Britain's Mercury Communications is launching One 2 One, a new breed of digital mobile telephone service designed to completely replace Britain's old network of wire-based telephones with a new network of wireless ones. One 2 One is based on new technology, called DCS1800, designed to use high- bandwidth, high-frequency radio spectrum for cheap, flexible mobile communications. Mercury's first step on its road to revolution? Target the teenagers. Give away local calls, free.
In Britain, local telephone calls now cost about 5 pence (7.54 cents) a minute. At its launch in September 1993, Mercury's offer of free local calls (with no indication of the time limit for this offer) made headlines. The catch: Calls are only free from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. At all other times calls are somewhat more expensive than wire-based telephones. Not many businessfolk spend the evening hours chatting on the telephone to people down the street, but teenagers....Some parents calculate that One 2 One could halve their telephone bills, and, in the process, Mercury hopes to encourage telephone habits that will last a lifetime. One 2 One phones now cost about UK Pounds 200 (US$300) - sold at a loss, which the vendors hope to recoup through connection fees.
One 2 One's entry into the market coincides with the launch of rival systems by Britain's existing cellular-telephone operators, Cellnet and Vodafone, who have a definite advantage over Mercury: Though One 2 One charges half of what the cellular companies charge, you can't make a call from outside of London on a One 2 One phone.
So far, Mercury has built, at a cost of about UK Pounds 330 (US$500) million, the infrastructure to provide One 2 One service to the 14 million people who live in or around London. Under the terms of its license, it must extend that infrastructure by 1997 to cover at least 90 percent of the population. The cellular companies can already offer service nationwide - and indeed beyond.
One way or another, some sort of revolution in Britain's telecoms seems inevitable. With personal digital assistants now sweeping in from across the Atlantic, the demand for wireless communications is set to skyrocket. The phone and fax in the pocket may soon make obsolete those on the desk. And the nagging question will no longer be how to stay in touch but how to get out of it.
ELECTRIC WORD
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Encrypt Again
Australia Cup Challenge Sails On Software
Free Wireless Telephones - Sort Of
