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January 26, 2005

Easier Wi-Fi Access at CeBit--For Some

By Nancy Gohring

T-Systems, a Deutsche Telekom unit, is providing roaming to customers of hotspot operators that use T-Systems’ roaming solution at CeBit: CeBit is one of the largest trade shows in the world. Customers of T-Systems customers can log on using their regular login and be charged on their home account. Anyone can access the network by purchasing time online or buying a pre-paid card.

The hotspot apparently is huge and last year was used by 4,300 people. I’m not sure how helpful this will be to how many people because it’s hard to find a complete list of T-Systems’ roaming solution customers. T-Systems says it has 120 international partners but the few it lists are relatively small, such as Connexion by Boeing and Portugal Telecom.

While this announcement is a good thing and will certainly prove useful to a subset of users, it highlights how fragmented the hotspot market is. At least in the GSM world, most European customers would turn their phones on at a convention like CeBit and assume that they could use whatever network is available via a roaming deal their operator made. But the hotspot world is still so fragmented that you’re the exception rather than the rule if you happen to be able to access a hotspot through a roaming deal.

Posted by nancyg at January 26, 2005 5:25 PM

Categories: roaming

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