Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel's future goes on location

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 13:23:25 -0400

QUESTION & ANSWER

Nextel's future goes on location

By Eric B. Parizo, News Editor

17 May 2004 | SearchMobileComputing.com

SOUND OFF! Post your comments

Nextel Communications Inc. has been making a splash in the
consumer space as of late, but the company's roots remain in the
enterprise market. Competitors are gearing up to challenge its
push-to-talk monopoly and its fourth-generation wireless
network efforts have been overshadowed by Verizon Wireless,
but Nextel is confident that its technology and its strategy --
focusing heavily on location-based mobile applications -- will
win out.

SearchMobileComputing.com recent spoke with Greg Santoro,
vice president of Nextel's Internet and wireless services unit,
about 4G, push-to-talk's future and the lure of location.

Besides your push-to-talk service, what other
enterprise-focused products and services does

Nextel offer?

Greg Santoro: A year ago, we launched a wireless business solutions
program, which features four elements: our data network, applications
that run on it and meet business needs, a set of tools that allows
enterprises to manage wireless application deployments and comprehensive
support services that include sales support and post-implementation
support.
On the network side, we have had a packet data network for over four
years. We were the first to offer true IP connectivity,
and Java-based handsets that realistically support business
applications, as well as real-time location services and direct access
to IP-based resources on the Internet.

Nextel seems to be focusing a great deal of attention on location-based
services. What technology makes those offerings work?

Santoro: To do things like real-time navigation from a handset, you have
to be able to do a couple things. First, you have to
quickly establish the location of the handset. Next, you have to export
that location to the application in the phone and be able
to deliver it quickly. Plus the network needs to know about that and
return that info. to the handset quickly. If you can do all that
quickly, you can implement an application like our real-time navigation
system and turn-by-turn directions.
What kinds of location-based applications do you offer?

Santoro: We have almost 20 applications today that are location based,
and many support real-time navigation. You can turn
the phone on, and it will give you directions from where you are to
where you want to go. It can even direct you verbally. We
are the only company that can do that today, because of the network we
have and the handsets we've deployed.

What's the key to making location-based services work, and work well?

Santoro: We really think avoiding latency is one of the most important
characteristics for being able to make productive use of
handset applications. Our network is based on iDEN, and iDEN delivers up
to 20 Kbps. But we realize there are some
solutions that need more bandwidth, so we're deploying a software
upgrade that -- when we roll it out -- will enable us to do
70 to 80 Kbps. Essentially, it's our software that binds several
channels together, and it will allow the network to look as if it
has four times as much throughput available. And any application today
will work without any changes.
You're in the process of developing a "4G" wireless broadband technology
in North Carolina. Can you tell me what the current status is?

Santoro: We're examining the characteristics of 4G technology that can
deliver high throughput, 2 to 3 Mbps peak speeds.
We're looking to predictably allocate pieces of bandwidth to users, have
it run to scale, and have the low latency that we think
is important. But the most important aspect is to build it at an
economical cost. We're doing a market trial in Raleigh, N.C., to
determine how users will utilize it and learn what they find valuable.

What kinds of users will this offering be geared toward?

Santoro: We've made it available to all our sales channels -- individual
users and small and large businesses. In our trial, we had all of the
above, including students. As we've opened it up further, we're getting
a broad cross section purchasing the service. There are personal
services and business services. We've created a set of packaged services
that range from $30 to $80 per month.

Do you feel like you're competing against other wireless broadband
offerings, or against the wired broadband market?
Santoro: We don't look at it as a competitive response. It's an
opportunity to change the way people think about wireless. If you can
provide a 1.5 Mbps uplink, what new things can you do with it? We're not
saying because we can deliver wireless broadband that you can drop your
DSL, but we're looking for new ways to deploy differentiated
technologies that let customers do things that are unique.

How do you feel your service compares to Verizon's EV-DO wireless
broadband service?

Santoro: There's no comparison. With latency, we're talking about 30 to
50 milliseconds, compared to 300 to 500
milliseconds for EV-DO. That kind of latency is a problem for certain
kinds of apps. Two, EV-DO tends to have a
asymmetrical problem; you can only get 300 to 400 Kbps on the downlink,
it may only be 60 or 70 Kbps on the uplink. With
Nextel, you're talking about 700 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps on the downlink, and
300 Kbps on the uplink.
When will your 4G service be expanded nationally?

Santoro: We haven't made a decision on a nationwide rollout, but we will
let you know.
Are you afraid that push-to-talk services will eventually become a
commoditized service offered by all wireless carriers?

Santoro: I'm paid to be afraid, but I'll tell you that with all the hype
that's gone on and all the different things that are out there, [the
market] is kind of fractured and crazy right now.  There are folks
working on push-to-talk-over-cellular technology and they can't figure
out how to standardize, and so they're waiting on which technology will
win out on the CDMA side. Meanwhile, the GSM guys are looking at adding
push-to-talk to their data services, which just don't perform well and
are inefficient. Even if they could get the latency down anywhere close
to ours, the services turn out to be very uneconomical to deliver. It's
going to take quite a few years to sort all that out before that
hypothesis becomes a reality.

Companies like Avaya Inc. are working with mobile handset makers to
develop phones that work over Wi-Fi networks using VoIP, as well as on
your network when out of range of a WLAN. Do you see that model being a
part of Nextel's future?
Santoro: When you talk to business customers, they say it's great idea,
and that they've got an investment in an 802.11
solution. But when you start talking to them about running voice over
that, and making sure you have a high quality of service, it
becomes a huge issue. Most of the 802.11 networks on business campuses
are built for data, not voice, and there's a difference. We think the
extension of 802.11 and 802.16 has an interesting future, and we're not
shy about testing and understanding new technologies, so we're looking
at all of those things going forward.

It's been almost six months since the first wireless local number
portability regulations went into effect. Has wireless LNP been good for
your business and the industry as a whole?

Santoro: There's a lot of hype around that, and it's turned out to be
not as big of an issue as the industry felt it would be. There
were logistical challenges, but we've done a good job of preparing.
We've had the fewest number of complaints as we rolled it
out, now we're marching to this next deadline. [Editor's note: On May
24, wireless local number portability rules take effect beyond the top
100 U.S. markets.] It's one thing for the top six or seven carriers to
make the process work, but now it's being extended it to smaller
carriers across the country. It'll be another challenge, but we're
prepared for it.

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid40_gci964988,00.html

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