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T-Mobile
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T-Mobile is a mobile network operator headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and belongs to the FreeMove Business alliance.
T-Mobile is a group of mobile phone corporate subsidiaries (all under the ownership of Deutsche Telekom) that operate GSM and UMTS networks in Europe and the United States. The "T" stands for "Telekom." T-Mobile also has financial stakes in mobile operators in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Encyclopedia
T-Mobile is a mobile network operator headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom and belongs to the FreeMove Business alliance.
T-Mobile is a group of mobile phone corporate subsidiaries (all under the ownership of Deutsche Telekom) that operate GSM and UMTS networks in Europe and the United States. The "T" stands for "Telekom." T-Mobile also has financial stakes in mobile operators in Central and Eastern Europe. Globally, T-Mobile has 128.3 million subscribers, making it the world's seventh largest mobile phone service provider by subscribers and the third largest multinational after the United Kingdom's Vodafone and Spain's Telefónica. T-Mobile USA is the fourth largest wireless telecommunications network in the U.S. market with 32.1 million customers after Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, and Sprint Nextel.
T-Mobile International has a substantial presence in eleven European countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom) as well as in the United States.
In recent years Deutsche Telekom attempted to acquire rival mobile network operator O2, but in 2006, Spain's Telefónica acquired O2.
In March 2008, the company announced they are to acquire Siemens Wireless Modules (now known as Cinterion Wireless Modules)as part of the JOMA consortium. The Siemens Wireless Modules spin off to Cinterion Wireless Modules was concluded on May 1, 2008.
The T-Mobile ring tone was composed by Lance Massey.
Global operations
Austria
Until 2000 T-Mobile was a shareholder of the former max.mobil. network. In April 2001 it acquired 100 percent and subsequently introduced the T-Mobile brand in Austria by rebranding max.mobil. in April 2002 as T-Mobile Austria.
In 2005 it acquired the former competitor tele.ring from Western Wireless International which is now used as discount brand.
Croatia
T-Mobile entered the Croatian market in October 1999 when Deutsche Telekom (DT) initially acquired a 35 percent interest in Hrvatski telekom, including its cell phone service provider Cronet. Two years later, DT signed an agreement with the Croatian government to acquire the additional 16 percent needed for a majority holding. In January 2003, Hrvatski Telekom assembled all of its mobile activities under a single brand HTmobile. Finally, in October 2004, HTmobile became T-Mobile Hrvatska, or T-Mobile Croatia, thus joining the global T-Mobile family also by name.
Czech Republic
T-Mobile was previously known as Paegas in the Czech Republic.
T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s. has been operating in the Czech market since 1996. As of 30 May 2008, 5.273 million customers were using T-Mobile services.
T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s. operates a public mobile communications network on the GSM standard in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands and is also authorized to operate a UMTS network. T-Mobile was the first operator in the Czech Republic to launch this third-generation technology on 19 October 2005 under the name Internet 4G.
Germany
In Germany, its home market, T-Mobile is the largest mobile phone operator with almost 36 million subscribers , closely followed by its primary rival, Vodafone. The highly profitable GSM network in Germany is scheduled to be supplemented and ultimately replaced by UMTS, for which T-Mobile spent EUR 8.2 billion in August 2000 to acquire one of the six licenses for Germany.
On July 1, 1989, West Germany's state-owned postal monopoly, Deutsche Bundespost (DBP) was reorganized, with telecommunications consolidated in a new Deutsche Bundespost Telekom unit; this was renamed Deutsche Telekom in 1995, and began to be privatized in 1996.
The analog first-generation C-Netz ("C Network", marketed as C-Tel) was Germany's first true mobile phone network (the A and B networks, also owned by the post office, had been previous radiotelephone systems), and was introduced in 1985. Following German reunification in 1990, it was extended to the former East Germany.
On July 1, 1992, the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom began to operate Germany's first GSM network, along with the C-Netz, as its DeTeMobil subsidiary. The GSM 900 MHz frequency band was referred to as the "D-Netz", and Telekom named its service D1; the private consortium awarded the second license (formerly Mannesmann, now Vodafone) chose the name D2. In 1996, as Deutsche Telekom began to brand its subsidiaries with the T- prefix, the network was renamed T-D1 and DeTeMobil became T-Mobil; the C-Netz, in the process of being wound down, was not rebranded, and was shut down in 2000. In 2002, as Deutsche Telekom consolidated its international operations, it anglicized the T-Mobil name as T-Mobile, although sometimes also using the name T-D1 within Germany. It is still common for Germans to refer to T-Mobile and Vodafone as D1 and D2.
D1 introduced short message service (SMS) services in 1994 and began a prepaid service, Xtra, in 1997.
On September 19, 2007 T-Mobile announced its collaboration with Apple Inc. to be the sole carrier of the iPhone in Germany with a launch date of November 9 2007.
Hungary
In May 2004, the same day as Hungary joined the European Union, the former company, named Westel (which was owned entirely by the former Matáv) changed its name, and the entire marketing. Westel was the most popular cellphone network in Hungary at the time. The company was called T-Mobile Hungary, but after some financial decisions, as with the other T- companies, it formed to Magyar Telekom Nyrt. Mobil Szolgáltatások Üzletág (Hungarian Telekom, Mobile Services Business Unit), but they still say T-Mobile. T-Mobile also provides high-speed services, like EDGE, 3G, and HSDPA in the major cities of Hungary.
Republic of Macedonia
In Macedonia, T-Mobile was previously known as Mobimak. The company has been operating in the Macedonian market since 1996. On September 7 2006, Mobimak accepted the international T-Mobile branding. In June 2007, T-Mobile Macedonia has reached 1 million subscribers, out of which 85% are active and using their services. T-Mobile MK covers 98.5% of the population. It has a GSM 900 license, offers GPRS, MMS and mobile internet services using T-Mobile HotSpots and has implemented the EDGE fast mobile internet specification. T-Mobile Macedonia applied for a UMTS license on 1 August 2007. The current codes are 070/071/072.
Montenegro
T-Mobile brand entered the Montenegrin market in 2006 through the acquisition of MoNet GSM mobile provider. T-Mobile Montenegro (T-Mobile Crna Gora) is fully owned by T-Crnogorski Telekom, which is itself owned by Magyar Telekom, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Although the acquisition by Magyar Telekom was done in 2005, it was not until September 26, 2006 that the MoNet GSM operator was re-branded as T-Mobile Montenegro.
MoNet GSM launched on 1 July, 2000, as part of Telecom Montenegro. It became an independent incorporated limited liability company a month later, on August 1, 2000.
The company currently holds around 34 percent of the Montenegrin market and uses GSM 900, GPRS, and EDGE technologies. Since June 21, 2007 3G/UMTS services have been available in larger cities as well as on the coast.
Netherlands
T-mobile entered the Dutch market by the acquisition of Ben on September 20, 2002. T-Mobile Netherlands, a wholly-owned subsidiary of T-Mobile International, acquired Orange Netherlands from France Télécom for EUR 1.33 billion. This makes it the second largest mobile telephone operator in the country behind KPN.
Poland
T-Mobile owns 93% of Era, which serves over 13 million customers, and owns licenses for GSM 900, 1800, and UMTS, including wireless Internet access through HSDPA technology based on Blueconnect.
Slovakia
T-Mobile entered the Slovak market in May 2005, when it acquired EuroTel Bratislava, and renamed it T-Mobile Slovensko. T-Mobile Slovensko is a subsidiary of Slovak Telekom, which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.
The company has the same GSM coverage as Orange Slovensko in Slovakia. A third provider, Telefónica O2 Slovakia, obtained license in October 2006 and launched commercial service in February 2007, and launched the country's first 3G network in January 2006 in the centre of the capital city, Bratislava.
United Kingdom
T-Mobile UK was previously known as One 2 One, and before that as Mercury One 2 One. One 2 One was in its final days operated as a joint venture between Cable and Wireless and American cable provider Mediaone Group, which had a number of investments in Britain dating back to its days as the US West Media Group. One 2 One was the world's first GSM 1800 network when it launched in September 1993. T-Mobile offers both pay-as-you-go and pay-monthly contract phones. The pay-monthly contracts are branded as Flext for both 18 month and 12 month contract customers as of February 2007; T-Mobile's 12 month contracts were previously branded as Relax. The network also offers other contract options for off-peak users and customers who call within network predominantly. T-Mobile launched their 3G UMTS services in the Autumn of 2003.
For a long time the smallest of Britain's four GSM operators, T-Mobile has overtaken Orange UK and, with over 19.2 million subscribers, has the third largest user base behind market leader O2 and Vodafone, due in part to the mobile virtual network operators using T-Mobile's infrastructure.
On 12 December 2007, it was confirmed that a merger of the high-speed 3G and HSDPA networks operated by T-Mobile UK and 3 (UK) was to take place starting January 2008. This will leave T-Mobile and 5 with the largest HSDPA mobile phone network in the country, with a theoretical maximum speed of 6.5 MB/s, rising to 7.2 MB/s over the course of the year. The merger does not mean that 3 and T-Mobile are merging as companies, only that their 3G and HSDPA networks will be combined. The merger has also led to a series of mobile broadband packages. Some users have noted reduced speed levels of the mobile broadband service, sometimes as low as 150kbit/s (about 18 KB/s) during extremely congested periods, however these problems are not widespread, and most customers correctly connected to the HSDPA or HSUPA service typically experience download speeds of around 1-1.5 Mbit/s (about 125-185 KB/s).
United States
T-Mobile USA is the United States based subsidiary of T-Mobile International AG. T-Mobile USA is currently the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. market with approximately 32 million customers as of August 2007 and annual revenue of US$17 billion.
The U.S. T-Mobile network predominately uses the GSM/GPRS 1900 MHz frequency-band, making it the largest 1900 MHz network in the United States. Service is available in 98 of the 100 largest markets and 268 million potential customers (POPS).
Headquartered at 12920 Se 38th St, Bellevue, WA 98006-1350 in Factoria, Bellevue, WA, the U.S. company was previously known as VoiceStream Wireless or Powertel. In July 2001, VoiceStream was acquired by Deutsche Telekom for US$50.7 billion, and in September 2002 changed the company name nationally to T-Mobile.
On September 17, 2007, T-Mobile USA announced the acquisition of SunCom Wireless for US$2.4 billion. The acquisition expanded the network coverage to North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. At the end of the second quarter of 2007, SunCom had more than 1.1 million customers. The deal closed on February 22, 2008.
T-Mobile G1
T-Mobile announced in August 2008 that they would produce the first smartphone to use Google's Android software, with hardware produced by HTC. It was released on October 22, 2008, at a price of $179 USD with contract, and $399 without. The phone is part of an open standards effort of the Open Handset Alliance.
Internet hotspots (802.11 WiFi)
In addition to mobile phone service, T-Mobile also operates WiFi hotspots in the United States and Europe. In the USA alone, it operates over 8,000 (as of December 22 2006) T-Mobile HotSpot locations for Internet access, including such locations as airports, airline clubs, Starbucks coffeehouses (see below), Kinko's, Borders Books and Music, Hyatt, and Red Roof Inn Hotels. The U.S. WiFi infrastructure was completely replaced when T-Mobile bought the Wireless ISP MobileStar. In addition, Sony Computer Entertainment on behalf of T-Mobile introduced a HotSpot Locator and HotSpot Promotional Period (6 months from activation) for the Sony PSP system and Sony Mylo system. Both promotions are separate, and, by combining the total time allotted for each system, users can have up to one year free access, by using six months on the Mylo, and six months on the PlayStation Portable.
Beginning the second quarter of 2008, T-Mobile will no longer be the provider of Wi-Fi access for Starbucks coffeehouses, which ended its 2001 deal, switching to AT&T. However, through a roaming agreement with AT&T, T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers will still be able to use the AT&T Starbucks wireless networks for a limited time.
Statistics of Deutsche Telekom's GSM networks
- All T-Mobile networks (including affiliates and minority owned): 108.2 million (as of March 2008)
T-Mobile branded networks (March 31, 2008)
Source: http://www.download-telekom.de/dt/StaticPage/53/09/78/080508_dtag_q1_2008.pdf_530978.pdf
Mobile operators in which T-Mobile has a substantial stake
- 1 Deutsche Telekom and Greece each have 25 percent plus one of the shares of parent company OTE.
Sponsorship
T-Mobile was the official sponsor of English Premiership side West Bromwich Albion, they previously sponsored Rotherham United F.C. They also partnership sponsors of Scottish Premier League clubs Rangers FC and Celtic FC.
As well as kit sponsors for FC Bayern Munich, Ferencvárosi TC, and West Bromwich Albion, and were sponsors of Everton with the One2One brand, and the T-Mobile brand for the 2002 FA Youth Cup Final. Also they are a supporting sponsor of Birmingham City F.C., T-Mobile is also a sponsor of several sports events, some of which carry the company name. For example, it sponsors the Austrian first division football competition, the T-Mobile Bundesliga. It was also the official global mobile phone carrier for the 2006 FIFA World Cup (football) in Germany and sponsored its own cycling team, the T-Mobile Team.
See also
External links
- —T-Mobile's parent company
- —CNet.com report that T-Mobile will be one of the European carriers of the Apple iPhone.
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