LONDON-BT Cellnet said it will be the first U.K. mobile phone operator to commercially launch General Packet Radio Service this summer. The carrier also officially launched commercial Wireless Application Protocol service.
BT Cellnet’s GPRS service will begin with a 500-person trial, followed by commercial service by mid-2000. The company is spending $824.4 million to upgrade its network to support GPRS, with infrastructure equipment from Motorola Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
BT Cellnet Internet Phone, the carrier’s WAP service, is available only to Nokia 7110 handset users. The carrier also is launching Infotouch and Mmail data services, which are e-mail and short message service text messaging and do not require WAP handsets.
BT Cellnet is owned by Deutsche Telekom and is the second-largest U.K. wireless carrier.
