Deja Vu

Data roaming just began. So why does the road ahead look so familiar?

The wireless industry is cruising toward global roaming. And judging from the discussions at recent industry conferences, many in the industry are focused on what will be: wireless devices replacing wireline and subscribers gaining anytime, anywhere access to friends, family and information.

But a chasm divides what is from what will be. Before moving ahead, providers must deal with network variances, address the need for compatible handsets and decide how to bill customers and roaming partners.

This is the year 2000, and providers are preparing for the advent of global data roaming. But it could very well be the 1990s.

Back then, providers approaching international voice roaming faced similar barriers, many created by divergent networks. For example, variances existed between mobility applications such as TIA/EIA-41 and GSM MAP. The applications used distinct dialects of the SS7 signaling protocol to communicate between wireless networks. Because each application spoke a different language, roaming became a challenge. For instance, subscribers may have been unable to access value-added features such as voice mail or call forwarding while on the foreign network.

The industry of the '90s also had to decelerate while vendors built phones that would bridge the gap between GSM and technologies such as TDMA and CDMA.

Billing, clearing and settlement presented additional challenges. Providers had to decide how to charge customers for roaming as well as how to bill and pay roaming partners from other countries. To complicate matters, there were currency and language variances and differences between the European TAP and the American Ciber billing formats.

Sound familiar?

Well, here we go again.

Application Variances Ahead This time around, IP markup languages are causing part of the communications rift - two languages in particular: HDML and WML. The languages empower mobile browsers to tell WAP servers how to display Internet information on mobile-device screens.

Unfortunately, roaming between servers that understand divergent markup languages compares to ordering in French from a waiter who only comprehends Chinese. But the industry has not agreed to dub WML or HDML the official language of WAP.

In addition, the continuing communications gap between TIA/EIA-41 and GSM MAP affects the transmission of data as well as that of voice.

However, vendors now offer translation services that allow TIA/EIA-41 and GSM MAP to communicate, according to Wendy Zou, GTE Telecommunication Services (GTE TSI) international sales manager.

Zou said vendors also are beginning to translate between HDML and WML.

"But the problem has not been resolved at a standard level," she said. "Interoperability issues are going to be here for a long time."

As a result of markup-language barriers, a foreign WAP server may not be able to display content on a roamer's device in a usable format. There's also an issue of foreign WAP servers being unable to determine the profile of the roaming device, said Wayne Boucher, GTE TSI manager of business development.

To avoid these problems, service providers today are routing their roaming subscribers back to the home WAP server, Boucher said, adding that these issues still require a more permanent solution. One solution would be to make HDML and WML compatible. Boucher predicts that will happen some day.

"When a subscriber is roaming, they may not want to go back to their home WAP server," said Lisa Hutteman, GTE TSI director of business development. "They may want more local services."

But she conceded that a lot of content being offered today is available nationally.

Steve Stolakis, Ericsson TDMA/CDMA manager of product design, agrees with Hutteman and Boucher that a common Internet-access standard is a key requirement for enabling widespread roaming on the wireless Internet.

Others disagree, saying that the language issue is not such a big deal. Take, for example, Terry Yen, CDMA Development Group (CDG) director of the Asia Pacific region.

"I don't think (WAP language incompatibility) is going to be that big of an issue," Yen said. "Even the Japanese started out with an HDML minibrowser. Today, all of their phones are being sold with WAP 2.0."

Yen thinks HDML and WML someday may be compatible.

With the two languages co-existing, language compatibility becomes another criterion for choosing a roaming partner. Even within the GSM camp, where the radio technology is standard, markup languages have become an issue.

"GPRS can carry WAP, as long as it can be put into our packets and is common across the carriers," said John Hoffman, GSM Association's GPRS and data services director.

For Bell Mobility, which currently roams with Sprint in a circuit-switched environment, the need for markup-language compatibility is considered a given.

"Right now we are both on the Phone.com platform," said Kelly Dixon, Bell Mobility director of wireless Internet and data. "And we (at Bell Mobility) are very much supporting HDML, as well as WML. But at this point, we are dependent on our roaming partners. If we were to roam with another partner or if Sprint was to only support WML, we would have an issue."

Brake for Compatible Handsets WAP-enabled handsets are another component that roaming providers will have to rely on. In terms of GPRS roaming, the challenges relative to handset supply aren't very big, according to the GSM Association's Hoffman.

"As far as technical issues, we do have potential interoperability matters, which will come about once more manufacturers are entering the field with terminals," he said. "For instance, if you are a manufacturer, you test against your own equipment internally. But until you trial with others, you don't know what kind of issues they may face."

Hoffman recalled GSM providers facing similar handset inter-operability issues 10 years ago and said they were resolved quickly back then. But to move things along, the GSM Association is developing interoperability field-trial recommendations for handset vendors.

The association also has launched the GSM Certification Forum, which has partnered vendors with service providers to create laboratory and field-testing standards for GPRS devices.

Both GPRS and EDGE handsets will be available in late 2001 or early 2002, predicts Charles Chopp, Nokia Mobile Phones product manager, GSM 1900.

"We're moving into a period of great excitement in terms of what handsets can deliver to users," Chopp said, alluding to pictures, videos and other forms of entertainment accessible through mobile phones.

According to CDG's Yen, the most critical handset issue for CDMA service providers involves 3Com's InterWorking Function (IWF), which is used to shuttle messages between CDMA networks.

"IWF was designed for translating voice messages," Yen said. "Now you have data messages. The handsets need to interoperate with the IWF. That is the bottom line when it comes to data roaming."

However, IWF-compatible handsets have been created for packet-switched networks. Motorola and 3Com jointly developed the IWF that DDI and IDO used in their cdmaOne networks in Japan. In late 1999, the two companies launched high-speed, wireless-Internet services. At that time, five vendors (Casio, Hitachi, Sanyo, Sony and Toshiba) provided handsets that operated with the modified IWF.

As for supply, in general, three handset vendors - Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung - have released WAP-Forum-certified handsets as of Sept. 6.

Stolakis said Ericsson's WAP-certified handsets have been well received, a fact he attributes to user-friendly features. His definition of user-friendly boils down to enabling mobile customers to easily input and read data. The idea of user-friendly Internet-enabled phones will attract more consumers to the wireless Web.

"The operating menus in the phone have to be put together in formats that encourage users to use all of the features that the mobile Internet lets you access," Stolakis said. "When you think about input, you think about how to get data into the mobile Internet stream. Using the keypad by itself can be very cumbersome."

According to Stolakis, vendors can use two methods to simplify the input process.

"One is that we can facilitate the input by using terminal-based algorithms, such as predictive text," he said. "We are doing that with our current handsets. The second (approach) is the development of accessories that make it easier for users to input text."

Ericsson has developed such an accessory, a miniature keyboard that attaches to a port at the bottom of its phones. The product will be released in the fourth quarter of 2000.

In terms of output, Stolakis predicts handset vendors will begin releasing Internet-enabled phones that feature larger LCDs.

Bell Mobility executives have begun mulling another issue concerning handsets. All but one of the phones the company uses today include browsers.

But when Bell Mobility makes the transition to packet-based networks, supply will be an issue.

"You are going to have that leg of people who still have handsets that only work on the circuit-switched network vs. on the packet-switched network." Dixon said.

When asked how Bell Mobility planned to get new phones to those customers, Dixon said that the company has not yet determined how it will deal with the issue.

Billing/Pricing Roadblocks Even after the networks are ready for international roaming, and technical problems with handsets have been resolved, there will be billing issues to deal with.

The first challenge involves adopting billing models different from those now being used to bill for circuit-switched services. For instance, packet-based data services of the future may be billed according to the volume used, time, on a flat rate, or by taking into account the origin of content.

New or modified billing systems also may be required to handle the new models, and providers face the quandary of how to bill for packet-based services during the transition from existing to future billing systems.

"We've heard a number of GSM carriers talking about doing a conversion looking at so many packets equaling so many minutes," said GTE TSI's Boucher, addressing one transition plan.

But performing this kind of conversion would require the ability to process sub-minute billing units, according to GTE TSI's Hutteman.

GSM's TAP billing standard has been upgraded to include data. A Ciber update to support data billing was due out in September.

Another important step will be examining data billing options.

"The first priority would be the ability to bill on a non-time-specific basis," said Paul Bishop, Cap Gemini Telecom Media and Networks market development director. "You have to take into account the revenue model that is starting to emerge," he said. "The subscriber doesn't necessarily pay for everything. You have services that are supported in part by advertising, by sponsorship."

Bishop also mentioned that as data billers, service providers will function both as billers for end users and for content providers and other partners.

For Bell Mobility, data billing will not become an issue until the company moves to packet-based services at the end of 2001. At this point, the company includes data services in its voice rate plan, which is priced at $25 for 200 minutes.

"There's no activation fee, and you don't have to sign up for a monthly feature fee," said Dixon. "You can use those 200 minutes to surf the Web or for voice."

But that pricing system will change as packet-based data services come down the pike.

"It will be a challenge for us as a carrier that has been in the industry for over 12 years now," Dixon said. "Everything we do is based on minutes. Moving to packet is quite an exciting step and challenging because we'll have to modify the billing systems."

But the billing system only represents the technical side of the challenge. Bell Mobility also is considering how it should educate employees and consumers.

"No one knows what a packet is, whereas everyone knows what a minute is," Dixon explained.

You need look no further than Asia for new kinds of data billing packages. For example, in Hong Kong, SMS is being billed in Hong Kong currency at a rate of $1 per message.

"There's also some talk about billing SMS by 8-character segments," Yen said.

According to Yen, some wireless companies may not explore innovative data billing solutions right away. But he predicts that the mobile-data market will experience price pressures and, as a result, service providers gradually will abandon more expensive price models.

A Long Journey? The GSM Association's Hoffman anticipates the roll-out of GPRS roaming by mid-2001.

"It's a fairly simple upgrade from GSM to GPRS," Hoffman said. "It is an IP-based packet backbone, which is new for us. But I don't think it's as complicated as it was when we first rolled out GSM voice roaming."

Cap Gemini's Bishop predicts GPRS roaming will be common in Europe by 2002.

"In North America, we'll still be dealing with interstandard issues in 2002," he said.

Nokia's Chopp echoes Bishop, adding an estimate that EDGE services will be commercially available late in 2002 or early in 2003.

AT&T Wireless Services and British Telecom (BT) Wireless have formed an alliance, known as Advance, to provide seamless services to businesses and consumers in 20 countries, at least initially.

"We will expand our coverage offerings to more than 100 locations around the world with new carriers that wish to be part of this consortia," said Ken Woo, AT&T Wireless spokesperson.

The alliance draws upon BT's GSM network and AT&T's TDMA network. The next generation will unite the two network types as EDGE.

"When EDGE technology is deployed, you'll be able to use your phone or wireless device in nearly every major city around the world," Woo said. "And one of the core network functions is high-speed data transport."