NEW YORK-Expanding an offering available to corporate customers for the last year, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. last week introduced its PocketNet service, which allows Internet access from analog cellular phones, to retail customers.
The service, with an air link secured by encryption and authentication, costs a flat monthly rate of $30, in addition to regular voice telephony charges. It can be used only with the Samsung Telecommunications America Duette and the Mitsubishi Wireless Communications Inc. Mobile Access 120 dual-mode voice and data phones, each listed for sale at about $300.
AT&T is offering PocketNet in 22 cellular markets nationwide, including Dallas, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. It can be used “seamlessly in an additional 50 markets,” said Kendra VanderMeulen, general manager of AT&T Wireless Services Wireless Data Division. PocketNet was tested with consumers in Florida before its commercial release.
Some 330 retail outlets now have the PocketNet service available, she said, and that number is expected to “grow to thousands” next year, including most leading cellular and computer retailers.
The service will give subscribers unlimited access to electronic mail, a personal organizer based on Unwired Planet Inc.’s UP.Organizer, a private Web site and fax service. The first five pages each month are included in the basic monthly fee, with each additional fax page costing 20 cents.
To upload and synchronize existing personal computer organizers with their private PocketNet Web sites, users will require Intellisync, an add-on software application available separately from Puma Technology, San Jose, Calif., for $70.
The standard PocketNet package allows anyone to send a text message directly to the phone and includes a chime and on-screen icon alert for new e-mail messages. The recipient can type a full text reply or select from a list of responses that can be sent with one-button touch. PocketNet includes software for AT&T WorldNet, a direct Internet service provider. Subscribers will have access to a variety of information sites whose number will grow without extra charge, VanderMuelen added.
