Belgacom Offers Prepaid WiFi

BRUSSELS -- The Belgacom Group has concluded 20 contracts for about 50 Wireless LAN hotspots and launches a first prepaid offer, at a launch price of 7.5 EUR/hour. Laptop users can now log onto the Internet or to their company intranet, without wires, at any moment. By the end of 2003, Belgacom Group will have installed hotspots in about 150 sites in Belgium. Additional Wi-Fi connexion formulas will be launched in the course of the months to come.

In April this year, the Belgacom Group began installing hotspots to meet the ever growing demand for bandwidth, flexibility and mobility from Internet users. Hotspots are sites accessible to the public from which wireless laptop users can log onto the Internet or to their company intranet (provided the laptops are equipped with a WiFi card). Both Belgacom (fixed lines) and Proximus have begun installing hotspots. These will enable the Belgacom Group to offer customers a solution that tallies with their specific needs and circumstances.

Until today, the Belgacom Group has concluded 20 contracts for about 50 Wireless LAN hotspots. By the end of 2003, Belgacom Group will have installed hotspots in about 150 sites in Belgium, such as hotels and conference centres. Some references so far: Mc Donald’s, Total, Anderlecht Football Club, the Château du Lac hotel in Genval and the Kinepolis complex in Brussels.

From Belgacom hotspots, business users can set up a secure connection to their company network, although this depends on the protocol used (IPSec is not a problem) and the company application.

Belgacom ADSL Hotspots: From today, the user can acces the Internet from these hotspots via a prepaid card. The launch price for this card will be EUR 7.5/hour. One feature of the Belgacom prepaid card is the possibility of carrying over credit: the card is valid for a full year from when it is first used.

From September 2003, it will also be possible to obtain access from a hotspot with a normal ADSL subscription package (using one’s personal login and password). In the beginning, this will be free. Thereafter, there will be a supplementary charge, which will be included on the usual Belgacom bill.

Proximus WLAN hotspots: Access to Proximus hotspots is currently free of charge. From the third quarter of 2003, various prepaid hotspot-access packages will be marketed. Identification is based on a user name, password and, potentially, the customer’s GSM number.

In the first quarter of 2004, Proximus will launch a WLAN-access subscription package. Customers will then be able to switch seamlessly from a GPRS to a WLAN environment. From that moment, subscribers will be identified and billed on the basis of their SIM card.

Discussions are underway with other service providers on roaming agreements to provide customers with an internationally accessible service.

All the Belgacom Group hotspots are accessible via a standard wireless network connection (IEE standard 802.11b). This technology is increasingly being built into laptops.

By investing in WiFi, the Belgacom Group will be able to offer a mobile Internet-access solution to all its customers, irrespective of the technology they are using: WLAN, GPRS or, at a later stage, UMTS.

Belgacom