Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell phone industry close to wireless 411; WiFi roaming remains

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 14:33:46 -0500

Cell phone industry close to wireless 411; WiFi roaming remains
Source: Associated Press
Publication date: 2003-03-18

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Looking for a friend but don't have her phone
number with you? For now, you can call directory assistance for her home
number, but her wireless digits are off limits from 411.

That's about to change, however. After years of hesitation, cellular providers
are getting close to making wireless numbers available to 411 callers.

Although the information service probably won't be available until next year
at the earliest, some details already are clear.

The centralized database of wireless numbers would be off limits to
telemarketers, and consumers would be able to choose whether to have
their numbers listed or unlisted, according to people familiar with the
process.

Individual carriers would determine whether subscribers would have to pay to
be unlisted.

Other privacy options are possible, too.

For example, wireless phone users might choose to be unlisted but willing
to receive a short text message, sent through the directory service, from
someone trying to contact them.

The nation's largest carriers are on board with the plan, according to an
industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Their support makes
sense: If carriers charged a dollar or so for 411 requests for a wireless
number that could be a huge revenue boost for an industry struggling with
high debts and tough competition.

About 5 percent of U.S. households have gone totally wireless and
eliminated traditional landlines, according to the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association, which is hosting a huge
industry trade show in New Orleans this week.

While the industry quietly moves toward establishing wireless 411, that kind
of consensus and cooperation has been absent at the CTIA show when it
comes to the explosion of the wireless Internet access technology known
as WiFi.

Because WiFi uses unlicensed airwave frequencies to inexpensively radiate
Internet connectivity over short distances, every day brings news of
aggressive plans to deploy WiFi ``hot spots.''

IBM Corp. said this week it would work with two technology companies to
infuse 1,000 truck stops with WiFi access. Toshiba and Accenture are
touting a package of hot spot gear and network management software.

But analysts, WiFi providers and companies thinking about joining the fray
say the technology will be hindered unless the industry lets users
seamlessly roam from one WiFi network to another.

No one really wants to buy access in one airport, only to have to pull out the
credit card again and sign up anew at a downtown cafe.

``We need universal roaming across hot spots more than we ever needed it
with cellular,'' said Sky Dayton, founder of Boingo Wireless, a company
working to link WiFi hot spots with each other -- and with the slower data
networks that send information to wireless phones.

But while some companies say they can facilitate aspects of WiFi roaming,
WiFi operators and would-be providers say big issues have yet to be worked
out -- including how to link billing systems and assure a consistent quality
of service among hot spots.

David Chamberlain, an analyst with Probe Research, said wireless phone
carriers might be in the best position to bring about WiFi roaming because
they already have relationships with millions of customers and billing
software for cellular roaming.

But that day doesn't seem near.

Nextel Communications CEO Tim Donahue said Tuesday that WiFi is not
``ready for prime time yet.'' Sprint PCS chief Len Lauer said he's
discouraged to see free WiFi hot spots popping up in hotels and other public
places because that might make it difficult for anyone to profit off it.

``The cellular operators,'' said Lawrence Brilliant, chief of WiFi wholesaler
Cometa Networks, ``have got to decide whether they see it as friend or foe.''

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=37448330&ID=cnniw&scategory=Business+and+Finance&

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