Rob,
Thanks for the thorough reply. I am new to this thread and co. I want to fully understand the business if I invest. Please read the last two paragraphs of this from the WSJ. With their existing network infrastructure AT&T could add to their recurring revenue stream with this and force per transaction revenue for USWDA lower by entering the field. Your opinion will be appreciated.
Lee
September 23, 1997
AT&T Plans to Introduce
Wireless Internet Service
Dow Jones Newswires
AT&T Corp.'s wireless-telecommunications unit reportedly plans next month to begin marketing its PocketNet service, which allows users to gain access to Internet and intranet information using specially equipped cellular phones.
The Oct. 6 launch will be a "major" event in New York, according to Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing, an e-mail industry publication. AT&T will announce a monthly pricing plan for unlimited use, the publication said, adding that another promotion, an Internet "scavenger hunt," is planned for San Francisco Oct. 16.
AT&T will promote PocketNet's ability to access e-mail and information from the Internet and intranets to boost demand for its souped-up cellular networks. AT&T is also expected to tout the availability of some two dozen sites from major publishers such as ABC News, ESPN SportsZone and others.
"AT&T has invested tens of millions of dollars in the technology with perhaps a few thousand subscribers to show for it," said Alan Reiter, president of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing. "The flat fee for unlimited data services is a good start, but generating sufficient demand for wireless data is a very tough business," he said.
AT&T introduced the service to business customers in February. The service provides a way for companies to have mobile access to corporate information and e-mail via AT&T PocketNet phones and other PocketNet service-compatible cellular phones, including those made by other companies.
Users are able to read and respond to e-mail messages, forward documents to a fax machine for printing and access other information available on the Internet, such as stock quotes, weather forecasts and phone directories.
Some of AT&T's best results have come not from its traditional long-distance business, but from wireless communications. Last fall, AT&T and wireless-communications technology firm Unwired Planet Inc. unveiled the PocketNet cellular phone. The phone incorporates Unwired Planet's specialized Internet-browsing format and uses the so-called cellular digital-packet data technology, also referred to as wireless IP.
AT&T last year launched digital-packet data services, which allows data to be transmitted over existing cellular networks, in select markets. A number of other firms are readying "smart phones," combination mobile phone, fax, e-mail, message pad, diary and Internet devices. |
