KPN will start offering the first services over its new UMTS networks in June 2004. Business customers in Germany will be the first to be able to benefit, with subsidiary E-Plus offering high-speed mobile access to Internet and intranet. KPN will then expand its services for business customers in the Netherlands with UMTS in July. Services for consumers in both countries will also follow in the summer. The introduction of UMTS services for the Belgian market is planned to follow later.
The initial offer to business customers will be based around a PC-card, giving users mobile access to the Internet or corporate networks with their laptops at speeds of up to 384 kbps.
Services for the consumer market will also be given a boost with UMTS from the summer of 2004. Services will become even more visual, with video telephony and video messaging. KPN plans to introduce the first offers for consumers in the summer in both Germany and the Netherlands. The exact moment of the broad market introduction of consumer UMTS services is however dependent on the availability of suitable handsets.
By the end of 2004, E-Plus plans UMTS network coverage in 300 towns and cities in Germany, including all cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants. In the Netherlands, KPN expects to offer coverage in some 40 major cities, as well as the main transport routes in the heavily populated 'Randstad' conurbation. KPN will continue with the rollout of its UMTS networks. KPN expects total investments in UMTS from 2003 to the end of 2005 to be approximately EUR 1.4 billion."
Posted to the site on 23rd March 2004
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/10889.php