Wildfire spreads to the network >BY DAN O'SHEA, Technology Editor

For the newest generation of wireless carriers, the mantra has become clear: Enhanced services will mean enhanced revenues.

With that in mind, Wildfire Communications, an old hand at enhanced services and developer of the successful Wildfire Electronic Assistant, is redirecting its core product and corporate strategy at the public network marketplace.

The company has unveiled Network Wildfire, a network-based version of the Electronic Assistant that has appealed mostly to high-end business users. Network Wildfire consists of a Pentium processor platform that is installed at a mobile switching center and connects to the SS7 public network signaling architecture, according to Bill Warner, chairman and founder of Wildfire Communications.

The platform is supported by Oracle databases and supplies users with a wealth of enhanced services that are driven by the product's speech recognition interface, he said. The 3-year-old Electronic Assistant has become widely known for this interface, which learns voices and numbers quickly and drops bothersome usage prompts after users learn them.

Personal communication services carrier Pacific Bell Mobile Services, which has long been interested in the product, is now testing it in San Diego. An unnamed U.K. PCS carrier also will test the product this quarter.

"Network Wildfire is going to have a huge impact on the telecom marketplace," said Jeff Kagan, principal at Kagan Telecom Associates in Atlanta.

Other analysts suggested that AT&T Wireless, which owns part of Wildfire, may soon announce wide deployment of the Network Wildfire platform.

Wildfire's focus on the carrier market comes as wireless carriers look to improve customer satisfaction and position wireless as an a capable alternative to wireline communication.

Show me the money Omnipoint Communications has beefed up its existing equipment supply contract with Ericsson by $250 million as the PCS provider looks to expand its fledgling business to newly licensed basic trading areas in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Omnipoint has currently invested about $600 million in Ericsson equipment for its PCS networks. Dusting for voice prints GTE Telecommunication Services Inc., an enhanced services provider, will integrate T-Netix's Voice Verifi-Air technology into its FraudForce wireless anti-fraud platform. GTE TSI will evaluate the Colorado company's solution this spring before offering it commercially as part of FraudForce, which has been deployed by several wireless carriers.