Wireless data goes corporate, CTIA event highlights focus on intranet access >BY JASON MEYERS, Wireless Networks Editor

When the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association first hosted its Wireless Apps show last year, wireless Internet access was all the rage, and the term "intranet" was barely part of the industry's lexicon. What a difference a year makes.

When the wireless data industry reconvened in Las Vegas last week, the consensus was that customers want wireless access to corporate intranets, which is where the money is to be made. The Internet seems to have not taken a back seat-it has been left by the side of the road.

"The Internet is a hot flash," said Andy Seybold, a wireless data analyst and president of consulting and newsletter company Pinecrest Press. "The information on the Internet is not the information users want first." They want service providers to give them field access to corporate local area network applications-a sentiment echoed by those who will bring that capability to customers.

"That market is growing far faster than the open Internet market," said Kendra VanderMeulen, vice president and general manager of the wireless data division of AT&T Wireless Services.

How they get access to that information has yet to be determined, and opposing camps appear to be developing on both the technology and device fronts. Debate is brewing between companies supporting "smart phones," which provide access to certain information taken from World Wide Web sites and intranets, and those that support devices providing full access such as laptop wireless modems.

On the technology side, the call is for standardization and a move away from cellular digital packet data (CDPD) technology as the end-all wireless data platform. In fact, VanderMeulen expressed her desire to "drop the C-word" in favor of a more open standard based on TCP/IP.

"People are not going to use technology for technology's sake," VanderMeulen said. "People are looking for business solutions."

Other network operators agreed, saying the focus needs to move away from labeling technologies and toward presenting customers with the real-world applications they need. "Customers need solutions, not new technology," said Douglas Berg, director of data services at Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems. "We can't just provide transport, we have to provide value for our transport mechanisms."

With rhetoric about solutions at an all-time high, however, Seybold cautioned the industry not to overestimate its capabilities to customers, reminding everyone there is still a lot of network buildout to be done before wireless data coverage is ubiquitous.

"The danger in what I'm hearing is that people will walk out and think they can do this anywhere," Seybold said. "If they get burned, they're not going to come back."