NEW YORK-WebLink Wireless Inc., Dallas, will target teen-agers and twenty-somethings with a two-way messaging and e-mail service it plans to debut this summer.
Subscribers who sign a year-long service contract for $15 monthly will receive an $80 rebate on the $179 retail price of the Motorola Inc. T-900 ReFLEX Wireless Internet Messenger. This next-generation ReFLEX pager, which comes in a handful of colors, is keyboard-enabled and runs on one AA battery for up to three weeks, even when turned on continuously, said N. Ross Buckenham, president of WebLink Wireless.
The basic monthly service includes 250 messages of 100 characters or less each, a length not exceeded by 90 percent of messages customers typically send, he added. A $20 package includes 400 messages and an “Unwired Extreme” package includes 1,000 weekday and 1,000 weekend messages.
“We will be first to market a consumer-oriented, mass-market, two-way messaging service through retailers-distribution channels we have nurtured for over 10 years,” Buckenham said.
“This offers the advantages of short message service without the hassle because of the [Personal Computer] type keyboard. Generation Y likes instant messaging and SMS, and for Generation X, which is more into e-mail, this will provide remote control for the desktop computer.”
Wireless Internet Messenger customers will be able to send messages to and receive them from pagers, e-mail addresses and wireless phones equipped for short message service.
To answer growing concerns about computer viruses crashing e-mail systems, WebLink has constructed firewalls that prevent these malicious elements of chaos from reaching the Wireless Internet Messenger. Subscribers also can insert their own filters to screen messages.
WebLink Wireless, formerly PageMart Wireless Inc., will focus initial marketing efforts on 6,000 of the more than 14,000 retail outlets nationwide that sell its other messaging services. The commercial launch is scheduled to begin in July, with a major advertising and promotion effort by Motorola and carrier resellers due in August, he said.
“We are also looking at other device suppliers. Glenayre’s Wireless Access subsidiary has laid out exciting product plans over the next 12 to 24 months, and there are several other companies building ReFLEX units,” Buckenham said.
The Wireless Internet Messenger’s keyboard-enabled, two-way data communications capabilities build on and add to functions provided by earlier versions of advanced paging: 1.5-way, which signals an out-of-town network when customers enter its range so they can automatically retrieve stored and forwarded messages; 1.7-way, which permits simple responses to messages with one-touch clicks corresponding to single words; and 1.8-way, which permits customers to call up information like stock quotes and weather on demand.
Cellular carriers like GTE Corp., Ameritech Corp. and BellSouth Corp., also market WebLink Wireless services under their own brands. Buckenham said many of these have indicated an interest in a similar arrangement for the T-900 Wireless Internet Messenger, and WebLink Wireless also is exploring similar arrangements with additional wireless telecommunications operators.
“I don’t believe cellular companies can resist having us in their product offering suite … The biggest news about this is that, until now, wireless data has always been a vertical market for business users because of its cost,” he said.
WebLink Wireless has built the largest ReFLEX network in the United States, according to Buckenham. However, other carriers in the Americas also have built or are in various stages of constructing ReFLEX networks, including the merged Arch Communications/Paging Network, SkyTel/MCI WorldCom, Metrocall, TSR Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telmex.
“We also have alliances with network partners throughout Latin America focused on building a common frequency to hand off roaming customers so they don’t have to re-register in each country,” Buckenham said.
