The ability to work anywhere, at any time, is essential to growing businesses and the UK’s high quality, mobile phone networks, rapidly-growing 3G coverage and one of the biggest Wi-Fi (public WLAN) networks in the world, mean that the UK is leading the way.

The UK has 10,000 Wi-Fi HotSpots – almost as many as Germany, France, Italy and Spain put together – and London heads the world table of Wi-Fi enabled cities*, well ahead of Tokyo and New York.

With more than 1,200 HotSpots in the city’s coffee shops and hotels and at major transport locations, laptop users are never far from somewhere to log on and get internet/intranet access at speeds of up to 1Mbps.

The UK offers a comprehensive choice of voice and data networks for business people on the move and T-Mobile brings them all together, providing maximum mobility with maximum convenience.

Our Mobile Access solution is ideal for business executives such as BABi members, providing easy access – with unlimited data use † – to all three of the UK’s main data bearer services.

GPRS – the “always-on” network that keeps you in touch
The basic data service in the UK is the GPRS network, the “2.5G” data bearer that piggy-backs on the digital GSM voice network – the standard in Europe. Some US visitors may have an advantage here: T-Mobile also provides GSM/GPRS services in the US, unlike other operators that don’t enable transatlantic roaming. Like all the major UK mobile networks, T-Mobile offers GSM/GPRS coverage of over 99% of the population. But our network is more densely concentrated in business areas and key transport routes, and its GPRS throughput capacity is the highest available.

GPRS provides constant communication at relatively low speeds (typically 56 Kbps) for users of laptops, PDAs or specialist e-mail devices such as BlackBerry. Standard text e-mails and smaller attachments can be viewed and replied to on the move, and low-bandwidth office applications, data and file downloads become accessible anywhere, via GPRS.

3G – faster data on the move
UMTS, the technology underpinning 3G, offers much higher bandwidth, providing data transfer speeds of between 128Kbps and 384Kbps. In the UK, 3G licensees including T-Mobile are committed to delivering 80% population coverage by 2007, so the networks are being built and rolled out rapidly. The T-Mobile 3G network now covers 13 major cities.

Wi-Fi – high speed wireless internet access
T-Mobile has invested heavily in building wholly-owned HotSpot networks in the UK and other European countries. Starbucks, Borders, Texaco and Starwood/Sheraton and all UK BAA airports are among the partners who provide T-Mobile HotSpots in the UK. In all, T-Mobile has over 11,500 HotSpot access points worldwide, allowing people to work away from the office at broadband-speed. Through more than 2,000 UK HotSpots – either whollyowned or accessed via a partnership with BT Openzone – T-Mobile is able to offer log-on speeds of up to 1Mbps to the laptop user (and increasingly to users of Wi-Fi enabled PDAs and BlackBerry devices as well). Armed with these kinds of speeds, business users can access corporate applications as well as downloading large files and presentations, even streaming video.

Three-in-one mobile access solution leads the field
Launched at the end of 2004, the T-Mobile integrated Mobile Access package is designed to deliver real and lasting benefits to business:

• Access to all three data networks from one card/software package
• A “best available” connection, including default to GPRS
• Simple, flat-rate monthly pricing, covering all three networks
• Fixed usage costs (up to 1GB a month) and single billing
• The best international roaming capabilities available

Consisting of the T-Mobile Communication Centre (TMCC) software and a single plug-in PC card which accesses all of the three bearer networks, this is a first for the UK market. And, as well as providing a one-stop solution for mobile working in the UK, T-Mobile also helps customers work in 166 other countries.

Security is vital
As a result of trials with over 100 business customers, T-Mobile has concentrated on developing compatibility between its mobile access solution and corporate VPNs. Leading VPNs have been tested for compatibility, and the Mobile Access software can be set up to automatically access the corporate VPN (when authenticated) to ensure seamless security.

One network worldwide
T-Mobile has a one-network approach and has invested billions of dollars to create easy international roaming. With voice (GSM) roaming in 167 countries and the world’s largest GPRS footprint covering 71 countries, the T-Mobile network offers arguably the best global connectivity. Investment in the faster 3G infrastructure is continuing, with significant coverage in nine European countries to date; and Wi-Fi connectivity is already available in six countries, including over 5,000 HotSpots in the US.

Setting international business free
We are entering a new age for business. The growth of GPRS and 3G and the speed and power of Wi-Fi together with T-Mobile’s comprehensive, packaged service means that business people are no longer tied to a single location, but can work anywhere, at any time.

To get connected to T-Mobile’s UK services,
contact T-Mobile on:
Tel: +44 (0)845 412 2200
E-mail: businessenquiries@t-mobile.co.uk


* JiWire.com Feb 2005
† Based on a fair use policy