UPDATE 1-MOBILE FAIR-T-Mobile to cut data fees, ups Web services
(Adds details, CEO comments, background)
By Nicola Leske
BARCELONA, Feb 12 (Reuters) - T-Mobile (DTEGn.DE), the leading mobile operator in Germany, hopes to increase data revenue by lowering roaming charges for data usage and offering enhanced Web services, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
Hamid Akhavan told reporters at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona he expects T-Mobile's reduced roaming fees to be in effect throughout the European Union by mid-year.
Other mobile operators, including Vodafone (VOD.L), KPN (KPN.AS), 3 Group (0013.HK) and Telefonica (TEF.MC) are also cutting their roaming data fees in an effort to pre-empt a move by the European Union's telecoms regulator.
Viviane Reding said on Monday network operators had to act prior to July 1 before the EU imposed lower prices for texting or surfing the web.
T-Mobile, which competes with Vodafone and Dutch KPN's German unit E-Plus in its domestic market, plans to offer customers use of mobile Internet within Europe for 2 euros per megabyte, regardless of the chosen network operator.
For heavy data usage, customers can purchase a day pass with a transfer volume of 50 megabytes for 15 euros. Akhavan also said T-Mobile would announce new prices for text messaging soon.
T-Mobile, like other operators, wants to increase data traffic on mobile phones to increase revenue streams as mobile phone rates drop, and hopes to persuade customers to use more data by improving services
T-Mobile and Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) said on Tuesday Yahoo had displaced Google (GOOG.O) as preferred provider of Web services to T-Mobile in northern and central Europe.
The agreement takes effect at the end of March, when the previous T-Mobile deal with Google expires, T-Mobile and Yahoo said in a statement.
The two companies also plan to bring additional Yahoo services to mobile customers such as e-mail and weather updates while T-Mobile said it will extend its web'n'walk portal to include social-networking sites.
It had already signed agreements with YouTube, MySpace NWSa.N, Flickr and bebo, the company said.
T-Mobile, which has the exclusive rights to sell Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone in Germany, said it will begin selling the device in Austria in the first half of the year as well.
T-Mobile plans to launch a device operating on Google's Android software platform in the fourth quarter, which Akhavan promised would not disappoint.
"Early results we have seen have given us all the confidence that it will be groundbreaking," he said. (Editing by Quentin Bryar)
