Despite its product's reliance on an older mobile phone standard (TDMA) than that used by other digital competition such as Sprint and Verizon (CDMA), the AT&T announcement will probably mark a turning point for wireless data in the U.S. Two years ago AT&T changed the mobile phone business when it introduced a plan called Digital One Rate that did away with roaming or long distance charges on calls in the continental U.S. AT&T is able to offer the data services not because it has upgraded its mobile voice network, but because it owns a separate PocketNet data network that operates on a standard called CDPD, usually at speeds of 19.2K per second, or one third the rate of a dial-up modem. (The PocketNet infrastructure is also an important piece of the wireless Internet offerings from companies such as Go America, though the wireless Palm VII uses an altogether different standard.)
AT&T Wireless to Include Free Internet Access
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AT&T may be derided by some new-economy
investors as "America's most useless company,"
but the telephonic incumbent is still capable of pulling a trick out of its aging but extensive
infrastructure. Yesterday AT&T's wireless
subsidiary announced its first new product since
going public last month: some free Internet
access for mobile phone customers.