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Voicestream, the mobile phone subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has changed its name to T-Mobile and begun marketing cellular phone service in California for the first time.
The wireless carrier also chose California and Nevada to debut its new T-Mobile marketing campaign beginning July 18. The company will take on competing carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS in the Bay Area market.
The T-Mobile service offers plans between $40 and $100 a month, depending on the number of minutes of use offered (ranging between 1,000 and 3,000 minutes per month). The company's introductory plan, which will expire Sept. 2, also offers free long distance and roaming. It includes voice and a variety of data services such as two-way text messaging, AOL Instant Messenger (to appeal to younger consumers), and access to e-mail, calendar and contacts.
"California is a very important market to us, so we wanted it to be one of the first places we introduced our new brand," says Cole Brodman, T-Mobile's vice president of product management.
T-Mobile will be competing for about 30 million potential California customers.
The former Voicestream struck a deal...