offer gaming based on Nokia’s N-Gage, T-Mobile has in the last few days signed agreements with MTV and Universal Mobile to provide music and channels. It also intends to strike national deals, such as with those with major media brands like Spiegel, FAZ, n-tv, Bunte and Bild in the German market. The pattern will be repeated across Europe, as the German giant takes on its major rival Vodafone Live. In addition, its new partnership with 3G Labs is aimed at improving access and the user experience. Not forgetting its corporate customers, T-Mobile is also working closely with Research In Motion (Hall 12, Stand A50), to sell Blackberry terminals supported by the operator’s GPRS and "push" mobile e-mail services.

The company is under no illusions that such growth is achievable in the short term, however. Nikesh Arora, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile, says, "Our commitment to making and shaping this mobile data market has been both relentless and passionate; this is a marathon and not a sprint: Our partnership approach with a consumer-centric strategy will ensure we are the market makers and shapers. All pre-requisites are in place, the industry is ready for the acceleration in take-up of data services."