AT&T-Unisource extends roaming service

NEWS AT&T-Unisource has today announced an expansion of its European roaming mobile service for corporate customers. The announcement comes just a day after rival BT launched a similar service to its Concert customers. The expansion means mobile users working for multinational firms will be able to access their company's virtual private network (VPN) from wherever they are in Europe - saving up to 50 per cent on call costs. AT&T-Unisource said it has already been offering this service in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK. Concert's roaming service will be available in the UK, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Australia, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. However, neither service can yet offer data connection facilities. David Andreski, manager for mobile services at AT&T-Unisource, said: "We finished upgrading our existing roaming facilities today and over the next few months we will be expanding the reach to other European countries such as Spain, Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg." Patrick Donegan, analyst at Yankee Group, said the availability of these services is due to mounting consumer pressure. "Customers were at one stage so impressed that they could have a roaming service at all, that they were willing to pay a premium for it. But now their attitudes have changed and the customer is demanding lower costs as well as access to their VPNs," he said. Donegan added that if the Vodafone and Airtouch merger goes ahead the two companies will pull together their European GSM operations to offer a similar service.