Feb-March 2003

Orange Business Solutions has introduced a flat-rate GPRS pricing plan across all its email and access solutions. The company believes flat rates will drive the adoption of mobile data in businesses across the UK.

Until now the charging structure for GRPS access has involved a rate per megabyte of data transferred; but Orange admits that many potential users have been unable to calculate in advance just how much information is likely to be transferred. This has made it hard for them to understand the cost implications, or budget for the service.

Under the new scheme, which places a corporate ceiling on the level of data transfer, users can average out the allowance of data transfer across their entire workforce, accommodating both high- and low-volume users.

In conjunction with this new pricing structure, Orange is launching Office Freedom, a service that allows subscribers to access business email on the move. It costs £30 a month if the emails are handled at corporate level by Lotus Notes, and £25 for Microsoft Outlook.

The flat-rate GPRS Business Internet service provides access to the Internet or an intranet and costs £45 per month. With GRPS Business LAN, mobile workers can also access corporate applications. The rate for this depends on the "pipe" size, but Orange says a 128k leased line would cost £2,800 for unlimited users and data transfer.