Dave This Might Clarify>
From the February 8, 1999 issue of Wireless Week
BT Joins Data Venture
Microsoft To Embrace Protocol
By Brad Smith
©1999 by Wireless Week
As proof that it wants to become technologically neutral in the converging world of wireless communications and computing,
Microsoft Corp. plans to add U.K. carrier British Telecommunications plc as a carrier customer in its WirelessKnowledge
LLC. Wireless Week also has learned Microsoft will open its microbrowser's arms to a competing technology.
Paul Maritz, a Microsoft group vice president and member of the company's executive committee, plans to make the
revelations in a speech today at the Wireless '99 trade show in New Orleans, sources told Wireless Week. Maritz heads
Microsoft's platforms and applications group, which includes its Internet products.
BT's wireless subsidiary, Cellnet, will offer WirelessKnowledge's services through its global system for mobile
communications-based network. The agreement, similar to those announced earlier with nine U.S. and Canadian carriers, gives
the service its first GSM link.
Some skeptics have said WirelessKnowledge, a joint venture with Qualcomm Inc., appeared dominated by one
technologycode division multiple accessbecause Qualcomm and most of the carrier customers use that interface. Industry
insiders said the addition of a major European GSM carrier gives WirelessKnowledge increased credibility.
In another show of openness, Microsoft's Internet microbrowser under development will be compatible with protocols being
developed by the Wireless Application Protocol Forum. When the company announced plans for the microbrowser last fall,
WAP compatibility was excluded.
Microsoft would not comment on either announcement prior to the show, but Wireless Week received confirmation from
several sources. BT also declined to comment, and officials of the WAP Forum said they had not heard anything beyond
rumors.
Formed last November, WirelessKnowledge in January announced its first service offeringRevolv, which allows mobile
professionals to access corporate data such as calendars and e-mail using a variety of wireless devices. Carriers are expected
to offer the service in the next few months.
Carrier customers include AirTouch Communications Inc., AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Bell Atlantic Mobile Inc., Bell
Mobility, BellSouth Wireless Data LP, GTE Wireless, Leap Wireless International, Sprint PCS and U S West Wireless.
Adrian May, a London-based analyst with Ovum Ltd., said the WirelessKnowledge link with BT apparently is part of the
company's competitive response to the announced Vodafone Group plc purchase of AirTouch. BT was given approval by the
British government last week to acquire the remaining 40 percent of its Cellnet operations from Securicor Cellular.
May said BT also reportedly is seeking an alliance for Cellnet with AT&T Wireless that would give it an "across-the-pond"
competitive edge with Vodafone AirTouch. BT is moving into data in Europe, recently acquiring a large Spanish Internet
service provider.
The WirelessKnowledge partnership would strengthen BT's position, May said. "It's coming at a strategically important time.
They are feeling left out in the cold [by Vodafone]. This announcement is significant in the sense it shows BT is committed to
mobile."
Chuck Parrish, chairman of the WAP Forum, said at a WAP users meeting last week in Fort Worth, Texas, that he had heard
nothing definitive from Microsoft about compatibility with its microbrowser although discussions have taken place. He said the
WAP Forum believes it is best that a "browser war" doesn't lead to fragmentation of the data access market.
He also said compatibility can take place at two levels, at the basic transport layer of the protocol and at the application layer.
WAP already is compatible with Microsoft's announced microbrowser at the transport layer, but it is the application layer
compatibility that provides universality.
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