Data weighs in: Sprint PCS, IBM enhance Wireless Web

To enhance the Wireless Web Connection it launched in September, Sprint PCS is working with IBM to develop wireless business applications and services for business people on the go. The companies will offer real-time access to corporate intranet information on the display of Internet-ready wireless phones.

Expected next year, the new services will allow consumers to use Sprint PCS' Wireless Web offering to send and receive corporate e-mail. They also will have access to schedules, contacts and other personalized business applications. Sprint PCS has a similar relationship with the Microsoft- and Qualcomm-backed Wireless Knowledge, a company designed to offer Internet access to mobile users.

"We believe it is important to see that this is a robust market. The corporate connection space is massive and there is room for quite a few players," said John Yuzdepski, vice president of product management and development for Sprint PCS. "There are analogies with Wireless Knowledge, but the focus is different."

While the Wireless Knowledge offering has more of a Microsoft Exchange bent, the service resulting from the IBM and Sprint PCS collaboration will involve other programs such as Lotus Notes. A wireless data offering that can appeal to various programs' users will better position the carrier's offering.

"It sounds like an exact complement with Wireless Knowledge since it has worked with Exchange only," said Barney Dewey, a consultant with the Andrew Seybold Group. However, he remains skeptical about the value wireless data will hold on the devices available today. "As the phone gets smaller, people will not want more than just a short message," he said. Another concern is in-building coverage and what carriers can do about it, Dewey said.

When it first launched the Wireless Web service, Sprint PCS customers could connect to a corporate intranet or Internet site via a cable to a laptop, personal digital assistant or other hand-held computing device and use a PCS phone in place of a modem. Now Sprint PCS intends to offer a completely wireless data solution.

IBM plans to provide extensions to its existing enterprise software products that will allow wireless data networks to deliver mission-critical data and transactions to and from various devices.

"We view this development as an extension of what we have been talking about in terms of e-business," said Jon Prial, director of marketing for IBM's pervasive computing unit. "Part of our strategy is not to compete with customers. In a pervasive world, it is a mutual benefit to companies if they work together."