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Sprint Takes AOL Anywhere

Mobile AOL users can now access their accounts via Sprint PCS phones.

By Bob Brewin, Computerworld   

One analyst predicts that the AOL deal will be the first in a series of agreements with wireless carriers, which will include extending AOL's popular Instant Messenger service to mobile users.

AOL says it will have "premier" placement on Internet-ready phones used by digital data customers of Kansas City-based Sprint PCS, occupying the third line on the opening screen of the Sprint phone. This will allow mobile AOL users to tap into a number of AOL features including e-mail, news, stock quotes, and weather reports, as well as movie information and digital maps.

Jeff Kagan, an Atlanta-based wireless analyst, says the AOL/Sprint deal signifies the coming of age of wireless data and information as a mass-market phenomenon, one that businesses will ignore at their peril.

"This means wireless is for real, and it's not a passing fad," says Kagan. "It means that businesses need to develop a wireless Web strategy" for the growing number of consumers who will use mobile Web phones to access information.

AOL will announce deals with a number of other wireless carriers in the near term, Kagan predicts, including an agreement with Atlanta-based BellSouth that will extend the reach of AOL Instant Messenger to that company's wireless subscribers.

At deadline, a spokesperson for Bell South says he wasn't aware of and couldn't confirm any pending agreements with AOL. AOL officials weren't immediately available.

Tim Scannell, an analyst at Mobile Insights, says he also believes that the Sprint deal is the first of a series of wireless agreements to come from AOL. "AOL wants to extend itself from being a wired utility to being a wireless utility," Scannell says.

"There is a great demand for Instant Messenger" from wireless users, he adds, but that's inhibited somewhat by the fact that currently the service is an AOL proprietary product. "Users really want a cross-platform Instant Messenger-type product," Scannell says.

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