The Net unplugged

Wireless technology promises to extend the reach of the Internet and corporate intranets to almost anywhere. But as many high-tech start-up firms have discovered, the fact that something is technically feasible does not necessarily mean it has a market. Are there legitimate reasons to cut the cord in cyberspace, or is the wireless industry just trying to grab onto the Internet's coattails?

Proponents claim that wireless data will enhance field service, automate field sales, enable firms to track their mobile assets, and provide business travelers with access to time- and location-sensitive data. No one doubts the value of such things. What has been lacking, however, is the right solution at the right price.

The wireless data industry deserves most-but not all-of the blame. Poor coverage, low throughput, high latency, limited battery life, arcane protocols and high prices are hardly ingredients for success. But progress is being made in each of these areas.

The other hindrance has gone largely unnoticed. Before the Internet, there was no simple, powerful and widely accepted way of putting information on-line. All too often, creating wireless data solutions has meant developing custom software.

Now, the Internet has emerged as the de facto standard. Almost overnight, a plethora of inexpensive and easy-to-use electronic publishing tools have appeared on the market.

Cordless in Cyberville Giving mobile users access to the Internet is not the only focus of the data industry. There are fixed wireless applications, applications for pushing data out from the Internet to mobile users, and applications for accessing mobile data via the Internet (Table 1). Some important if rather subtle differences exist between making data available to users and pushing it out to them.

Mobile Internet access helps users apply information in the field. For awhile, corporate intranet applications will probably dominate mobile access. Field workers will be able to pull down work orders, check product inventory, enter sales orders and obtain technical information.

The solution getting the most attention right now is the UP.Link software platform developed by Unwired Planet. UP.Link consists of the UP.Browser client software, which may reside in a wireless phone, two-way pager or hand-held PC, and the "server" piece-Internet or intranet pages written in the hand-held device markup language (Figure 1).

Pacific Communications Sciences Inc., Mitsubishi and Samsung are manufacturing phones incorporating the UP.Browser; Motorola, Qualcomm and Uniden have also established relationships with Unwired Planet. Currently, the UP.Browser can be used with the PocketNet Phone service offered by AT&T Wireless Services. Because the PocketNet Phone service uses AT&T's cellular digital packet data (CDPD) network, it only works with phones incorporating CDPD modems.

In the future, companies like Qualcomm will integrate the UP.Browser in their standard digital handsets; special radio modems will not be needed. The beauty of this approach is that every digital cellular and personal communication services subscriber eventually will be equipped for wireless Internet access.

The UP.Link software platform provides quick access to Internet- and intranet- based information and e-mail from a wireless phone with a minimum of four-line text display and two softkeys. Users can enter numerals, letters, punctuation and other symbols with the telephone keypad.

Individual letters are selected by pressing the appropriate three-letter key in rapid succession. For example, to select "C" the user presses the "ABC" key three times. To select "E," the user presses the "DEF" key twice.

Such applications are just beginning to emerge. For example, AT&T Wireless is offering access to a white pages service. The user enters the person's last name, first name and-if known-city and state. If a match is found, the handset will display the person's complete address and phone number.

Similarly, the user can access recent stock prices. Private intranet applications may be used to provide mobile workers with access to databases, unassigned work orders, technical bulletins that can be redirected to the nearest fax machine, real estate listings and airline flight information.

Other firms are pursuing a different approach to mobile Internet access. AllPen Software has developed a text-only browser for Apple Computer's Newton personal digital assistant. RadioMail Corp. has introduced the RadioWeb wireless Web delivery service that enables subscribers to retrieve the text version of any Web page. Both the request and results are sent in e-mail message format.

The goal of fixed wireless connectivity, in contrast, is to reduce the cost and time to provision Internet access. Wireless may be used to avoid the long waiting periods for phone lines-sometimes exceeding one year-that plague users in developing countries.

But developed countries also have the need to access the Internet from public parks, street kiosks and shopping malls. And fixed, broadband wireless systems promise to one day deliver affordable, high-speed Internet access to small businesses and individuals.

Wireless may also be used as an alerting mechanism, pushing information out to mobile users. For conventional wireline Internet access, the user dials into an Internet service provider to access information. In the wireless alerting paradigm, updated information is published and then transmitted to the subscriber; it may appear as a short message on a handset or as a running banner on the screen of a desktop PC. Therefore, instead of the user having to log on for updates, new information is pushed out as it becomes available.

New York-based Ex Machina is a pioneer in wireless alerting. The firm's AirMedia Live! package integrates desktop PCs in the home and office with two-way paging.

Using a pyramid-shaped external receiver, AirMedia Live! provides a continuous back channel to the Internet to broadcast stock prices, news and other information as it is published. Each headline or news item includes its uniform resource locator (URL) to which the user can connect for more details.

Fixed users can also access mobile subscribers and information collected from mobile data networks via the Internet. For example, users can send messages to PageNet subscribers who carry alphanumeric pagers from its Web site at www.pagenet.com.

Users can also transmit messages containing sender-customized responses to SkyTel 2-Way subscribers via www.skytel.com. The sender enters the SkyTel 2-Way subscriber's mailbox ID number-an alphanumeric message of up to 240 characters-an e-mail address to which the response is automatically directed, and one of nine brief custom responses.

CellPort Labs of Boulder, Colo., has developed a more specialized tool for fleet management and fixed telemetry applications called MobileWeb. MobileWeb facilitates Internet and intranet access to mobile or fixed devices. For example, a truck dispatch center can monitor each vehicle's engine condition, location and security alarms. Or a vending service can determine which of its machines has run out of items or change, or if one has ceased to operate properly.

United Parcel Service and Federal Express permit customers to track packages and dispatch couriers from their Web sites (www.ups.com and www.fedex.com, respectively). The couriers' mobile data networks gather package delivery information and forward it to servers via the Internet. When a user dispatches a courier via the Net, the courier radios the address and other information to the appropriate truck.

Wireless Internet technologies Wireless Internet access does not require new technology, it requires putting together existing or emerging technologies in new ways. A variety of wireless technologies are being exploited for Internet access, including narrowband, broadband, fixed and mobile. Also available are single-purpose applications designed for data-only and multipurpose networks supporting voice, data and fax.

CDPD was designed to leverage cellular telephone's infrastructure and radio spectrum. Because it is Internet protocol-based and runs 19.2 kb/s full-duplex, CDPD presents a friendly development environment for wireless Internet and intranet applications.

However, CDPD's rollout has been slower than promised, and the technology has enjoyed only limited support among cellular carriers. The major CDPD carriers are AT&T Wireless Services, GTE Wireless (formerly GTE Mobilenet), Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile and Ameritech.

According to the CDPD Forum, service is now available in 40 of the U.S.' top 50 metropolitan statistical areas, and 10 carrier interconnectivity agreements are in place. But seamless nationwide service is not a reality yet, and several cities provide only "core" service.

Although CDPD is priced more aggressively than competing services-including Datatac from Ardis and Mobitex from RAM Mobile Data-at 2¢ a kilobyte, it is still prohibitively expensive for standard Web browsing.

A new variant, circuit-switched CDPD, promises to effectively expand CDPD's coverage to anywhere analog cellular service exists. And a number of carriers have installed special modem pools to facilitate dial-up modem access.

The nice thing about analog cellular is that it permits users to employ familiar, off-the-shelf communications software in conjunction with cellular-enabled modems. Once connected, mobile users can do most of the things desktop users can do such as browse the Web and send and receive e-mail. Although circuit-switched analog cellular does not charge by the packet, air time charges are still fairly hefty-usually more than 50¢ a minute for those operating away from their home network.

Circuit-switched analog cellular data solutions have steadily improved over the last few years. Cellular-enabled PCMCIA card plug-in modems enable users to directly connect to hand-held phones.

Special modem protocols-such as Microcom's MNP 10, Rockwell's MNP 10EC and Paradyne's ETC2 QuickConnect-help overcome cellular channel impairments. Users can access cellular modem pools by simply appending *DATA to the number being dialed.

Both CDPD and circuit-switched analog cellular will soon face competition from data services offered over digital cellular and PCS networks. The IS-95 standard for CDMA promises some interesting capabilities, including simultaneous voice and packet data service, as well as "bandwidth-on-demand" services.

For example, CDMA will be able to support asymmetrical data calls consisting of a 9.6 kb/s uplink and a 64 kb/s shared downlink. Because the high-speed downlink is shared, the service should cost no more than an ordinary voice call. This type of asymmetrical data connection is a good fit for Web browsing, which usually involves brief upstream requests followed by voluminous downstream transmissions.

The U.S. version of time division multiple access (TDMA)-also known as D-AMPS or IS-136-also promises data services, but it suffers from the fact that its largest supporter, AT&T Wireless, is focusing on CDPD as its data solution. As with CDMA, D-AMPS phones should eventually have built-in data support.

Meanwhile, GSM, the Pan-European digital wireless standard, has found its way into the U.S. market via the new PCS networks at 1.9 GHz. Currently, the PCS version of GSM is called PCS 1900.

Circuit-switched data services have been defined for GSM, and packet-switched services are under development. While GSM's standard circuit-switched data service runs 9.6 kb/s asynchronously, Ericsson has demonstrated speeds up to 70 kb/s using concatenated channels. The GSM industry is also developing a high-speed, circuit-switched data service that will run 14.4 kb/s and incorporate V.42bis data compression to deliver even higher throughput.

While CDMA data services are not yet available, GSM's 9.6 kb/s circuit-switched data service is ready to roll. Unfortunately, it currently requires an expensive PCMCIA PC card data adapter, available from Nokia for more than $1000. CDMA vendor Qualcomm promises that its circuit-switched data service, in contrast, will permit users to connect their cellular and PCS handsets directly to a notebook computer's serial port.

All three digital cellular technologies-TDMA, CDMA and PCS 1900-now offer short message service (SMS). Handling messages up to a few hundred bytes in length, SMS is not much different from the new two-way paging service offered by SkyTel 2-Way.

Several firms have developed fixed wireless communication links that operate in the unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands at 900, 2400 and 5800 MHz. These systems run up to 10 Mb/s at distances up to 10 miles. For example, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tetherless Access Ltd. provides IP-based wireless networks primarily for use in rural areas and developing countries.

ISM band solutions also exist for portable access inside buildings and on campuses. Los Gatos, Calif.-based Metricom offers its Ricochet wireless data service primarily on university and corporate campuses at low, flat monthly rates-around $29.95 a month for unlimited usage (Figure 2). Ricochet is a mesh network that delivers throughput comparable to a 28.8 kb/s dial-up modem.

Wireless Internet access is a major focus of Metricom's Ricochet business. Its portable radio modems incorporate IP support using point-to-point protocol. So far, Metricom has networks operating in the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, as well as 10 university campuses, 100 schools and two corporate campuses-Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. The Washington network is a joint venture with the PepData subsidiary of Potomac Electric Power Co.

Looming competition But the ISM bands may soon face competition. Early this year, the Federal Communications Commission set aside 300 MHz of spectrum for the unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) band. The U-NII band is located from 5.15 to 5.35 GHz, which is restricted to indoor use, and from 5.725 to 5.825 GHz, which may be used both indoors and outdoors.

The U-NII band was created specifically for Internet access. It also requires the use of a "listen-before-talk" radio protocol intended to permit devices from different vendors to share the spectrum-even though different brands may not be able to talk to each other.

But while the U-NII band contains plenty of spectrum, 5 GHz radio components are fairly expensive. It remains to be seen whether the U-NII will attract as many products as the 900 and 2400 MHz ISM bands.

Several new satellite systems-for both mobile and fixed services-promise to extend the reach of the Internet and corporate intranets. For example, Orbitel Sciences' Orbcomm subsidiary has introduced a global, two-way messaging service.

Orbcomm can be used to send and receive e-mail, receive alerts and access specific information from remote locations. Indeed, the firm describes its service as "Internet everywhere." While it is not suitable for ordinary Web browsing, Orbcomm's service would probably be a good fit for applications using Unwired Planet's UP.Link software platform.

Another intriguing satellite venture is Teledesic. Once fully-constructed, Teledesic will offer advanced telecommunications services worldwide. However, for political reasons it is primarily targeted at users in rural and remote areas.

Teledesic can easily handle Web browsing because it will provide links at speeds up to 2 Mb/s. Teledesic's backers, including software mogul Bill Gates and cellular tycoon Craig McCaw, hope to commence service in 2001.

The 28 GHz local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) technology could make high-speed communications more affordable and ubiquitous in U.S. cities, but LMDS licenses have not yet been put up for auction. Meanwhile, the 2 GHz multichannel multipoint distribution service, also known as wireless cable, has already entered the wireless Internet market. CAI Wireless Systems of Albany, N.Y., offers downstream Internet service at 10 Mb/s, but it must be used in conjunction with an upstream dial-up link.

What's next? Wireless will stimulate the growth of time- and location-sensitive access to the Internet and intranets. Perhaps the ultimate application will permit users with hand-held PCs or in-dash terminals to access local maps with links to historic sites, local transportation and retail establishments.

If this sounds far-fetched, think about all the local businesses and organizations that already have Web pages. In many communities, users can access local government, schools, churches, bus services, real estate brokers and other businesses via the Web.

Mobile access will encourage more efficient use of the Internet. Mobile users cannot wait for lengthy downloads and search through voluminous information. Many will access the Internet from hand-held devices with limited storage and display capability. The low throughput and high latency of most wireless networks is not a show-stopper for those seeking specific bytes of information.

Wireless will make it practical to use the Internet from virtually anywhere, including boats, automobiles, airplanes, parks and sidewalks. It is very likely that content targeted at mobile and remote users will grow-particularly content intended for access from cellular and PCS handsets and pagers.

The flip side to all of this is that cellular, PCS and paging carriers will be required to offer access to Internet- and intranet-based information. Once a carrier throws in up-to-the-minute sports scores, stock prices, weather forecasts and traffic conditions, competing carriers will have to follow suit. Indeed, the outcome of the looming cellular/PCS market battle may be determined more by features than pricing.

The Internet has created a standard for publishing information electronically. Inadvertently, it has solved one of wireless data's most daunting problems. Now wireless carriers need to provide efficient and reliable access to the Internet. There is mounting evidence that within just a few years, all pagers and mobile phones will have some kind of access to the Internet.

But we will know that wireless Internet access has succeeded when millions of paging and mobile telephone subscribers routinely access the Net without even knowing it.

Ira Brodsky is President of Datacomm Research, Wilmette, Ill.