Good story thanks for post. There is a story at Cnet yesterday that explains in Europe the future is CDMA not GSM like I thought and that Nokia is working to make the US and European versions of CDMA compatible. Also Qualcomm just annouced high speed wireless plans. And below is another dailey example of continuing press the wireless future is getting this time from today's Investor's Bus. Dailey:
Coming To A Shirt Pocket NearYou: Flights, Weather And Sport Scores
Date: 11/9/99
By Paul Korzeniowski
Investor?s Business Daily
The dream of accessing the Internet from devices that slip into your shirt pocket is closer to reality.
Wireless phone makers and service providers have outlined a way to shrink a Web browser to fit on a cellular phone screen. The technical specification comes by way of the Wireless Application Protocol Forum, an industry group supported by 70 companies.
Delivering On Promises
The group?s specification relies on what?s known as wireless markup language, a version of the Internet?s hypertext markup language. It was needed to write software for capacity-constrained wireless networks.
"Wireless vendors are now ready to deliver on the promises made a few years ago," said Ira Brodsky of Datacomm Research Corp., a Chesterfield, Mo., market researcher.
Up to now, conflicts among different wireless systems locked users into devices that worked on only specific networks. That?s stymied the growth of wireless data services, which up to now have been used only in niche tasks such as monitoring vehicle fleets.
The same thing could have happened with wireless Internet access. Phone.com Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., designed the wireless markup language, but has worked with big players such as Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. to make it an industry standard.
"The success of the Internet has demonstrated that the best way to grow a business is through open rather than proprietary interfaces," said Ben Linder, vice president of marketing at Phone.com.
In June, the Wireless Application Protocol Forum issued version 1.1 of its specification. At that time, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute decided to include WAP in its proposed set of wireless network standards.
The first wave of applications for wireless phones has a consumer feel ? weather forecasts, sports scores and traffic information. BellSouth Inc. is working with Saraide Inc. of San Francisco to provide travelers with access to airline flight schedules and notification of flight delays.
More sophisticated applications arre envisioned, such as onlinebanking so you can pay your bills as you commute home or sit in airports between flights.
Carriers are interested in the executive market since business users are willing to pay a premium for services that can increase productivity. Wireless data access can let salespeople check product prices and delivery dates, enter orders and even take payments.
Push Technology
Longer term, suppliers expect to see services that will download electronic mail messages to phones so you won?t have to deal with accessing the company e-mail system.
This capability, known as push technology, is expected to be included in version 2.0 of the WAP Forum?s specification.
"In the wireless data area, there have been a number of false starts and empty promises, but WAP looks like the real deal," said Datacomm Research?s Brodsky. "I expect that in a few years the bulk of mobile phones shipped will be WAP compliant."
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