Cellnet, Britain’s second biggest mobile telephone company, is set to be the first UK cellphone operator to launch a new Internet service provider.
Genie Internet will be launched in March in a bid to cash in on the demand for Internet access via mobile telephones.
Cellnet’s Managing Director Peter Erskine said: “The business opportunity offered by the convergence of mobile and Internet technology is immense. The wireless Internet is set to create killer applications, which will take global communications onto a new level and have a real impact on the way people connect with each other, wherever they are. It is like having the Internet in your pocket.”
Genie Internet will allow information such as share price movements, job alerts and the latest football results to be sent direct from its website to customers’ Cellnet digital phones.
The company already operates a short message service with 100,000 users.
Cellnet also plans to launch a range of new services including “speak-mail”, that is e-mails which are read back to you over your mobile phone and the ability to access Genie’s entire content from handsets.
Brian Greasley, general manager of the new Genie Internet operation said: “We are already working with a number of manufacturers to build Genie applications for the next generation of mobile telephones.”
BT owns 60% of Cellnet and the remaining 40% is owned by Securicor.