8/06/99 - Marriage of Wireless, Internet Brings New Dimension to Communications
Aug. 6 (Chicago Tribune/KRTBN)--When John Chambers drives from his Aurora home to catch a flight at O'Hare, he can punch a few buttons on his wireless phone, check its video display and see if his flight is on time.
Before he meets with clients, Chambers often pulls up their company's stock price and other news about the firm, and if he's driving in unfamiliar surroundings, he can use his phone's small screen to act as a personal guide.
"I was with some clients near Milwaukee the other day around lunch time," said Chambers. "I accessed the Yellow Pages from my phone to locate a restaurant. It not only gave me the option of pushing one button to call for a reservation, but it also offered me street-by-street directions to get there."
Because of his job as a wireless technology sales rep at Motorola Corp., Chambers has early access to a new Internet-based data network slated to debut later this year -- and he loves it. His enthusiasm for getting this information "wirelessly" is exactly what industry executives hope will quickly spread.
The service enables users to extract some information from public web sites on the Internet, and it can also supply pre-packaged information like weather updates and ball game scores as well as give customers a pathway into private databases that aren't available to general Internet surfers.
While they probably will never match the speed, color and graphic glitz of wireline connections, wireless data services are poised to radically change the way people use the Internet.
Instead of regarding the Internet as a maze of endless web sites, each decorated with increasingly intricate visual distractions, wireless users may soon treat the Internet as an ever-ready source of information that's easily used to get things done fast. At least, that's the multi-billion dollar bet wireless phone and pager firms are making as they line up to launch their new data delivery products.
Chambers is testing a wireless service for Nextel Communications Inc. that will be offered commercially in Chicago and a few other markets later this year.
"Most people today think of the Web as a destination, but that will change as people begin to see it as an engine to fulfill transactions," said Mike Ozburn, vice-president and general manager of Nextel Online. "A wireless customer planning a business trip may enter his destination information and get back options for plane and hotel reservations to confirm with the click of a button.
"This will be available anytime, anywhere without booting up, dialing in or any other nonsense."
Chambers said that simplicity is essential for him.
"If it wasn't easy, I wouldn't use it," he said. "When you look up a company's press releases, for instance, you can get all the text on your screen if you want. But if you'd rather, you can just enter a fax number and the service will send a hard copy to that number for you."
Nextel, a national wireless phone service, has traditionally found its strongest appeal among users in such blue-collar industries as construction and trucking because of the walkie-talkie function on Nextel handsets that lets workmen contact colleagues quickly without going through the telephone network.
But Nextel also seeks to attract more white collar users such as brokers and lawyers, said Frank Franzese, president of Nextel's Midwest operation.
"Providing Web access is an important part of our strategy," said Franzese.
Industry standards are in place that enable wireless devices to go to databases on the Internet and easily strip away extraneous things and pull out the essential information. So the weather maps, historical data and advertisements are left behind when Nextel's system finds out whether it may rain on Sunday and what the temperatures are likely to be.
The real boon to wireless data bestowed by the World Wide Web is that the popularity of Web surfing has compelled nearly all companies to connect their computer networks to the Internet. That opens up applications that just weren't possible a few years ago, said Dan Croft, vice-president of messaging services at American Mobile Satellite Corp.
Croft, who is based in Lincolnshire where American Mobile's national wireless network is managed, said that before the Internet's popularity, it was difficult for his company to do business with a small firm because it required expensive dedicated equipment to tap into that firm's local computer network.
Now that almost everyone is connected via the Internet, that's no longer a problem.
"We in the wireless world see the Internet as the pipe that lets us gain entry wherever we need to go," said Croft.
American Mobile, which is launching its own data service, sees electronic mail as the most valuable product to draw in new customers, said Walt Purnell, the firm's chief executive.
"The key is to keep it simple and easy," said Purnell. "In a way, wireless is going in the opposite direction from the wired Internet. Our idea is to pare things down to the essentials."
In Europe and some parts of Asia, wireless Internet access has become a consumer product -- people who don't own personal computers use their phones or pagers.
The biggest consumer application in Hong Kong is placing bets on horses via the Internet, said Croft.
"You can get your bet in up to 30 seconds before the race starts," he said.
With its focus on the business customer, American Mobile won't likely launch consumer-oriented products itself, but will partner with other firms using its nationwide wireless data network to do so, Croft said.
While there is certainly rivalry between wireless phone firms like Nextel and data-oriented outfits like American Mobile, there is also much common purpose in promoting a new approach to the Internet.
"We wish Nextel well in the market," said Croft. "Our challenge is to get acceptance of the concept. You don't have to sell anybody now on the idea that a cell phone is useful for their business, because that's widely accepted today. That wasn't true in the late 80's, when people thought cell phones were just a perk for rich guys.
"But we're not yet to that point with wireless data. We have to show everyone that being able to send and receive e-mail anywhere, anytime, is useful and productive. Once someone starts to really use this tool, it changes the way they do their work."
By Jon Van
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