MCI advances paging

Upping the ante in the race to bring value-added services into the wireless networking market, MCI has launched its networkMCI Interactive Paging service.

At a time when the paging market is undergoing a pricing development process, the announcement marks an important advance in service capability.

Basic service fees for nationwide networkMCI Interactive Paging are $34.95 a month with a device that sells for $399. M-Tel, through its Skytel subsidiary, just introduced a nationwide, two-way paging service at $24.95 a month. The devices for both services can be leased for $15 a month.

The MCI service is more cost-effective for most users because it offers 6000 free characters, compared with the M-tel service, which offers 600 blocks of 10 characters, said Barry Zipp, director for personal business services at MCI.

"Our tests show that with the block of characters, customers get charged for 20% more characters than are actually used," Zipp said.

The MCI service also offers companies a discount of up to 24% for volume purchases. MCI plans to roll out a 16,000 character plan for $64.95 a month.

Using an on-screen virtual keypad, users navigate around a four-line LCD and scroll through functions. They can reply to messages as well as customize their own messages.

The device, which is roughly the size of a deck of cards, serves as an organizer that stores names, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses and pager ID numbers. A built-in folder system holds up to 450 messages and address book entries.

Messages can be up to 500 characters long and can be sent either through a toll-free dispatch center agent, any Internet-based e-mail system or networkMCI Paging PC-based access software.

"Things like follow-me services and screening and routing services are going to be a key differentiator in the marketplace once pricing is well established," Dataquest wireless services analyst John Ledahl said.

The most important feature of the new MCI service is that users can direct messages via the Internet, e-mail networks, fax machines, and to other interactive, two-way and one-way pagers.

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