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To: w molloy who wrote (18584)	11/19/1998 4:36:00 PM
From: bananawind	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

w...all...thanks for the reminder re small data size. Here is a not so pleasant application idea... Wireless spam is on the way By Meg McGinity SOME DAY SOON you'll be driving or walking down the street and your car phone or cell phone or pocket computer will receive a message that says: "You are three blocks from a BurgerBoy restaurant." You might call it "wireless spam." Or you might consider it to be a valuable new service. But whatever you call it, it will soon be technically possible to send geographically-targeted, unsolicited commercial messages to wireless devices. "It's a new age," said David Dines, senior manager of networking technology at consulting firm Aberdeen Group (Boston). "Some people may say: 'If I wanted this, I would have asked for it.' Others may see it as a convenience." ……………………………………………………… Geoworks Corp. believes it can help wireless carriers turn the location-finding capabilities that will soon be inherent in most wireless networks into profitable services. ……………………………………………………… Three trends are combining to make this possible. Wireless service providers are required to implement technology to make it possible to locate customers who make emergency 911 calls in order to help police and firefighters respond more quickly to trouble calls. A growing number of wireless devices are now sporting screens that can display messages and other information. And software vendors now are introducing applications that take advantage of those two developments to send -- among other things -- a new kind of targeted advertising message. One major reason people buy wireless phones is safety. Nearly 25 percent of new wireless customers say they bought their phones for security reasons, according to market researcher The Yankee Group (Boston). To enhance the security benefits of wireless phones, service providers are now required to provide the cell site location of anybody who makes an emergency 911 to police or fire officials. Within three years, wireless service providers will be required to determine where that call originated from within 400 feet of its starting point. In most cases, new technical capabilities opens the door for new revenue-generating services. Geoworks Corp. (Alamada, Calif.) believes it can help wireless carriers turn the location-finding capabilities that will soon be inherent in most wireless networks into profitable services. Geoworks, a maker of wireless software, Tuesday introduced its Interactive+ software, which promises to increase the functionality of wireless phones. The software uses the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and supports HTML, an Internet markup language, to "push" information like stock quotes and weather conditions to a wireless device. The software is designed to let service providers offer an easy-to-use messaging inbox and other services like caller ID. But it also can be used for branding, promotional and advertising message delivery, according to product manager Michael Eggers. In addition, since service providers will know the location of the user, the software could then use that information to display special invitations and incentives that encourage users to patronize businesses or services in the vicinity. For instance, if a customer is in a certain cell site, a message could be sent informing that user that there is a McDonald's within the immediate area. The revenue generated through these services could be used to help offset the cost of implementing the location-finding technology in service provider networks. While it may be a few years before such services are implemented, service providers must overcome a few problems first. The most important is to ensure that such a service would not disrupt an emergency 911 call. Wireless carriers probably will need to reserve bandwidth to process emergency calls. On top of that, carriers will need to figure out how to handle objections to "wireless spam" from consumer groups and customers who don't want advertising to follow them around as they travel -- even geographically-targeted advertising.

To: w molloy who wrote (18584)	11/19/1998 4:50:00 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

w. Re: CDPD I thik CDPD is a great service (or should I say concept). I don't know about it's the history, but now, I think it is competitively priced. The unlimited data is something like $30 / month. The problem is that there are very few devices that can use CDPD. If you had pdQ like device with CDPD when CDPD started, it would have been popular. Those AT&T phones with like 3 lines by 12 characters are very limited. I don't know how programmable they are. Also, CDPD (at least in my eyes) is a sinking ship. The handsets are analog, where air time is more expensive, even though the data is cheap. And you know it will be dumped sooner than later. Many (if not all) the applications mentioned are have one thing in common, small data size That's why I don't understand all the rush to high bandwidth. As I mentioned here earlier, 14.4K packet data is all you need for 95% of wireless data apps running on pdQ like devices. Higher bit rate is justified for people who want to use the CDMA handset as a modem for their laptops to browse the Web. You don't even need TCP/IP. Browser access can be provided by UDP. A lot of the other services can be provided by SMS. I thought TCP/IP provides some sort of error checking, while UDP does not (but my knwledge of networking is limited) BTW, what is SMS? Joe