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To: slacker711 who wrote (4250)	12/15/1999 10:58:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

Third-generation innovations, bitter price wars, prepaid growth and mergers dominated 1998's highlights. The year 1999 offered more of the same, but with greater frequency. Wireless high-stepped its way from telecom time to Internet time. Complementing these highlights, breakthroughs in wireless data practically became commercial realities, causing many to cautiously wonder if this was, could it possibly be, wireless data's big year … finally? Andrew Cole, Renaissance Worldwide head of wireless practice, awards a gold star to Sprint PCS for its bold offering — Wireless Web. Although the service may not be the penultimate in wireless Internet surfing, it is a smart first step. “Wireless Web is a major step forward,” Cole said. “While the United States is still tiptoeing in data, it is a great service, and Sprint PCS has been able to leverage what is a great technology in CDMA.” The service uses the NeoPoint 1000 handset. NeoPoint helped accelerate data by making its NeoPoint 1000 handset a user-friendly form factor. “That is the principle of data development,” he said. “Data needs simplicity, and that is what is encompassed in Wireless Web.” Steps by other vendors helped data blossom in 1999. In addition to Phone.com's developments in wireless portals with MyPhone, the Palm VII, a data-only terminal with wireless data connectivity, was an important innovation. Phone.Com's WAP progress and its microbrowser also have been major steps forward by making data devices interoperable and allowing users to access the Internet via phones and small devices, Cole said. MyPhone provides the opportunity to rapidly offer subscribers mobile-optimized services through its own branded mobile portal. As a whole, the industry took other great strides to make wireless data more of a reality than ever before. “The standards bodies moved from frostiness to at least being amicable and on speaking terms,” Cole said. “With regard to 3G, there is a lot of progress there. The United States is making steps with its view of letting the market decide. The industry was able to come up with a compromise to 3G, and that is a good thing going forth.” In 1999, 2.5G became a reality — a little more than 2G, not quite 3G — as carriers experimented with ways to get more juice out of 2G. “The only down side at the end of the day is that 2.5G might delay some carriers in jumping to 3G in America, while their European counterparts jump headfirst into 3G,” Cole said. wirelessreview.com