Future for cell phones in US? Interesting article...
June 3, 1999
Europe's Cell Phones Reach Out,
Offer Movable Feast of Services
By GAUTAM NAIK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In Finland, customers of Sonera Ltd. can pay for a car wash, a parking
space or even a vending-machine soda by placing a call from their mobile
phones. The charge appears later on their phone bill.
In France, users can access flight arrival and departure schedules and
traffic information on their mobile phones, thanks to a service from Alcatel
SA, French mobile operator SFR and Phone.com Inc. of California. In the
U.K., wireless operator Cellnet and Motorola Inc. are testing a service
that twice a week transmits updates on bank balances and a summary of
recent transactions to users' cell phones.
"It flashes on my phone at 8:30 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday," says
Louise Page, an occupational therapist in Sheffield, England. "There aren't
any surprises on my statements, and I can budget accordingly," she adds.
This is the future of cellular phones in the U.S., already on display in
Europe. The Continent has long maintained a lead in wireless technology
largely because it has only one digital standard. So manufacturers can
introduce new phone models and have a ready potential market of 300
million Europeans. The U.S., by contrast, has a hodge-podge of
incompatible digital standards. And while fixed phone lines are expensive
in Europe, digital wireless services are cheap, reliable and well-suited to
Europeans frequently on the move.
Italy is poised to have one of the
most advanced wireless
technologies, thanks to a host of
new services being offered by
Omnitel, the second-largest Italian
mobile-phone operator. Starting
later this month, Omnitel customers
will be able to speak conversational
phrases into their cell phones such as
Ho fame ("I'm hungry"), and a
software-generated voice will
respond, Lei cerca un ristorante?
("Are you looking for a restaurant?") The system will continue to ask more
questions about the user's preferences until it is able to suggest, say, a
cheap, Greek restaurant in downtown Milan.
'Virtual Community'
Customers can also use Omnitel's speech-recognition system to ask for the
latest stock quotes, at a cost of about 30 cents each. Other features will
allow them to retrieve their bank balances and hear the latest news and
weather. Borrowing an idea from the Internet, Omnitel has even set up a
"virtual community" where like-minded subscribers can gab about music or
soccer.
So far, U.S. consumers have yet to embrace even the limited data service
available on cellular phones. Subscribers of AT&T Corp.'s PocketNet
cellular service in the U.S. can retrieve news, weather and other
information, but the service is pricey and hasn't proved wildly popular.
Likewise, customers of Sprint PCS can receive messages up to 100
characters long, but not send them. And more futuristic services, such as
the ability of a phone to translate e-mail into speech, are far from
widespread commercial launch. "We've done some experiments from text
to speech," says Terry Yu, a vice president at Sprint PCS. "But the jury's
still out."
The holy grail of operators around the world is to let cell-phone users
retrieve information directly from the Internet instead of from specially
created databases. Five years from now, a new generation of phones will
even allow users to download pictures off the Web, and do
videoconferencing while on the move. Mobile phones today aren't
sophisticated enough to do so, but Nokia Corp. estimates that up to 15%
of those sold by the end of next year will be Internet-capable. Over the
next five years, its rival Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson says, some 200 million
people around the globe will use mobile phones to surf the Web.
The eagerly awaited technology helping
to make that possible is called WAP,
for Wireless Application Protocol.
WAP phones will be menu-driven, so
users won't have to rely on a tiny
keypad. The technology also makes it
possible for Web sites to be seen on
the cell-phone display. And because
the new standard works on any digital
network, virtually any software
provider -- not just a Nokia or
Motorola -- can dream up new
WAP-based services. "It opens up the
service to other software providers,
like Microsoft," says Tom Trinner, director of product strategy at AT&T
Wireless, which plans to sell WAP phones in the U.S. this fall.
Italy's Omnitel is one of the first operators planning to offer WAP phones.
The screens will be up to 80% larger than previous models, making it
easier to peruse sports scores or other data. High-powered handsets
could make it a snap to send e-mail from a speeding car. And as
technology improves, the phones will have a permanent link to the Internet.
Deducting Charges
In still another innovation, Omnitel's information services can be accessed
from a personal computer as well as a cell phone, for a fee. A customer
simply buys a card -- similar to a prepaid phone card -- and uses its PIN
code to sign on to Omnitel's Web site. As the service is used, charges are
deducted from the card.
It might sound odd that all this is being pioneered in Italy, a country known
more for design innovation than cutting-edge technology. But Omnitel is
known for savvy marketing. It was the first operator to eliminate monthly
fees, and one of the first to eliminate handset subsidies. Rivals copied both
moves.
Omnitel has invested $60 million in the project, and recruited a raft of
heavyweights: Microsoft Corp. for the software, Oracle Corp. for the
database expertise and Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands for the
voice-recognition system. For now, that system can recognize and speak
only Italian, but it can be expanded.
Unicredito Italiano SpA, a big Italian bank, says it will provide cell-phone
banking to Omnitel customers. By year end, customers will be able to
draw money from their checking accounts and immediately use it to buy
shares -- all via the cell phone.
Riunione Adriatica di Sicurta SpA, a big insurance company that sells
policies over the Web, will now do the same over Omnitel's network. In
the second half of this year alone, Omnitel expects 60 million information
requests for its various services. |
