Ready, Set, Wireless Office!

Wireless-office solutions may be the next big thing. Are you ready?

ABC Comm wants to replace all of its landline desk sets with wireless phones. Can you offer ABC Comm the complete wireless-office solution (WOS) it wants and needs?

At this point, many service providers can't. And they're missing out on a big, untapped market that may be the future of wireless communications. Wireless office has been called the next frontier, so why aren't more service providers offering the complete solutions needed to satisfy businesses hungry for more efficient, convenient wireless services?

Three vendors that have developed digital WOSs are AG Communications (Roameo), Ericsson (Wireless Advantage) and Hughes Network Systems. These solutions work with any IS-136 TDMA handset and with in-building and macro digital cellular/PCS networks. Some service providers have partnered with one, two or all of these vendors to provide digital WOS, and others are in the planning stages. Two providers leading the pack, AT&T Wireless and U.S. Cellular, share their wireless-office strategies.

WOS Srategies
AT&T Wireless can tell the industry a lot about customers' wireless office wants and needs. AT&T rolled out its first WOS seven years ago in a hospital.

According to Jim Erickson, AT&T Wireless manager of wireless-office service - offer development, early versions used the AT&T network to provide WOS.

"We'd use an existing macrocell site, or put a microcell in a customer's campus, and there were varying levels of integration of our system with the customer's network," he said.

That has evolved into what AT&T offers today — 2G WOS. The service provider has partnered with three vendors: AG Communications, Ericsson and Hughes, which have built a system that works as an integrated piece of the customer's existing PBX or Centrex system. This solution provides good coverage for customers, Erickson said, and they have virtually the same functions and features on their wireless phones that they do on their existing landline systems. Customers also can use the same voice-mail system no matter where they go.

"They have the ability to use their phones on campus just like they have before for a flat fee, unlimited usage on their phone while they're on campus, and take the phone when they go off campus and use the same phone like a regular cellular phone," he said. "From an efficiency/productivity standpoint, it's the best option for customers that have that mobile workforce with a need to communicate."

U.S. Cellular knows a thing or two about wireless-office strategies, as well. Larry Sipovic, U.S. Cellular product-development manager, said the service provider offers multiple wireless-office options and tailors its digital, TDMA-based solutions to the customer's needs and desires.

"Although wireless office has been around for awhile, many companies don't understand totally what it can do for them. Because of that, they sometimes have some preconceived notions or just inappropriate expectations," he explained. "It's not like walking into a cellular store and there are six different phones to choose from; it's more a matter of making sure that we tailor the solutions to the needs of the customer."

Pushing & Pulling
When AT&T Wireless installed its first WOSs, Erickson said it was definitely something he had to "push." But today, things have changed.

"We were out there pushing as much as we could and as far as we could with customers that would talk to us about the concept," he said. "The interesting change that has taken place over the past six or seven years is customers are more sensitive to what their needs are from a communications standpoint. As a result, we're seeing customers actually coming to us that know as much about the product as we do."

He said customers visit different vendor Web sites and learn as much as they possibly can about the different products. When he talks to customers about the wireless-office concept, he spends very little time on the concept and more time discussing needs analysis, what they are trying to do with the service and how they will use it within their facilities.

Sipovic said not every business needs wireless office, but it's a tremendous help for those that do. With WOS, service providers can provide a solution that gives businesses increased efficiency and cost controls.

"Every company is trying to do more with what it has or do more with less," he said. "We're providing an excellent service for customers, and it's appreciated a lot more now than in the past."

Erickson said AT&T focuses its wireless-office efforts on specific industries that need instant communications, such as hospitals, high tech and manufacturing facilities.

For example, he said PrairieComm, a high-tech business in Chicago, called AT&T with the idea of using wireless as its only means of communications, and AT&T provided a solution.

"Three or four years ago, we weren't comfortable telling customers to do that," he said. "But now customers approach us and say, 'This is something we want to do. How can you help us?' We're still pushing, but not as hard as we used to."

Technology Advances
According to Sipovic, WOS is moving from a pushed to a pulled product because of digital technology.

"The fact that the systems on the market now are more digital than analog makes a big difference," he said. "With the systems we work with and market, you can use the same handset, whether internal or external."

Now, today's digital wireless-office technology can do almost everything with a wireless phone that you can do from that fancy display phone sitting on your desk, he said.

In addition, Sipovic said systems are becoming more sophisticated and offering more features: Digital allows message waiting, SMS, call delivery, etc. Although the first generation of wireless office (analog) didn't allow caller ID, message-waiting and other capabilities, today's 2G digital technology offers those features and more.

"One G was basically send and end," he said. "Two G has significantly more features, similar to the way 2G digital cellular has significantly more features compared to analog."

Erickson said the TDMA platform also allows more features and capability. You can offer versions of WOS on GSM and CDMA platforms, he said, but the TDMA platform offers hierarchical cell structures, which allow you to segregate any particular office or coverage area from the rest of the network. Other technologies can't do that as well, and sometimes, not at all.

"That allows us to install a system in a customer's facility, and we're not using our macrocellular system to provide that coverage," Erickson said.

This approach means less capacity problems, too. AT&T can offload some of the traffic that it would normally switch through its system with an earlier-generation WOS. Customers can do everything internal to their office location or facility, and the service provider can provide better service outside.

Sipovic said U.S. Cellular has found success offering micro and macro WOS. With the macro solution, service providers build a microcell near the customer's facility to provide appropriate coverage and capacity.

But any time you start beefing up your external system, there's always the potential for capacity issues. With micro-based solutions, the service provider builds a mini infrastructure inside a customer's facility (Roameo and Ericsson's Mobile Advantage are examples), and it doesn't affect the external network.

The appropriate technology choice depends on the customer's situation and load factor.

"As technology improves, not only within in the wireless-voice arena, but you're also going to see developments in the voice-over-IP (VoIP) area, in the wireless-data area, and just like the buzz in all the trade magazines, everything's coming together," Erickson said. "I think you're going to see the same thing within wireless office."

We're Working on It
Wireless office is a virtually untapped market, but many big players haven't offered complete solutions yet. Several say they're working on it, though.

AirTouch Cellular, for example, is developing a WOS using microcells and adjacent cells, rather than a PBX connection, to offer services and increase capacity and in-building coverage. AirTouch's solution will include wireless-office features such as 4-digit dialing, call forwarding, call transfer, caller ID and voice mail.

PCS-provider Powertel will announce some wireless-office initiatives later this year, according to Joe Patterson, Powertel director of corporate public relations.

BellSouth Wireless is farther along. The service provider currently is running technical trials of the AG Communications and Ericsson systems and will complete that testing by the third quarter of this year. BellSouth has joint marketing agreements with AG and Ericsson, and wants to partner with them to sell WOS. The service provider's current plan calls for the vendors to initiate the sale with corporate customers, design the system and maintain the infrastructure, while BellSouth will handle RF design and coverage, sell the handsets and pricing plans, and activate the accounts.

BellSouth also is in the process of assessing the overall market demand and economics of wireless office to determine what solutions it should offer customers.

It won't be long before more service providers roll out WOS to compete with AT&T and U.S. Cellular. And when more service providers join the wireless-office fray, perhaps it will get more attention from customers.

"This technology is where cellular was a few years ago, considered a luxury, 'I'll never need it,'" Sipovic said. "(Wireless office) can provide a tremendous efficiency increase to companies and individuals, but many times they don't realize what it can do for them. That's a frustration for us."

According to Erickson, some customers are comfortable with what they have now, although some industries are more likely to embrace wireless office than others.

"High-tech companies are ones that see the vision of wireless-office service and they're quick to embrace it; they can look beyond the initial cost of the system, which is an obstacle for some customers," he said.

The initial hardware cost is the biggest first hurdle that the customer has to jump over, Erickson said, but as wireless-office offerings improve with additional features and capabilities, cost won't be such a big factor.

Sipovic said the evolution of the product probably will be an increased ability to interface with other systems. U.S. Cellular soon will add additional data capability, and its customers will see more enhancements.

As the wireless-office product continues to evolve, Erickson said AT&T will add more and more of the features customers already are used to on their wireline systems. This story's only going to get better, he said, with added data and VoIP capabilities.

"What we need to do with wireless office is the same thing that's happening within the macro-network," he said. "Whatever's being done in the macro-network, plus whatever's being done within an office environment, you need to make sure those two co-exist. Our vision long-term is that the customer is not even going to be thinking about a desk set — we want the PrairieComm-type customer."