WIRELESS INTENET SERVICE BOOMING ALL OF A SUDDEN! MSFT PARTNERS WITH A QCOM JOINT VENTURE.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10 (Reuters) - A little company called GoAmerica Communications Corp. has a big dream: to become the America Online of wireless Internet access.
Like other Internet service providers, Go America (http://www.goamerica.com) offers its customers a path onto the Net. But unlike Internet access providers that use telephone wires, fiber optic cables or cable television lines to connect people to the Net, GoAmerica's customers log on over the airwaves.
GoAmerica and its rivals -- including telecommunications giants such as Sprint (NYSE:FON - news) and AirTouch Communications (NYSE:ATI - news) -- are wagering wireless Net access will pick up steam over the next couple of years, as road warriors and just plain folks take to the idea of going online anywhere, anytime, from their laptop, cell phone, pager, hand-held computer or other cordless device.
Telecommunications industry analysts predict the number of people using some type of dedicated wireless link to the Net will jump from about 60,000 today to 1.5 million by 2004, with millions more mobile workers using wireless when they're on the road.
The opportunities to be had plugging people into the Net without wires is attracting all kinds of would-be service providers to the business, and not just the little guys.
Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) (http://www.microsoft.com) has invested in a number of wireless ventures. One is Wireless Knowledge (http://www.wirelessknowledge.com), a San Diego-based joint venture with Qualcomm Inc. (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news) that expects to launch a wireless service next year called Revolv. When it's available, Revolv will be sold through cell phone carriers such as AT&T (NYSE:T - news) and Bell Atlantic Mobile (NYSE:BEL - news) and help people plug intotheir companies' Exchange-based calendar, phone book and e-mail system via a cell phone or Palm Pilot.
Sprint PCS (NYSE:PCS - news) (http://www.sprintpcs.com) recently launched its Wireless Web service in 280 cities, and AirTouch Communications (NYSE:ATI - news) (http://www.airtouch.com) and GTE Wireless (http://www.gte.com) have plans for similar services in the works.
Officials at GoAmerica, based in Hackensack, N.J., won't say how many customers they've collected since starting to offer wireless service in 1997. They will say, however, that unlike two years ago, new subscribers aren't just businesspeople looking for a better way to connect to their offices.
``People are starting to talk about wireless as a consumer' service, said Aaron Bodrinski, GoAmerica chief executive and president.
For evidence of just how quickly cutting the cord is becoming commonplace, look at the major Web portals. Yahoo (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) (http://www.yahoo.com), America Online (NYSE:AOL - news) (http://www.aol.com), Microsoft Network (http://www.msn.com) and ExciteAtHome (NasdaqNM:ATHM - news) (http://www.excitehome.net) have introduced versions of their regular Web sits trimmed down to fit wireless devices' smaller screens and narrower bandwidth, or have plans in the works.
It's not just the major Web portals that are tailoring themselves to wireless users. Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com), the business news provider, and Sprint are teaming up to offer users of Sprint's WebPhone news from the Bloomberg.com Web site. In September, Japanese video game maker Bandai (http://www.bandai.com), said it would team up with Japan's NTT Mobile Communications to develop online games for cell phones.
When it comes to wireless, GoAmerica is an old-timer. Bodrinski formed the company in 1995 to give employees who traveled a lot a wireless way to connect their laptop computers with their corporate computer networks from the road.
But as more people started using cell phones and pagers, and the Internet, company officials saw an opportunity to marry the two by creating a national wireless ISP.
Today, GoAmerica offers wireless Net access in most major cities in the country by buying wholesale air time from a variety of wireless carriers, including cellular providers. The latter uses unregulated radio frequencies to transmit data between laptops equipped with wireless modems and radios mounted on utility poles, where signals are transferred to a land-line Net carrier.
GoAmerica's service works on interactive pagers, Palm Pilot hand-held organizers and laptop computers. Access speeds range from 14.4 kilobits per second to 19.2 Kbps depending on the device, and the wireless carrier, according to Bodrinski.
Customers can pay $9.95 a month to access up to 25K worth of e-mail messages, or $59.95 a month for unlimited Internet and e-mail service.
Bodrinski believes online shopping and other electronic-commerce transactions will be the biggest impetus to the growth of wireless Net access.
``With the online trading that goes on today, it's easy for people to understand how that could happen in real time' on a wireless device, Bodrinski said. ``But there's a whole host of other applications. You could walk into an electronics store looking for a radio for Christmas, type in a code on your device' to see how the store's price compares to what's available on the Web site, and buy whatever's cheaper, he said.
``Or you execute a stock trade, or look at your bank account and transfer money to savings,' Bodrinski added. ``Or it's your anniversary and you forgot, so you want to order a gift. That's what'll drive it. That's the reason why I'd carry a wireless device.'
To that end, GoAmerica is negotiating e-commerce partnerships. Through a deal with Avis Rent A Car, GoAmerica customers will soon be able to use their interactive pager or Palm Pilot to go online and rent a car. The company also recently partnered with Lexis Publishing (http://www.lexis-nexis.com) to give customers wireless access to legal research. |
