T-Mobile takes on i-mode with Web n walk
T-Mobile has launched its own mobile internet service, Web n walk, and has confirmed it will be introducing HSDPA – high speed mobile broadband – to its subscribers from next year.
Despite launching its internet service within days of O2’s i-mode debut, T-Mobile is opting for an open access service, rather than the walled garden approach favoured by O2 and recently ditched by 3.
Alongside a Google homepage will be the usual suspects of email and IM, with a ‘child lock’ to stop kids accessing adult content. Anyone over 18 can request the lock be removed.
To accompany Web n walk, T-Mobile will be releasing eight new handsets by Christmas including the Paris Hilton ‘hack’ phone, the Sidekick, and a 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi combo, the MDA Pro.
The MDA Pro will run on the latest Redmond OS for mobiles, Windows Mobile 5.0 and other handsets will feature an Opera browser for mobiles.
According to a T-Mobile spokesman, access speeds will be around 384Kbps.
But customers should get a boost in 2006, when T-Mobile’s group CTO Hamid Akhavan says the company will introduce HSDPA, which offers speeds of up to 1.8Mbps.