Viva ViAir

To ViAir and end users, access to e-mail means just that … without additional mailboxes.

Wireless Subscriber: Hello, I hear you have wireless Web service. I'd like to access my e-mail, so could you tell me which phone and plan I need?

Wireless Carrier: Yes, we can help you access your e-mail. The first thing you'll have to do is set up a new e-mail account through our company.

Wireless Subscriber: I don't want to set up a new account. I receive more than 100 e-mails at my office daily, and I just want access to those. I need a plan that will let me do that.

This is a familiar refrain from the legions of business customers looking to access their corporate and personal e-mail on the go. Setting up a third or fourth e-mail account is untenable.

Early platform developments have wirelessly-enabled access to e-mail accounts — the difference was the carrier wanted to own the mailbox. However, carriers are beginning to realize that the utility, and hence viability, of this in a mobile environment is not optimal for their customers. Carriers are learning that they'll have to accept the role of providing the means to customers' Outlook or other e-mail ends, or risk losing on the wireless Web.

Problem/Solution

ViAir (www.viair.com) offers carriers that solution — information at the source, according to Bruce Chatterley, CEO. ViAir is a mobile apps management and delivery platform provider. It offers a carrier-grade platform, as well as apps to enable carriers to deploy customized wireless Web services to their users, without sacrificing scaleability or performance. The technology also allows third-party apps to be integrated.

ViAir's first commercial apps — WirelessInbox and WirelessInbox Enterprise, enable subscribers to access their existing Internet and corporate e-mail, calendar and contacts using virtually any Web-enabled wireless device.

Friends & Enemies

ViAir got off the ground when The Barksdale Group, an investment company headed by Jim Barksdale, provided the $8 million seed money last year (www.barksdalegroup). That and money from private investors was enough to let Sung Rhee, ViAir founder and former Microsoft executive who launched the MSN Mobile service, to hit the ground running.

In fact, a number of Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) executives who battled Barksdale in the first browser war during the 1990s are now in the ViAir ranks.

The irony of the situation is not lost on ViAir officials. Barksdale is Netscape's (www.netscape.com) former chief executive. At that time, he was caught up in a fierce competitive battle with Microsoft and its browser.

“That's the ultimate show of respect,” Chatterley says. “To fund your adversaries from the last war for the next war.”

Today, backed by Barksdale, ViAir's primary competitors are Openwave Systems, which dominates the wireless-browser market (www.openwave.com), and InfoSpace, a wireless Internet infrastructure company (www.infospace.com).

ViAir kicked off with two flagship customers. Rogers AT&T Wireless (www.rogers.com) is giving its subscribers access to their e-mail from RIM's Blackberry pagers. Meanwhile, Nextel (www.nextel.com) is offering ViAir's WirelessInbox, which allows its customers to access as many as 10 different e-mail accounts through their Web-enabled phones. The service is called Nextel Mobile E-mail.

Since launch, ViAir has added four new customers: letstalk.com (www.letstalk.com), a wireless product and service provider; Speakeasy (www.speakeasy.net), a broadband service provider; Telus Mobility (www.telusmobility.com), the Canadian wireless carrier; and Wincom (www.wincom.net), an ISP.

At press time, the company was finalizing a national roll-out plan with a major carrier and defining an expanded role with Rogers AT&T to add the company's entire wireless Web on its TDMA network.

Chatterley says his company offers direct access to e-mail, while others, such as Openwave and InfoSpace, create a separate e-mail box for users to access their other accounts. WirelessInbox allows immediate access to POP-3 mailboxes and calendars provided by corporations and ISPs. WirelessInbox Enterprise allows access to e-mail and calendars behind a corporate firewall.

Unlike other e-mail services, WirelessInbox isn't just a forwarding service. Users actually can access their original mail and immediately sync with functions, just the same as if they were sitting at their desktops. When the mobile user deletes an e-mail, it's deleted at the mothership. Likewise, when you e-mail from your mobile device, it carries your identity just as if you e-mailed from your office.

ViAir uses two revenue models, according to the company. The first is the classic service model, where ViAir hosts the app and runs it on behalf of its carrier customers. Usually, the company charges an up-front fee and a per-subscriber fee, as well as a per-month fee.

The company also has plans to offer a licensable version for companies looking to maximize the strategic value in-house.

For the future, Chatterley says the company has two main objectives: It plans to go global, and it plans to expand product offerings to make them more feature-rich.

This fall, the company plans to introduce a new product, tentatively called the Wireless Application Manager. It will have a suite of capabilities that will allow carriers to define the class of service based on a large number of variables. With that, carriers will be able to control the QoS based on the service program.

The product also will provide a suite of tools for end users so they can personalize their wireless Web experiences.

To enhance the carrier's ability to evaluate wireless Web offerings, the product will have analysis tools to provide a granular view of what's happening with wireless Web customers, including number of packets used, page views and other actions. Finally, as a new twist in the wireless app area, the product will allow carriers to negotiate SLAs with ViAir. The SLA feature will provide real-time tracking of the app performance.

This will allow carriers to control the quality of user experience, Chatterly says. The company's bottom line is that it focuses on user needs, something Chatterley says other companies in the space have missed.

“We're the killer application that's going to drive the wireless Web,” Chatterley explains. “If you don't solve the end-user problems, you haven't done your job.”

ViAir Stats

Sung Rhee, Chairman & Founder
Bruce Chatterley, CEO
Justin Webb, Chief Strategist
220 W. Mercer
Suite 300
Seattle, WA, 98119
206-428-4100
www.viair.com
E-Mail: info@viair.com