Finding fast food faster

I'm always amused by the examples and analogies offered to try to demonstrate how useful mobile data is going to be when the networks, standards and applications finally come together. Somehow the ones that have taken the market by storm over the past several years - everything from vending machine monitoring to vehicle fleet tracking - have never seemed that sexy.

At Telecom 99 in Geneva last week, a vendor pushing a GSM system upgrade said that it will allow users with mobile handheld devices "to find the nearest Chinese restaurant." It's that kind of offering that makes me wonder how exciting the not-so-early days of mobile data are really going to be, even after all this time.

Another interesting consideration is whether the application developers may be as much to blame as the technology platform suppliers - and the natural limitations of spectrum - for how long it is taking to find success in wireless data. More likely, it's a combination of both.

This particular vendor meant, of course, that this upgrade on the path to full-fledged third generation wireless networks - the so-called 2.5G step in the evolutionary process - would let service providers offer tracking and location-based services that could potentially make finding places much easier for all of us. (Provided we don't crash the car or get hit by a bus while we're micro-surfing on our mobiles.)

But I'm still not convinced that those kinds of services will be popular enough among high-volume business users to create the profit margins service providers require. In other words, I doubt applications such as that one are going to serve as the catalyst that launches mobile data out of the doldrums.

Nevertheless, the mid-sized city that Telecom 99 organizers were calling a show floor last week was the temporary residence for dozens of network equipment and software manufacturers showing off their progress in helping to make the Internet and other data applications just a little more mobile.

Large wireless network suppliers such as Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Ericsson and Alcatel were discussing some aspect of their varying approaches to 3G, whether it was based on CDMA, TDMA, GSM or some combination of them.

There was also much discussion of the Wireless Application Protocol, the microbrowser platform that most of the early device and applications developers have made their developmental starting point.

Even after several years, ongoing debates and endless trade show hype about the different forms and functions that 3G mobile might ultimately take, there are still no tangible results to point to as evidence of its potential success.

There has been progress - radio system developments, show floor demos, interesting application theories and lots of money pumped into R&D - but no service provider has been able to say that it is offering interesting mobile data applications on its network and, more important, that high-volume customers are requesting it in droves.

Even if there had been much actual network success to date, I wonder what the applications would have looked like. Would they be personal organizers, stock tickers, sports scoreboards or other offerings that none of us could ever live without?

It's becoming increasingly clear that the interim steps on the migratory road to 3G may not be capable of carrying applications of much interest to anyone but the developers.

I've never been entirely convinced that the mobile handset is the right format for anything beyond text messaging. A wireless palmtop computing device with a word processing system, an e-mail function and maybe the capability to download text from the Internet or an intranet would be handy, but will those kinds of utilitarian applications spark enough traffic on wireless networks to warrant the investment in 3G?

Because network technology developments always seem to have a way of righting themselves even from the most perilous positions, I'm sure that time will eventually prove my cynical view wrong. In the meantime, get ready, because the revolution is almost here.

Soon, the arduous days of flipping through phone books or dialing 411 when we have a hankering for kung pao chicken will be behind us.