Wireless exploits business market: Employees of the future will be untethered

The business user, long a target of players such as AT&T Wireless, will likely continue to represent a growing market-for both in-building office systems as well as regular mobile service.

A recent Cahners In-Stat Group study showed that at least one in three corporate employees will use wireless phones for business by 2000. Alexander Resources expects the percentage of workers who will use some type of wireless business phone to reach 77% by 2003.

Changes in the ways that people work today may encourage adoption of all types of wireless services. In May 1997, AT&T Wireless and a number of companies, including architecture and interior design firms, formed a showcase called Future@Work. Located in Seattle's tallest building, the space was created to test futuristic ideas of a workplace. Today, only a year and a half later, real offices are being built based on similar ideas-all office furniture is easily movable and private spaces with doors are not assigned to single employees, but are available to anyone who needs them.

Work areas at the exhibit feature mobile phones that operate as desk phones in the office and as mobile phones outside. Wireless is crucial in such a mobile office environment where workers aren't necessarily tied to a desk but can move to private rooms or group spaces. With a wireless phone, they can continue to receive calls as they move. Workers can also carry their laptops and use wireless data connections to access the Internet.

"We try to help customers resolve mobility problems in the office," said Jordan Greenbaum, account executive for wireless office service for AT&T Wireless. He uses the Future@Work exhibit to show potential customers what it's like to use AT&T's wireless office service. "It's an excellent place to get a dose of realism that collateral or videos can't do," he said.

AT&T currently doesn't recommend that a company use only wireless office service without a PBX because AT&T's existing office service doesn't offer all the features of a PBX. But the next generation service will. And even though a company now might spend the same amount on implementing wireless office service as a wired service, the wireless option can be more useful. "They get more mileage out of what they spend," Greenbaum said.

However, it will take more than a lifelike setting to convince significant numbers to use wireless in the office. As it is, most AT&T wireless office customers are already wireless subscribers who understand how wireless services can support a business, Greenbaum said.

Today, wireless for the business user is in the Model T stage, said Jerry Kaufman, president of Alexander Resources. "You can choose any color as long as it's black," he said. This is only beginning to change, as carriers and vendors create services that appeal to different customer segments. The growth in wireless use among business customers will significantly affect the market, Kaufman said. "The business environment will be the genesis for true PCS," he said.

Many users resist the idea of one phone that can be used for work or business because they don't want business contacts calling them at home or personal callers reaching them at work. "The key need is increasing intelligence in the network for incoming call management," Kaufman said. Until truly intelligent networks can communicate with private networks in the home and at work, filtering calls to users, the single phone concept may continue to grow slowly, he said. Such an intelligent service is an example of what PCS was designed to offer.

In addition to business voice services, wireless data will play an increasingly important role in businesses of the future. AT&T also showcases its cellular digital packet data (CDPD) offerings at Future@Work, stressing the increasing mobile data needs of business people outside of the office.

The challenges involved with selling CDPD services are similar to the challenges that basic cellular faced 10 years ago, noted Brendan Moore, sales manager for wireless data for AT&T's cellular division. Today, most companies wouldn't imagine their sales representatives without mobile phones. Moore believes that in the future, they also won't be able to imagine their sales reps without wireless access to data.

In addition to permeating the office and the road, wireless may play a more prominent role in the growing trend toward home offices. AT&T Wireless is now expanding its Future@Work space to include an exhibit of a home office, the base of the "virtual worker," said an AT&T spokesman. AT&T teamed with Washington State University on the new exhibit, which has a unit dedicated to exploring and educating people about the concept of teleworking.

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