Vodafone goes head-to-head with BT on GPRS

Vodafone has upped the stakes in its GPRS services battle with BT, slashing handset prices by 50 per cent, and committing to pay-as-you-go services in "serious volumes" by Christmas.

The company is dramatically undercutting its arch-rival by offering the same Motorola T260 handset for £99, compared to BT's £199. Data prices on Vodafone are also cheaper, with access starting at £3.40 a month, and a total of seven different price tariffs.

An aggressive advertising campaign will accompany the launch, in stark contrast to BT, which unveiled its services with a whimper two weeks ago, and isn't using any mainstream media advertising.

BT was widely criticised for over-hyping the launch of WAP, inflating user expectations and adding venom to the subsequent consumer backlash, which goes some way to explaining the firm's caution when unveiling its GPRS line-up.

The BT service has also been hit with numerous glitches and capacity problems, so the restriction of consumer access has been widely interpreted as a deliberate ploy to buy time while it tries to resolve its issues.

However, the Vodafone service will be seriously limited, offering nothing more than speeded-up WAP access, with faster downloads, quicker connections and reduced cost. Initially, it will not be possible for consumers to use the phones as a low-cost mobile modem for a laptop computer.

BT Cellnet refused to comment on when it will begin its own prepaid GPRS launch. But the company did announce it will begin taking orders from today for the Blackberry mobile email device which uses GPRS technology.

The Blackberry device, made by Research in Motion, is extremely popular in the US.