Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones Highlights the Virtues of a Global Brand
Bellevue, Wash. — Jul. 18, 2002
T-Mobile makes its debut in the United States today, choosing California and Nevada as the first markets in the country to launch its wireless voice and data services under the global brand name T-Mobile. T-Mobile’s GET MORE® service offering promises to give consumers and enterprise customers the best value in their wireless service by offering more minutes, more features and more service than any other carrier. T-Mobile is the only wireless operator to offer services on both sides of the Atlantic under a single, global brand name -- underscoring the choice it brings to consumers to use ‘one number, one phone’ when traveling worldwide.
Starting today in California and Nevada, newspapers and the airwaves will be filled with T-Mobile and its GET MORE® promise through an aggressive advertising campaign. Internationally acclaimed actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, T-Mobile’s global spokesperson, will appear in several television, print and radio advertisements showing consumers how they can use T-Mobile to get more from life.
Following the California and Nevada launch, the company will transition its current VoiceStream brand to T-Mobile over the next few months and market the brand in 45 of the top 50 U.S. markets. With service available today in over 8,000 cities across the country, T-Mobile offers consumers and enterprise customers the most advanced and affordable wireless services available in the marketplace today, using the nation’s largest voice and data network based on GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) technology – the most commonly used standard worldwide. Consumers benefit from this global affiliation by having the choice to use their same phone when traveling to 90 countries worldwide with rates as low as 99 cents a minute through its WorldClass rate plans.
Consistent with its GET MORE® promise, T-Mobile enters California and Nevada by giving customers the best value in their wireless voice service by offering a variety of price plans that give customers big buckets of minutes that can be used anytime during the day, nights and weekends – with no restrictions on calling times. Additionally, customers can choose from rate plans featuring free nationwide long distance and free digital GSM roaming, making their home phone obsolete. All plans include a variety of free features including voicemail and caller ID. In addition to value added voice plans, T-Mobile offers the latest in text messaging and wireless Internet and data services.
“The T-Mobile debut in California and Nevada continues several things that the company did well as VoiceStream – namely building upon its GET MORE® philosophy, offering competitive pricing and including features like AOL® Instant Messenger™ that appeal to younger consumers,” said Knox Bricken, senior analyst with the Yankee Group. “The teen youth segment presents an immediate opportunity for growth as they begin to aggressively add new subscribers.”
T-Mobile customers get several options for using mobile text messaging including the easiest and most convenient way to use the popular AOL® Instant Messenger™ service (AIM®). T-Mobile offers the AIM® service from every T-Mobile phone, and is the only wireless provider in California and Nevada to offer the Nokia 3390 and Samsung R225m with AOL® Instant Messenger™ directly integrated into the user interface – the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to use the service from a mobile device.
T-Mobile enters the California and Nevada markets with more innovative devices for both consumers and enterprises. T-Mobile is the only provider in California and Nevada to offer the BlackBerry 5810™ wireless handheld device that integrates phone functionality with the popular Blackberry™ wireless e-mail solution into a single compact and easy-to-use device. “The BlackBerry has been a valuable addition to our portfolio,” said Cole Brodman, senior vice president of product development for T-Mobile. “We believe we’ll see a significant increase in sales in these tech-savvy markets as users begin to adopt single devices, like the BlackBerry, that combine the functionality of voice and data, and leverage our nationwide high speed data network.”
T-Mobile will also be the first U.S. carrier to introduce the much-anticipated Microsoft® Windows® Powered Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition, a premier device for the enterprise and business user giving them on the go access to their favorite Windows desktop features. Other wireless data devices include Internet enabled phones and a PC Internet Card that allows for wireless Internet access from your laptop and Pocket PC.
Additionally, T-Mobile offers Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless broadband Internet access in hundreds of convenient public locations and ‘hot spots’ such as airports, airline clubs and select Starbucks Corp’s coffeehouses. T-Mobile is the exclusive provider of high-speed Internet access for Starbucks, with plans to rapidly build out and market the service in over 70 percent of all Starbucks company-operated locations in North America over the next two years.
California and Nevada consumers can experience GET MORE® for themselves by visiting one of the 70 company owned retail locations or through its network of more than 2,000 authorized T-Mobile dealers in the region. T-Mobile also can be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, Comp USA, Staples, Office Depot, Sears, Kmart, Blockbuster and Homebase locations.
Lindsay Morio
T-Mobile USA Media Relations
425-383-4002
About T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG. By the end of the first quarter of 2010, approximately 150 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group - 33.7 million by T-Mobile USA - all via a common technology platform based on GSM and UMTS, the world's most widely used digital wireless standards. T-Mobile USA's innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality. For more information, please visit http://www.T-Mobile.com. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG.