Europolitan Vodafone to make GPRS accessible to one and all

Europolitan Vodafone to make GPRS accessible to one and all Starting today, GPRS will be available to users of all Europolitan Vodafone fixed subscription forms. Customers can now use mobile data services to check their e-mails or retrieve information from the Internet and databases in a more convenient and cost-efficient manner. "We have great faith in this new technology, since it opens up a whole range of new opportunities for the user. These services will be both easier to use and more efficient, and the costs to the customer will be lower," says Rikard Svensson, Product Manager at Europolitan Vodafone. Europolitan Vodafone is the only operator in Sweden to date to offer GPRS, a data service launched in December last year as a separate subscription form that is now to be made available to all customers with fixed subscriptions. "Europolitan Vodafone's entire service offering is adapted to both GPRS and GSM and the use of mobile data services is on the increase in all customer segments. GPRS is the ideal alternative for both professional customers who are major users of mobile data services and customers who only use WAP services," says Rikard Svensson. Like GSM, GPRS carries data, but the use of data services via mobile phones will now be faster with the new system. Users will be permanently connected, thus avoiding reconnection each time they want to use their phone either to access services or simply to play WAP games. In addition, customers do not have to pay for the time they are connected, but for the volume of data required to use the services. "We have been monitoring our customers over the last nine months and have noted that each new GPRS user has a monthly data volume of about 400 kilobytes. This is equivalent to some 130 visits to wap.europolitan.se. For WAP users, our supplementary service will therefore not only be more cost-efficient, but also more convenient and user-friendly as well." GPRS is available as a supplementary service and costs SEK 25 per month. The customer only pays for the actual volume of data used. Europolitan Vodafone has also compared the cost of using data services via GSM and via GPRS. The study used SAS's WAP web site for flight departure information (wap.sas.se) and was based on the assumption that customers are connected during the day, paying SEK 4.95/min to use the service via GSM. The cost via GPRS was based on a price of SEK 0.175 per kilobyte (SEK 175/megabyte) regardless of the time of day. The service took around 90 seconds to use and the cost via GSM was thus SEK 7.40. The same service via GPRS required 4 kilobytes of data, which means it cost only SEK 0.70. The GPRS Surf subscription form is ideally suited to users of much larger data volumes, e.g. those who wish to connect their phones to a computer to download or send files. Subscriptions for Europolitan Vodafone's supplementary GPRS service can be signed at any local Europolitan Vodafone retailer or by calling our customer service department on 020 222 222. GPRS is not available as a supplementary service to customers with prepaid cards. Prices, GPRS supplementary service and subscription (all prices in SEK including VAT). Monthly Traffic Cost of fee rate (kB) 400kB/month GPRS supplementary service* 25 0.175 95 * Connection fee SEK 0 I.e. subscription Easy Fritid including GPRS 75 0.175 Subscription for major GPRS users GPRS SURF 369** 0.025 ** Monthly fee for supplementary GPRS service including basic mobile subscription with low minute rates. For more information please contact: Rikard Svensson, GPRS Product Manager, Europolitan, Tel.: +46 708 33 13 82, e-mail: rikard.svensson@europolitan.se Mårten Holmberg, Head of Product Management, Europolitan, Tel.: +46 709-6140 98, e-mail: marten.holmberg@europolitan.se Europolitan Vodafone is a mobile operator with a license to build 3G mobile telecoms networks. Our strength lies in our focus on developing international services, service and quality. Europolitan Vodafone employs some 1,400 people and is listed on the Attract 40 list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange through its parent company, Europolitan Holdings AB. The company's majority owner is Vodafone of the UK, with 71 per cent of Europolitan Holdings AB. Private shareholders, investment companies and pension funds own the remaining 29 per cent. The Vodafone Group is represented on 5 continents and has around 93 million customers (proportional number of customers calculated on the basis of ownership). For more information, please visit www.europolitan.se and www.vodafone.com. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/10/09/20011009BIT00190/bit0002.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/10/09/20011009BIT00190/bit0002.pdf