Vodafone has unleashed a strategy to make the mobile phone a key link to the Internet and to a new kind of Web lifestyle.

The UK company believes it can grab a significant chunk of the Wired market with wireless technology. It announced Vodafone Interactive on Thursday - subscription-free Internet service provision and a Website portal offering a range of mobile features.

Vodafone and other mobile networks are gearing up for the launch of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) devices later this year that will standardise the way the World Wide Web can be represented on small devices like mobile phones.

High-speed wireless coming soon

Further ahead, there is a promise of far higher data speeds than the current 9600bps limit on mobiles. HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) allows rates of up to 57.6Kb/s, GPRS (General Packet Radio System) could mean 171.2Kb/s.

Early next year, the government will auction five licences for third-generation networks promising data speeds of up to 2Mb/s.

There is also Bluetooth - a short-distance wireless technology that can replace cables and infra red devices.

Mobile family of the future

Vodafone demonstrated the possibilities at a news conference with a dramatisation of a family of the future communicating around the house with wireless devices and handsets without cables.

The mother at home could also videoconference with her daughter trying on clothes in a shop and authorise payment through her phone.

Soon travel services will be available that could provide information on flights and trains and then offer to book and pay for tickets and remind you when you are travelling with a built-in personal organiser.

Users don't leave home without mobiles

Vodafone and its rivals BT Cellnet, Orange and One2One are trying to realise the potential of what they see as a unique relationship with customers.

Thirty per cent of the UK population now have a mobile phone and the figure could be double that by 2002. As the phone is taken everywhere, it is always available for the kind of e-commerce and chargeable services that will make the networks money.

At launch on November 1, the Vodafone Interactive home page will be customisable and viewable in PC and WAP device versions. Users will be able to send an SMS (Short Message Service) through the page and top up credits on Pay As You Talk phones.

Vodafone says mobile users are getting used to sending mini e-mails and typing in data through SMS. The popularity of these one-line messages typed with the keypad has soared. The number of messages sent in August 1999 was 39m compared to 3.5m in the same month last year.