Subject: [NEXTEL-1] What Lies Ahead for Wireless?

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 07:44:37 -0500

CTIA 2003: What Lies Ahead for Wireless?
March 18, 2003
By: Carmen NobeleWEEK

NEW ORLEANS—Boingo Wireless Inc. and T-Mobile U.S.A. Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to
combine
wireless LAN and 2.5G network services, as industry leaders discussed the future of both.

At the CTIA Wireless show here, Boingo CEO Sky Dayton said that his company and T-Mobile
are
developing software that will make it easier for users to switch from T-Mobile's branded
"HotSpot" wireless
local area "Wi-Fi" networks to its GPRS (general packet radio service) wide area networks.

"I think it serves as a model to the industry of what we're going to see in the future,"
Dayton said during a
keynote session here. "A user doesn't want to think about what service is available. They
just want to get
connected."

The software will include help files, a hot spot location directory, and a set-up process
that helps users move
between networks with limited hassle.

The WLAN hot spot market is growing, without question. There are about 3,000
commercial, pay-per-use WLANs deployed throughout the United States. Toshiba
and Accenture at the beginning of the year began selling a so-called hot spot in a
box, and at CTIA Toshiba officials said that they have sold more than 3,000 of them
since January. They attribute this to the cost of the product, which sells for a mere
$199.

"We're driving down the cost of hot spots," said John Marston, vice president of
business development at Toshiba's commercial systems group in Irvine, Calif. "If
you spend a lot on a hot spot then you don't make any money."

In fact, while leaders in the wireless industry all acknowledge that 802.11b "Wi-Fi" WLAN
technology has its
place, they don't agree on the commercial viability of public hot spot services.

"Right now it's a bit like herding cats," said Tim Donohue, president and CEO of wireless
carrier Nextel
Communications Inc., noting that because WLANs are so easy for end users to deploy, it's
not easy to turn
them into a commercial business. "Sky's trying to put it together, and God love him for
it, but from my
perspective it's not ready for prime time yet."

Page Two: Wireless Services: What Lies Ahead

Len Lauer, president of wireless carrier Sprint PCS, remains neutral on the subject, but
said his company is
looking at billing structures for Wi-Fi just in case.

"It is an if," he said. "But if it comes, we'll be ready."

Qualcomm Inc. president and CEO Irwin Jacobs made his case that high-speed WANs will
render WLAN hot
spots unnecessary. Qualcomm holds the majority of patents for CDMA (code division multiple
access)
technology, which is the basis for the Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless Inc. WANs.

Verizon this week announced plans to offer high-speed CDMA 1x EVDO service in San Diego
and
Washington, with plans to branch out to other metropolitan areas later in the year.

"If you're going to have that coverage wherever you might be, why would you need a hot
spot?" Jacobs said.
That said, Verizon Wireless this week announced its own plans for Wi-Fi hot spot services.

The CTIA keynoters on Tuesday also discussed the future of messaging services for wide
area wireless
networks, including both SMS ( text-only short message service) and MMS (multimedia
message service,
which includes pictures.)

Text messaging is driving the wireless business in Europe, according to Dave McGlade,
president of British
wireless carrier MM02, who said the adoption of SMS in the UK was "viral." Multimedia
messaging is
showing similar promise, he said. In fact, the Brits have started a trend called
"Celebing," which entails
sending a picture of a celebrity to a friend in lieu of a text message. Certain
celebrities represent certain
sentiments. For example, a picture of Britney Spears means "fancy a few beers?" and a
picture of guitarist
Hank Marvin means "I'm starvin'," explained McGlade.

McGlade attributed the adoption of SMS in Europe and the lack thereof in North America to
the fact that
European carriers established interoperability agreements for SMS more than a year before
North American
carriers did.

Nextel's Donohue disagreed, saying that Americans simply preferred speaking over texting.

"Voice is expensive in Europe," he said. "Voice is cheap in the U.S."
http://wireless.ziffdavis.com/print_article/0,4281,a=38875,00.asp

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