Press Release

With more than 500 hotspots ONE is WLAN market leader

ONE WLAN network has already been expanded to comprise 526 locations
eWave registers first success at popular hotspot locations
Negotiations with both national and international cooperation partners

In July 2003, ONE launched Austria’s densest hotspot network from one provider. Over the last couple of months the company was able to expand the network to a total of 526 locations in cooperation with its 100% subsidiary eWave and its cooperation partners. A cooperation agreement with the municipality of Woergl will be concluded soon, further negotiations with potential partners are underway. WLAN international roaming is in its testing stage. To WLAN users ONE and eWave offer two possible billing methods. ONE post-paid customers are billed for the data volume consumed on their next service bill, all non-ONE customers as well as ONE pre-paid customers simply acquire online minutes with their eWave.keycard. Unique in Austria is, moreover, that the ONE handset locates the next hotspot.

Since the launch of WLAN in July 2003, ONE has further enhanced its role as market leader together with its 100% subsidiary eWave. ONE still has Austria’s densest hotspot network encompassing a total of currently 526 hotspots. This has been achieved by means of cooperation agreements with – to date metronet, funknetz.at and Vorarlberg Online - and last but not least hotspots established by eWave. Christian Czech, CCO at ONE: “We were the first ones to launch a comprehensive WLAN offer and continue to bank on both national and international cooperation in this matter. For this reason, we are pleased that other mobile telephony operators have meanwhile also recognised the significance of WLAN.“

Current developments

As many as about 70 hotspots were established by eWave last year and the list of locations was constantly enlarged. Particular emphasis has been placed on locations at which users actually require WLAN and can use it conveniently. For this reason, the focus has been placed on high quality hotels, renowned seminar hotels such as for instance the five-star hotel Europa in Innsbruck or the four-star Sporthotel Igls. Plans for further cooperation have been made. For instance, a cooperation agreement will soon be concluded with the municipality of Woergl, which supplies public squares and passages in the town and neighbouring parts with WLAN. A test run on international roaming is already being carried out.

ONE handset locates the next hotspot

To date approximately 1,000 ONE customers have opted for ONE WLAN and the number of customers is constantly increasing. Particularly practical and unique in Austria is that the ONE handset locates the next hotspot. Users either send SMS with the text “WLAN“ to 4324 or locate the next hotspot via WAP under the menu item “ONE WLAN hotspots“. Moreover, a constantly updated list of locations is available on the web at www.one.at/hotspot as well as www.ewave.at/hotspot.

Billing for ONE post-paid customers, eWave pre-paid card for everyone
Billing for ONE post-paid customers is based on volume by way of the monthly ONE service bill. One MB is charged – based on how much volume is used within one month – at between € 0.90 and € 1.50. Alternatively, eWave offers all those who have not opted for a ONE handset with contract yet, “eWave.key 90“ cards with credit for 90 online minutes for € 15. They are available at the hotspots and in all ONE Worlds.

This is how easy ONE WLAN works

ONE post-paid customers have the use of ONE WLAN activated by the ONE Service Team on 0699 70 699 or in an ONE World or activate it themselves in the ONE Cockpit at www.one.at. At the requested hotspot they ask for their user ID and password by means of SMS with the text “WLAN“ to 4321. eWave.key 90 pre-paid card users simply rub free their user name and password. As soon as the WLAN-enabled laptop or PDA has been booted, simply open the Internet browser and enter their user ID and password in the automatically popping up log-in window. Now simply click on the log-in button and you can surf the Internet. Should ONE customers have any questions, the ONE Service Team is available around the clock on 0699 70 699. eWave customers can also call their hotline around the clock on 01-278 35 40.

eWave facts & figures

eWave Telekommunikation GmbH is a 100 percent subsidiary of ONE (Connect Austria GmbH) and with 40 employees services about 20,000 customers in the business areas hotspots/WLAN, Internet via mobile and fixed line telephony.
Apart from call by call service and preselection, eWave also facilitates inexpensive dial-up for cable and mobile callers. With more than 520 hotspots eWave is a pioneer of modern and mobile Internet communication and offers Austria’s biggest hotspot network. The close cooperation between the two companies ONE and eWave facilitates optimum synergies in developing solutions combining the advantages of GPRS, UMTS and WLAN.

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