Marden/Jim... Wi-Lan was mentioned recently in Business Week.
Regards,
Phil
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Business Week: May 22, 2000
Department: International -- Cover Story: Wireless in Cyberspace
Headline: Sprint's a Web Evangelist (int'l edition)
Deck: It's pouring money into a U.S. wireless Net system-but others are chasing
Byline: By Neil Gross in New York
Last July, Ronald B. Kuppersmith and his father drove from Texas to Washington State with a Sprint PCS phone in the car. The phone worked fine from Houston to Dallas, then fell silent until they hit Colorado Springs, Colo. It was on-again, off-again for the rest of the trip.
Sprint Corp. has since filled some of the gaps in that route. But connecting voice calls is child's play compared to rolling out a nationwide wireless Internet service. For Sprint, that's a top priority today--and people like Kuppersmith have an interesting role to play. The ear, nose, and throat specialist at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle is field-testing a batch of wireless medical applications that are exactly the type of thing that could drive the wireless Net.
ACUTELY AWARE. At night or on weekends, when the 31-year-old doctor is on call, he may get beeped by a dozen patients--some of whom he has never met. What he craves is a phone or handheld computer that will access a Web site where the patients' records are stored. With a few simple clicks on the keypad, this dream machine would scan a patient's history, spot potential drug conflicts before Kuppersmith prescribes anything new, and review what drugs fit the formulary of that patient's medical plan. With just one more click, Kuppersmith says, the system could fax the prescription to a pharmacist and alert the patient when it was filled.
As it happens, Data Critical Corp. in Bothell, Wash., began testing such a system in April with Sprint PCS, and Kuppersmith is among the testers. "Wireless access to records will be the most significant advance in medicine since the stethoscope," he declares. "Most people don't realize what's about to hit them."
Sprint PCS is acutely aware of what's coming. Of the major U.S. cellular services, it has been the most aggressive evangelist for the mobile Internet. The company claims to have 2.7 million Web-enabled handsets on its network and 300,000 active subscribers to its Net services.
That's a drop in the bucket by Internet standards--but Sprint has big dreams. The company spent $693 million in the first quarter of this year to extend its capacity and geographical reach. For all of 2000, capital spending could approach $3 billion. Rivals such as Verizon, which like Sprint use a technology called CDMA, could end up spending similar sums, bringing the wireless future closer to home.
The payback will come in bits and pieces. Long term, some of the fattest rewards may come from wireless business applications, including messaging and database access behind the fire wall. In a trial this summer, IBM execs will start accessing corporate directories and other info from Sprint PCS phones. Later, the two companies may jointly market similar applications to IBM's well- heeled corporate clients.
CLICKABLE ICON. In the consumer market, Sprint PCS President Andrew J. Sukawaty is banking on multiple revenue streams. There's a $10 monthly plan, in addition to about $30 for regular voice service that gives subscribers Net access. When customers use the phones to purchase goods on Web sites, Sprint may collect transaction fees from the vendors. There could also be some advertising revenues, if mobile surfers tolerate the ads. And Sprint is charging "slotting fees" from companies such as Amazon.com, Yahoo!, and Bloomberg that choose to place a clickable icon on a phone's starting screen. "You can compare our approach with America Online or Yahoo," says Sukawaty.
Meanwhile, researchers at equipment makers such as Lucent Technologies, Motorola, and Nortel Networks are spawning a next generation of wireless concepts, which may look quite different from today's cellular networks. Despite what promoters of souped-up phones may say, cell phones probably won't be good vehicles for heavy-duty Web-browsing or watching movies. Fortunately, people on the go who require the fastest Net speeds won't be in moving vehicles or strolling down busy streets. They'll be seated--maybe in a restaurant, or on a park bench--and giving their full attention to ample color displays on some sort of notebook or videopad. This will be possible thanks to wireless local-area networks, or LANs--which will be far more powerful than the wireless LANs that are slowly spreading through corporate offices. The LAN will become basic infrastructure in parks, sports stadiums, airports, train stations, and restaurants. Each contained area will have its own fat pipe onto the Net, boasting far greater capacity than cellular services can make available.
When you enter one of these spaces, your notebook or palm device will automatically make contact with the wireless LAN, with speeds ranging upwards of 20 megabits per second. The administrator would be the park or the restaurant, not a cellular service provider. "You'll pay for your hamburger and add 10 cents for the fast connection," posits Hatim Zaghloul, CEO of a Canadian company called Wi-LAN Inc., which holds key patents on ultrafast LANs.
In fact, a precursor to this scheme is already spreading in homes, whisking away today's spaghetti of cables and wires dangling from every PC, printer, television, and speaker. The fat pipe, in this case, could be your coaxial TV cable. But instead of connecting to your PC, it might connect to a special box that radiates wireless Internet access throughout the home.
Apple Computer is spearheading this trend. Every computer it ships today contains an antenna and a slot for a $99 wireless Internet card that connects to your phone line or cable. The PC then becomes a wireless hub for other devices in the home. About 15% of all new Apple customers are springing for the card, the company says. That's bringing a bonanza to parts suppliers such as Philips Semiconductors, which saw sales of wireless chips soar 1,000% last year. And this whole quadrant of the wireless map could get an additional jolt if the world moved to a new wireless standard called Bluetooth. The technology allows cell phones and other devices to communicate with-- and control--a new generation of cordless TVs, stereo sets, and other appliances in the home.
THROWING MONEY. With Bluetooth, handsets and other appliances could go through radical changes. "Why do you really need a phone in your hand?" asks Iain Gillott, a telecom vice-president at International Data Corp. The functions of the phone could migrate to a cordless Bluetooth earpiece of some colorful design, which you activate by voice, he says. The rest of the handset is just a radio in your belt.
Startups that want to explore these and other concepts won't find themselves short of cash. Info-tech giants like IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco Systems are throwing money at wireless technology and applications, and new sources of venture capital are mushrooming. In March, 10 veterans from Microsoft Corp. and Craig O. McCaw's earlier ventures--along with backers at Qualcomm, Softbank, and others--set up a holding company called Ignition, which is funneling $140 million into wireless Internet ventures.
If the whole paradigm for mobile computing is thrown wide open, and there's plenty of venture capital for new ideas, the early advantages enjoyed by Sprint, Qualcomm, or Nokia Group could prove ephemeral. "The mobile Net is at such an early stage," says Crispin Vicars, director of mobile services at Yankee Group Research in Boston. "How do you access content? What's the best way to present mobile e-commerce?"
That will be for the companies to sort out. Users just want to get their hands on the services. "Nobody can keep track of all the details we're expected to remember these days," says Kuppersmith, the otolaryngologist. "That's what computers are supposed to do, and with the wireless Net, we can let them do it." |
