A-Maze-ing Convergence

There is no question that wireless and the Internet are converging. But the journey may contain some hidden turns and blind alleys.

Surfing the Internet using a browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer is what the Internet means to many people. There is no doubt that a 21-inch monitor with a cable modem or DSL link can almost drown the surfer in colorful and animated information. But, is the wireless maze simply too small and restrictive to attract consumers to even get their feet wet?

Some useful information can be provided on wireless phones with enhanced screens - perhaps 10 lines of text and some simple graphics. But, they suffer from lack of content that is adapted for the new medium, a cumbersome input device (numeric keypad) and slow data rates. If customers could test drive the technology by visiting Web sites with virtual WAP terminals, it might overcome their reluctance to dive into this new technology. But, this would not guarantee that consumers would like what they see.

WAP may prove to be a useful addition to wireless phones, but it is never going to be a full-blown Internet experience. In order to make a call, the user must face the device's screen away from his ear, where it cannot be of any use. This eliminates the possibility of having integrated Internet and calling capabilities. An ear bud with dangling microphone will be needed to provide true phone/Internet-integrated applications. However, even if this is done, the limited screen real estate and keyboard will make a PDA with wireless capabilities a better bet for many applications.

Although PDAs are obviously limited in functionality, their enormous base of dedicated users has proven the utility of their input, display and processing capabilities. With a PDA, integrated applications such as queuing a list of contacts to call and being able to take notes while on the phone will seem quite natural. In fact, all call control could be from the PDA, using the contact list or a simulated keyboard. The PDA must not come with a built-in microphone and earpiece or its utility for integrated features will be eliminated.

Adaptable E-Mail E-mail is a practical wireless application because it is largely text based, one that existed quite happily on the Internet in the days of 9.6kb/s modems, which, in a pinch, still will do quite nicely. Setting aside the issue of large attachments and assuming quick, reliable and easy synchronization with desktop computers, there is no reason that e-mail cannot be a useful app for WAP devices and a real killer app for a PDA. Removing the microphone and earpiece from the phone again will be necessary to allow full and seamless integration of e-mail with phone capabilities. For example, it should be possible to compose an e-mail when listening to voice mail or to take notes during a conversation that could result in an e-mail to a third party.

E-mail is more adaptable to the restricted environment that wireless provides because it can accept a lower quality of service (QoS), being a non-real-time service. Furthermore, older e-mail software was quite well adapted to a low-bit-rate environment through such techniques as downloading e-mail headers first, and allowing the recipient to specify which should be downloaded, deleted or continue to be stored on the server.

Instant Messaging The younger and more hip sibling of e-mail is instant messaging, used by millions of (generally young and hip) people. This application is well suited for wireless because it benefits from mobility, and its bandwidth requirements are modest. It does, however, demand a higher QoS because of the real-time nature of the communications.

But Web surfing, e-mail and instant messaging are just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more that consumers are unable to see, but which will prove critical for wireless-Internet success.

The Bandwidth Conundrum The amount of bandwidth that can be provided by cellular and PCS standards is steadily increasing, but that does not mean that providers will throw bandwidth at their customers. A voice call consumes only 8kb/s to 13kb/s, so it may not be economical to provide much higher bandwidths for data users. Even 64kb/s, which is considered glacially slow by cable-modem and DSL users, requires four to five times the bandwidth of a voice user. Will providers be able to charge four to five times as much per minute for a 64kb/s data service, or will they sell bits to data users at a fraction of the price they obtain from voice users?

QoS With some Internet services, a lower QoS can be provided. Non-real-time services such as e-mail can in theory be restricted to the bandwidth left over by other users, although in practice this may mean that these services would be unusable during busy calling times. If this complex resource-rationing problem can be solved, it could provide some justification for selling bits to data users at a lower cost than demanded from voice and high QoS data users.

Billing A simplistic approach to billing is to assume that airtime billing and Internet billing are completely separate. However, services such as NTT DoCoMo's i-mode have shown that integrated billing allows some content providers access to revenue that they could not afford to bill for directly, and leaves the service provider in the enviable positioning of charging a fee for the routing of charges from many providers to many customers. There are many lucrative opportunities for providers acting as billing agents for Internet-content providers, but integration will prove a challenge. Charging to a specific service still is relatively uncommon, yet some business models will demand this.

Security Just like billing, security for wireless and security for the Internet can be seen as two completely separate issues, however gaps in security will result in the possibility of security breaches. A server that has to unencrypt data from a wireless system and re-encrypt it for the Internet is an accident waiting for the first corrupt employee or hacker break in to happen. End-to-end security will require integration of security algorithms, a job that has been started by WAP's wireless transport-layer security protocol. Although seamless security may be optional for many applications, m-commerce will demand it.

Signaling Signaling is data generated and consumed by wireless-service providers, and is today mainly exchanged (invisibly to users) on SS7 networks. Carrying this data on the Internet will allow providers to consolidate their networks to all-IP solutions, resulting in lower costs. This will partly be due to consolidation of network facilities, but more because IP-compatible equipment markets are larger and more competitive than SS7, so equipment prices are considerably lower.

There are many facets to wireless-Internet integration, some that are obvious to consumers, but many that are hidden. Wireless is slowly and inexorably turning in the direction of the Internet, but it will be a long time before the passage is completed.