Whatever, whenever, wherever

For the fast-growing Internet and wireless worlds to make their expected convergence successful within the next year, carriers' networks must be ready to handle packet-based data. They also must realize that the Internet is big and the phone is not. Nextel hopes this philosophy is reflected in its carefully crafted wireless Internet offering for business customers.

With Phone.com's UP.Link Server in its network and UP.Browser microbrowsers in its Internet-enabled phones, Nextel's data-ready network is expected to deliver Nextel Online, a packetized voice and data service that does not required dial-up for data. The offering - a four-in-one wireless business communication tool - integrates wireless Internet service, digital two-way radio service, digital cellular service and text or numeric paging.

Because the company's three-in-one service was a good play, Nextel added wireless data to the offering instead of marketing it separately, said Greg Santoro, vice president of Web-based services for Nextel. Beginning this summer, business customers can take more with them when they leave the office. "We don't intend to replace the desktop but to extend individual productivity outside the office," Santoro said. "Nextel's business is based on a business-market focus, and we plan to continue in this area."

Last summer, Nextel worked with Phone.com to include microbrowsers in about 2 million of its phones. Now customers with Internet-enabled phones can sign up for unlimited access to online content.

Customers also will be able to create their own personalized Web portals, accessible by a PC or Internet-capable phone, using the myNextel.com Web portals, which features business news and information from MSNBC. The carrier's offering will cost $14.95 per month for access to Web sites accessible from the carrier's Web site. It will cost $19.95 to have access to other Wireless Application Protocol-enabled Web sites.

There is great potential for combining the Internet and wireless. But carriers must understand that people will use wireless Internet information differently than they do when using the computer, said John Davison, principal analyst for Ovum's new media group.

"It is more complex than taking two fast-growing areas like the Internet and wireless and putting them together," he said.

But wireless e-commerce promises to be big. Ovum predicts that by the end of 2005, it will have grown to attract 500 million users worldwide (see figure). "E-commerce is another fundamental mechanism by which the wireless Internet is positioned to drive value to the customers," Santoro said.

Although E-commerce can be considered a main driver for the wireless Internet, other applications have yet to be realized, said Ben Linder, vice president of marketing for Phone.com.

"The magic of the technology that no one has to decide ahead of time what [the wireless Internet] will be used for," Linder said. "There is an incredible opportunity for carriers to establish new services on top of their networks."