Phoning in For E-Mail
by Dan Costa
Originally published in the June 1999 issue
Networking and wireless companies are teaming up to create a TCP/IP architecture that will extend the breadth of the Internet. Cellular-service providers have been aggressively pricing their voice services and would love to sell users Internet services.
According to IDC, there are 66 million cellular phones in the United States, and the vast majority of owners use their phones only for voice services. If a fraction of cell-phone users start checking their phones rather than their PCs for e-mail, it could mean big bucks for service providers.
Cisco Systems and Motorola plan to spend more than $1 billion over the next five years to build a wireless-networking architecture for data, voice, and video communications. Much of this money will be used to create an independent system-integration entity. This as-yet unnamed entity will include at least four research and development facilities, two in the United States and two overseas, where products can be developed with the help of local service providers.
Cisco and Motorola expect a number of new hybrid voice and data applications to emerge. This type of network could deliver truly unified messaging and allow the consumer to use a single Web-based mailbox to send and receive voice mail, e-mail, and fax messages.
Such a network would also allow corporations to expand VPNs. With a cell phone or wireless device, users could securely dial into their firms' intranets. "This extends the Internet to a world without wires," says Don Listwin, executive vice president of Cisco Systems. "It represents the first major deployment of integrated data, voice, and video services under an Internet-based cellular infrastructure.
The partnership has already garnered the support of several wireless-industry leaders, including Sprint, Cellnet, Nextel Communications, and AirTouch Communications. But Motorola and Cisco aren't the only ones trying to get in on the ground floor of the wireless boom. Last February, Northern Telecom announced Mobile WebTone, a group of products that enable wireless-service providers to more cheaply deliver Internet services like e-mail and Web access. The potential of wireless Web browsing is not lost on the major browser developers. Netscape Communications Corp. has teamed up with Nextel to deliver a service called Nextel online, and Microsoft Corp. has a similar relationship with Qualcomm.
Microsoft also plans to release a new version of Windows CE that will support wireless Web browsing. Right now, most wireless data applications rely on Cellular Division Packet Data (CDPD). Although this is fine for short messages and ticker-type information, like sports scores and stock quotes, it is ill-suited for intensive data applications. The system is designed for messages with only 160 characters, and its top transmission rate is locked at 19.2Kbps.
Enhanced versions of code division multiple access (CDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA) will be available later this year. According to industry analysts, when deployed these systems should support data communications at speeds up to 64Kbps. Still, such a system would not use TCP/IP protocols and would therefore require proprietary applications. Cisco and Motorola are hoping to create a more open architecture.
Ericsson has also entered the fray by teaming up with Oz.Com, a San Francisco-based software developer. The companies plan to develop TCP/IP-based products and services. According to Ericsson's estimates, the market for wireless data and voice traffic will reach $70 billion by 2001.
zdnet.com:80/computershopper/edit/cshopper/content/9906/402067.html
|
