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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quidditch who wrote (5444)	1/20/2000 11:01:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

I cannot believe SI suspended Maurice. (Well, actually, I can believe it ...) What a bunch of douchebags ! Will I be suspended now ? Jon.

To: quidditch who wrote (5444)	1/20/2000 2:19:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13582

Add Another W To I-n-t-e-r-n-e-t Steve you see something here too? By Brad Smith The World Wide Web is going wireless in a worldly way. Vodafone AirTouch Plc will stake out new virtual territory in July when it launches a global wireless Internet portal for consumer markets and rolls out customized national wireless portals in Europe, the United States and Australia. The carrier claims that its new portal services, which will be integrated by IBM, mark a new standard for wireless access to the Internet by establishing a global umbrella platform that carries the Vodafone AirTouch brand. By adding national subsets with localized content, the British-based multinational carrier signaled its intent to maintain ownership of its customers even in the virtual world. The wireless carrier's move reflects the pressing need for operators to move quickly into wireless Internet roleswhile retaining customersor risk being left behind by the rapid convergence of the two technologies. Vodafone AirTouch packed some drama into its announcement Jan. 11, using the portal presentation as another salvo in its $148 billion hostile bid for Mannesmann AG. The German carrier, already Europe's third-largest Internet service provider, quickly belittled Vodafone's proposal. Still, Vodafone's portal dreams are significant enough by themselves because of the carrier's presence in 24 countries and its 35 million customers. Although it wasn't in the initial announcement, Wireless Week learned that AirTouch Cellular in the United States will be announcing its own wireless Internet strategy soon. That plan will be linked to Vodafone AirTouch's pending joint venture with Bell Atlantic Mobile, which will include the assets of GTE Wireless and PrimeCo Personal Communications. The BAM/AirTouch joint venture, expected to be completed by September, plans its own national Internet portal that will be tied to the global Vodafone services. This means Vodafone will be able to establish some worldwide content offerings for every market it serves, as well as having localized links based on cultural and geographic preferences. The national portals will launch in Europe, the United States and Australia initially because of Vodafone's strong presence in those areas but soon will be launched in seven other countries where the carrier has substantial wireless control. Vodafone sees the portal launch as just the first step "along a long path toward bringing the Internet to the palm, the purse and the pocket," one industry source familiar with the strategy says. Despite the boldness of Vodafone AirTouch's plans, analyst Philip Redman of the Yankee Group says the carrier will have to fight the entrenched Internet portals like American Online Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., which already have established customer loyalties. Vodafone AirTouch will have to convince AOL users to switch allegiances. Besides IBM as the systems integrator, other partners in the project include Sun Microsystems Inc. for hardware and service delivery platforms, InfoSpace.com as a content aggregator, Charles Schwab for its financial services and Travelocity.com and Sabre for travel. From the device side, Palm Computing Co. will link its handheld personal digital assistants while Ericsson and Nokia will supply several handset models with the Wireless Application Protocol microbrowser. Ajei Gopal, chief technology officer with IBM's Pervasive Computing Division, says the company will develop, build, manage and host the Vodafone AirTouch portals. IBM will integrate its "transcoding" technology, which translates Internet markup languages into whatever form is necessary to read on a Palm PDA or wireless handset. The technology insulates content developers from differing protocols. Gopal says he is excited by the portal possibilities opened up by wireless access. Internet portals traditionally are location independent, while wireless can make the applications much more personal. Craig Farrill, Chief Technology Officer for Vodafone AirTouch in San Francisco, says last week's announcement was only the first of a "much larger program that stretches around the world." The portal calls upon the expertise of both Vodafone and AirTouch, including last year's launch of the Vodafone Interactive ISP. Farrill says the introduction of a large number of portal services simultaneously is a challenge but reflects several years of development both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Maybe the notoriously fast "Internet time" is about to get a wireless booster shot.