Omnitel Pronto Italia, Italy’s first private Global System for Mobile communications cellular provider, said it has reached a roaming agreement with government-owned Telecom Italia Mobile SpA and announced three additional pricing plans to help it compete with TIM.
Omnitel, a consortium comprised of Italy’s computer company Olivetti, Bell Atlantic Corp., AirTouch Communications Inc., Cellular Communications International, Telia, Lehman Brothers, Mannesmann AG, the Bank of Rome and other smaller Italian companies, will gain access to TIM’s network on March 13, said AirTouch spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg.
Omnitel launched its GSM network in December and now has more than 70,000 subscribers, said Karen Ann Kurlander, spokeswoman for Bell Atlantic Enterprises International. As of December, TIM had close to 3 million subscribers on both its analog and GSM network; nearly 330,000 are on the GSM network.
Omnitel’s new pricing plans expand its initial package that consisted of Business Time, Free Time and Night and Day. Now customers using the Night and Day plan receive lower rates from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. during the week. Omnitel said it introduced simpler tarrifs and a plus tariff plan targeting companies wanting to create fleets of cellular phones for managers or sales forces.
The company also announced the activation of data and fax transmission, short messaging and caller identification services. Omnitel said its data and fax transmission service will allow customers working from remote locations to connect their portable computers to an Omnitel cellular phone and access electronic mail and send text, files and data. Customers can send strings of alphanumeric messages up to 160 characters long using short messaging service, and caller ID will allow customers to see the telephone number of a caller on their cellular display, Omnitel said.
