TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Cingular Introduces E-Mail Access on Cells

Cingular Introduces E-Mail Access on Cells

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Mon, 24 Oct 2005 00:48:14 -0400

By BRUCE MEYERSON AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cingular Wireless is introducing a service for
nonbusiness users to get BlackBerry-like mobile access to their
personal e-mail accounts from AOL, Yahoo and MSN Hotmail on a cell
phone.

The new service, powered by OZ Communications Inc., is designed to
adapt the look and capabilities of a Web portal or e-mail program such
as Outlook to the limited screen size, keyboard and processing power
of a garden variety handset.

The Java-based e-mail application initially will be available to
download on existing phones starting Monday with 5 models from
Motorola Inc. and one from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. It also is
being pre-installed on new phones, though not immediately through all
Cingular sales channels.

There's no monthly charge for Cingular Mobile Email, but users will
need to subscribe to one of the company's wireless Internet plans with
a monthly allotment of data usage. Jim Ryan, a Cingular vice
president, said a $5 monthly data plan should provide sufficient
capacity to check one's e-mail a few times daily.

Fetching e-mail on a cell phone has been possible for some time,
generally by using a mobile Web browser or a downloadable third-party
application. But the process is often cumbersome: Users need to click
through multiple menus, type in Web addresses, sign in using a
telephone keypad, and scroll about to read poorly formatted messages
on a small screen.

- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52543179

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