The move is being hailed as a bold one, since it truly opens up the possibility of always-on connectivity for mobile applications, but without the specter of a huge GPRS bill at the end of the accounting period.
Other GPRS trials taking place across Europe either impose time-based charges for data calls, or offer a flat-rate deal, subject to either capped data transmission limits and/or an "as is" test service.
NetCom says its GPRS facility, which it calls MobilMail, is mainly aimed at major business customers, rather than consumer users of mobile phones, owing to the cost of the hardware concerned.
Using the service, NetCom mobile phone users can access their email on the move using suitable mobiles or mobiles hooked into portable PCs running Microsoft Outlook.
Initially, the service is being made available to a variety of mobile phone users, subject only to the requirement that the mobile supports Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) mobile Internet technology.
Charges for the service will start on March 1, with early users being allowed free access during February. The plan is to charge 75 kroner (US$8.50) for the first megabyte of data transferred each month and then 25 kroner (US$2.65) for each subsequent megabyte.
A NetCom spokesperson said that a megabyte is enough for 1,000 regular email messages, and around 700 WAP pages to be downloaded, making the chargeable service a lot cheaper than most time-based tariffed GPRS networks elsewhere in Europe.
Interestingly, the carrier says that other tariff models may be introduced in the future, depending on GPRS-enabled mobile hardware as it reaches the market.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.