Web-Surfing Mobile Phones May Be 'Next Big Thing' -- If Networks
Speed Up
By Linda Andersson
Web-Surfing Mobile Phones Need Speedier Networks: Cebit Focus
Stockholm, Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- WAP technology, which lets
people surf the Web on mobile phones and hand-held computers, is
the Internet's Next Big Thing, industry executives say.
There's a way to go, though. Cellular phones that incorporate
Wireless Application Protocol aren't yet user friendly, and won't
be until Vodafone AirTouch Plc and other service providers speed
up the systems on which the phones run.
By stripping graphics out of Web pages and focusing on text,
WAP phones let users swap e-mails, get news and trade stocks. Yet
current mobile networks are too slow for sophisticated services,
such as online shopping and video conferencing, so operators are
racing to invest in new equipment that can access the Net faster.
''Just to get into the WAP portal takes forever,'' said Johan
Eriksson, a 29-year-old Swedish advertising salesman. He bought a
Nokia Oyj model 7110, the first available Web phone, in October to
use for checking soccer scores and weather reports on the go.
Speeding up the cellular phone and taking the Internet to the
streets will be the hottest topic at next week's Cebit technology
fair in Hanover, Germany, the world's biggest trade fair with
almost 8,000 exhibitors from all around the globe.
Ericsson AB, the world's biggest maker of switches and base
stations for mobile systems, estimates there will be 600 million
wireless Internet users in 2004. By then, one-third of Europeans
will use cellular phones to shop and get information on the Web,
according to market surveyor Forrester Research.
''Services and applications will drive wireless data,'' said
Johan Carlstroem, a telecom analyst at Handelsbanken. ''E-mail and
stock prices will be important functions, but younger people also
want more entertainment, such as games and horoscopes.''
Key to Speed
To satisfy those users, operators need to upgrade systems to
send data in packets rather than circuits. A technology called
general packet radio services, or GPRS, lets cellular phones be
constantly linked to the Web and thus eliminates the connection
time that today can be as long as 30 seconds.
''WAP is fabulous, but without GPRS and other packet access
mechanisms it could be frustrating,'' said Dominic Strowbridge,
technology-marketing manager in Europe, Middle East and Africa for
Motorola Inc. ''Ultimately, it's about the coming together of
these technologies.''
Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola, the world's No. 2 maker
of mobile phones after Nokia, is planning to have its first GPRS
handset on the shelves in the second quarter. Ericsson claims it
won more than half of all GPRS infrastructure orders last year.
To enable wireless multimedia services, however, GPRS and
other evolutions of current systems won't be enough, analysts say,
because they're primarily aimed at transmitting voices.
To download a video clip to a cell phone or another wireless
gadget today would take an hour. With the next generation of phone
technology -- the so-called third generation, after analog and
digital voice-focused systems -- it will take 10 seconds.
Japan First
''Third-generation will help us get more natural content,
such as moving pictures,'' said Motorola's Strowbridge. ''Instead
of only seeing the scores, you'll be able to watch the goals.''
Next year, Japan will introduce the first third-generation
cellular network based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access,
or WCDMA, technology. Europe will follow suit shortly after. NTT
Mobile Communications Inc. already a year ago started the i-mode
wireless Internet service in Japan, a rival to WAP.
In the U.S., there will also be a standard called CDMA2000,
developed by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. That's because North
America supports three different current systems -- Time Division
Multiple Access, or TDMA, Global System for Mobile communication,
or GSM, and CDMA. Europe is unified by GSM, while Japan has its
own standard called Personal Digital Cellular, or PDC.
Finland, the home of Nokia and one of the nations with the
highest rates of cellular phone and Internet users in the world,
last March awarded four licenses to offer third-generation
wireless services on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications
System, or UMTS. The system is based on WCDMA technology.
U.K. Battleground
Thirteen bidders, including Telefonica SA of Spain and
Clinton, Mississippi-based MCI Worldcom Inc., have each paid a 500
million-pound ($803 million) deposit to bid for one of five
licenses the U.K. is scheduled to auction off next month.
By the time for next year's Cebit fair, there will be at
least 80 licenses to offer UMTS services, said Torbjoern Nilsson,
Ericsson's head of marketing and strategic business development,
at a recent analysts' meeting.
''Today's WAP phones herald what's to come,'' said Carlstroem
at Handelsbanken. ''Even if not all operators believe in wireless
data, they're driven by fear that they might lose out.'' |
