Wireless data beefs up: Omnipoint to test interoperability of GPRS gear

Wireless systems - from the network to user devices and applications - are being primed for data.

One of the leading operators in that data communications progression has been Omnipoint. By early next year, the company will test the interoperability of general packet radio service (GPRS) equipment from Ericsson, Nortel Networks and Siemens with hopes of deploying GPRS across its entire network by mid-2000.

"Ease of use is critical to us," said Chris Resavy, senior director of engineering operations for Omnipoint. Omnipoint customers will be able to choose between using GPRS or high-speed circuit-switched data (HSCSD).

As part of its data initiatives, Omnipoint has been working with standards bodies on a subject that hasn't been discussed much yet: maintenance and monitoring, which is more difficult in the data field than in voice, Resavy said. "We're working very diligently to be able to put in traces...so we understand where things are moving through the network." Omnipoint hopes to embed such triggers within the standards that become part of all vendors' equipment.

Higher data speeds will enable application providers to begin offering increasingly sophisticated services. For now, they must match services with network capabilities.

"One of the main things we are trying to do with our service is to accommodate speeds that are there," said Ginny Beneke, vice president of marketing for Wireless Knowledge. As in the wired world, higher data speeds enable services with video and graphics, she said.

In anticipation of that, Wireless Knowledge officially announced that it had joined the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum last week. "Carriers want to be as open and accommodate as many protocols and devices as they can," Beneke said.

Wireless Knowledge received a cool reception from the vendor community when it first entered the market because it appeared that it might develop a platform separately from WAP. Wireless Knowledge intended from the start to join the forum and support a variety of protocols, Beneke said.

On the device end, last week 3Com said that its Palm group will incorporate Phone.com's WAP browser in the Palm Computing platform. Palm will license the entire platform to handset developers.

The move opens doors for Palm to move into the wireless handset arena. "Palm didn't have a play in wireless," said Darryl Sterling, industry analyst for The Yankee Group. Users of devices running the platform will be able to access information that has been formatted for Palm's Web clipping technology or WAP delivery.

Palm's entrance in the wireless handset world may worry some of its competitors, though. "Palm is a big threat to Windows CE," said Barney Dewey, consultant for The Andrew Seybold Group.