T-Mobile's new service offers wireless access hotspots in Europe and the U.S.

T-Mobile announced at the 3GSM conference in Cannes that International business travelers can access 4,100 hotspots in the US plus another 700 in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK with a single username and password. The wireless broadband service, based on 802.11b, costs $10 (£5.37) for a 24-hour day pass to $40 (£21.50) per month on a month-to-month plan, showing that the cost of Wi-Fi is continuing to fall while its popularity continues to rise.

T-Mobile also revealed plans for a multi-network service that will permit users to roam "seamlessly" across three different wireless networks: GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and Wi-Fi.

The hand-shack between the networks will be automatic, according to T-Mobile International Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann. The German operator is working with Intel, IBM and Cisco in a pilot project at various European universities that will enable students to roam across all three wireless broadband networks.

Teamwork

For the pilot, T-Mobile will provide the connectivity, offering students and professors bundled fees, which will include Wi-Fi vouchers for the operator's hotspots and preferential fees for GPRS and WCDMA networks. The operator will likely announce prices at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, next month, according to Obermann.

Cisco will provide the wireless LAN infrastructure, while IBM will furnish the notebooks, using Intel's Centrino mobile technology.

The Frankfurt pilot, which begins in April, is expected to last several months, according to T-Mobile. A wider roll-out is planned from July 2004 to cover universities in Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the U.K., in addition to Germany. In total, the group is targeting more than 100 universities.

A objective of the university initiative is to test every aspect in the communications chain, ranging from the wireless infrastructure and devices to content and the customer experience, T-Mobile says.