Working without wires

Wireless Internet providers give carriers' enterprise customers more mobility

In the next four years, the average large corporation will support more than 150 remote branch offices and nearly 660 telecommuters, according to a report from Cahners In-Stat Group. The growing need for mobility in corporations is driving the creation of a new market for carriers: the mobile enterprise. Along with wireless carriers, mobile data providers are helping the increasingly sprawling corporate market achieve a more unified approach to operating week to week, from 9-to-5 and beyond.

Founded in 1999, MobileLogic provides wireless business solutions. It purchases data airtime in bulk from wireless carriers and then offers its solutions to the carriers' enterprise customers on a flat-rate basis. MobileLogic has formed relationships with carriers such as AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless.

"Carriers are our partners because they know how to build a network and get voice to consumers," said Ron Spears, president and CEO of MobileLogic. "They recognize that enterprises are great places to push wireless data."

Though some carriers will prefer to offer total solutions themselves, MobileLogic believes it is difficult to bring together the carrier and corporate worlds without relying on a third party, said Rob Balgley, president of the MobileLogic's mobile products division."Carriers like us because we are their entry into the enterprise," Balgley said.

A corporate user's bill is broken down by airtime. While MobileLogic pays the carrier for monthly airtime, corporate users pay MobileLogic for software licensing fees, modem rentals and network interface cards.

MobileLogic will provide the software that will sit on a customer's mobile device. When in use, the devices will register an IP address on the carrier's data network, which then will be routed to MobileLogic's network operations center in Denver. MobileLogic maintains that its technology enables enterprises to operate more efficiently.

Mobilocity, another mobile Internet company, fueled competition in the space recently by announcing a relationship with AvantGo to develop and deliver wireless business offerings to Global 1000 clients using AvantGo Enterprise solutions.

"Mobile data is real, and there is a huge demand in the enterprise market that is being driven by users that want it to help them with their job," Spears said.

But the route MobileLogic has taken might not be a long-term business proposition, said Ragu Gurumurthy, a principal with Booz Allen & Hamilton. "Operators should not look at these companies as competitors, but they should acquire them or partner with them [to obtain] their skills and then have a big play," he said.

Targeting a similar market to MobileLogic's but taking a different approach is the U.K.'s Red-M, which wants to extend mobile communications to the office environment. Red-M combines a Linux operating system and Bluetooth technology to deliver mobile solutions within an office. The company is developing devices that would sit at the customer premises and connect to a wireless Internet server that links to the WAN. Service then is extended throughout a company via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

For carriers, staying in touch with the needs of the growing mobile enterprise market and having an enterprise solution such as that from MobileLogic or Red-M could provide a safeguard against churn.

"Having a closer relationship with customers makes it harder for them to change service providers," said Simon Gawne, vice president of marketing and business development for Red-M. "It is easy for customers to move from carrier to carrier so [operators] need to differentiate."

Red-M believes it might be steps ahead of carriers that want to tap into the mobile corporate market on their own. "We have met with a lot of providers, and a lot are under pressure from pricing and being able to maintain customers," Gawne said.