The mobile world has reached a watershed. GPRS and wireless LANs
hold the fort while frontrunners research the way ahead
WAP
Before the four existing UK mobile operators won a third-generation
(3G) licence - along with Tetra-based wireless specialist Dolphin,
which got the fifth licence up for grabs - they were all committed
to rolling out WAP solutions to offer their users a greater choice
of data services. Current WAP-enabled phones are portrayed as
Internet phones, but they are not: the mobile Internet world is
currently being built using the data access gateways or portals of
the existing mobile operators. Although One-2-One has failed to
launch any sort of commercial WAP service, the other three -
Orange, BT Cellnet and Vodafone - have all launched portals to
allow other content providers to offer data to WAP users. Vodafone,
for example, offers its WAP directory which allows the likes of a
local squash club to be listed as a "site" alongside sites
belonging to soccer club fans affiliated to Peterborough United and
Manchester City in the sports listings of its Vodafone Interactive
service. Users of both Nokia 7110 handsets and Motorola Timeports
can sample the delights of who won how many points in a
Hertfordshire squash match or what Noel Gallagher thinks about the
latest goings at his beloved Manchester City. What is lacking in
all these sites is an easy way for businesses to have their details
accessed by WAP users and potential customers. Initially it was
feared that the mobile operators would create a closed mobile
Internet, which would prevent everyone other than those who had
signed exclusive deals with them to have their commercial
information available while the user was on the move. However,
common sense prevailed, with operators realising that easier access
led to more traffic and therefore more call business. There is now
an industry sprouting up comprising companies that make it easier
for firms to configure their servers to allow cut-down versions of
their Internet sites to be accessed by interested potential
customers. This conversion of Internet information to mobile
Internet data sees HyperText Markup LANguage (HTML)-based
information converted to Wireless Markup LANguage (WML)
information, which can then be downloaded onto a small-phone screen
quickly. Companies that don't have their own internal servers to
support such a move should approach the Internet service provider
(ISP) that hosts the server supporting the website, to make sure
the server supports WAP. Although everyone is talking about WAP,
some business customers may find their ISP has not been totally
convinced about the arguments, or perhaps has taken the
conservative view that no one really wants WAP services yet. Last
month, when Computer Weekly spoke to Globalnet and Demon - both
ISPs that rely on business hosting - neither had yet implemented
WAP strategies. ISPs in the US, however, have been quicker to make
alliances with telecoms firms and handset manufacturers that will
be sending the data. AOL has teamed up with Sprint, Nokia, RIM
(which offers two-way email paging devices) and Motorola to make
sure it retains a chunk of the email traffic that will become a
huge part of the WAP experience. AOL wants to make sure its
customers can continue to use the familiar AOL email interfaces,
instead of having to migrate to new ones to cope with different
devices. But all those involved with the development of WAP have
been urged to move quickly to avoid user apathy and potential
rejection. Yrjo Neuvo, Nokia senior vice-president of product
creation, says, "The telecoms firms have to open up the content
side as quickly as possible. It is the only way the mobile Internet
will take off." Neuvo says the limited content available on WAP
phones is often mistakenly blamed on the handset manufacturers. He
says the manufacturers are really the facilitators, and they have
now been forced to take a more stand-off position to see how the
operators want to take the market. Companies like Nokia claim to
have all the angles covered. They can provide both WAP servers and
switches and routers that enable data traffic to pass through the
telecoms firms' networks, as well as the handsets. But Nokia does
not sell content in a big way yet. Seeing the potential pitfalls of
WAP, Ovum analyst Michele Mackenzie says, "Now that users are
beginning to see what all the fuss over WAP is about, there is a
significant danger of disappointment and a backlash against the
technology." "WAP was never meant to be the be-all and end-all of
mobile Internet. As and when mobile network improvements allow,
more sophisticated technologies will take centre stage. But before
that happens, players will have to work extra hard to get user
buy-in and overcome any backlash." Mackenzie continues, "The
collision of the mobile world with the Internet world was never
going to be easy, and this has resulted in slow progress and
disappointing early releases of the technology. WAP may even end up
being squeezed as next-generation technologies based on Extensible
Markup LANguage (XML) - expected to make a big splash in e-commerce
- catch up in the next three years. "Operators and content
providers can't afford to wait for better technology - they can act
now by moving beyond the hype and playing to the strengths of WAP.
They must become wireless data champions, and encourage adoption by
delivering compelling and innovative applications. Only by doing so
can they hope to survive tomorrow's battles." Despite operators
apparently finding it difficult to convince users about the mobile
Internet, Ovum still predicts there will be 1.5 billion mobile
subscribers globally by 2006, with 684 million of these using
microbrowser-enabled services, with WAP technology playing the
major role. In comparison, there will be 500 million fixed Internet
users, says Ovum. Nokia constantly proffers its opinion that there
will be more users accessing the Internet with mobile devices than
through fixed PC access by 2003. Analyst IDC predicts the number of
WAP phones being used in Europe will reach 50 million over the next
four years - a rise of 1,600 per cent.
GPRS Higher speeds
are essential if users are to get the most from WAP. In the short
to medium term, GPRS is probably the best vehicle to deliver this -
if the handset manufacturers can overcome certain technical
difficulties. GPRS represents a stopgap on the road to true 3G
services. With the hype about 3G including the promise of video on
a mobile handset, the suppliers seemed to pluck GPRS out of the air
as a way to continue their marketing of the brave new world of
mobile Internet. The concept of GPRS is pretty simple, and GPRS
offers an efficient delivery mechanism. Instead of dialling up
every piece of information you need on your phone, you use GPRS,
which works like the Internet. Once you turn on your phone and
connect to services supported by GPRS, that one connection allows
you to jump from one service to the next, rather like an Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line via a fixed-line PC. And probably more
importantly as far as operators are concerned, the frequency slots
used by callers on the operators' networks are only filled when
data is actually sent or requested, meaning more efficient use of
bandwidth. The only problem is that this permanent connection
through multifrequency channels creates hot handsets and drains
batteries. When GPRS was launched last year as a potential solution
to delivering real mobile Internet, the speeds promised were 115
kilobits per second (kbps). As the market was already gearing
itself up for speeds of 2 megabits per second (mbps) through 3G -
or Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) - this specification
seemed rather modest. But as a result of field tests which showed
up the technical problems the handset manufacturers and network
operators are starting to tone down their promises. At this year's
CeBIT show, Motorola launched the world's first commercial GPRS
phone, but it only offers GPRS through a single-frequency slot, so
it will only be slightly faster than a traditional GSM phone
already delivering services like short message service (SMS) and
WAP. Soon after CeBIT, Orange announced its pLANs to launch a UK
GPRS network in partnership with Ericsson. When pressed about the
speed of this service, Orange admitted that the handsets supplied
by Ericsson and its network infrastructure would initially only
deliver transmission speeds of less than 30kbps. Users of this
service, which is due to appear by the end of the year, may be
forgiven for thinking that even these speeds may be optimistic,
considering the false promises that have so far been tabled by the
mobile industry. Orange has insisted it does not see WAP as a
viable solution in its own right, and that its own High-Speed
Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) technology is the best way to access
the Internet, using laptop computers over its existing GSM network.
After enjoying favourable publicity from its announcement of a
technology that delivers at least 30kbps, Orange promptly failed to
launch the service commercially. While one hopes that Orange will
deliver GPRS on time, BT Cellnet claims to be the first with a
commercial GPRS service for business. In May, BT Cellnet promised
that businesses would be able to touch and feel GPRS from the end
of June. What was unusual about this announcement - for the mobile
industry as a whole - was that here was BT Cellnet actually giving
the business market precedence in a new service. Until now, the
whole idea of mobile Internet was to give consumers what they
wanted in terms of content - like music news, shopping and sport.
Designed to allow users to link up to their corporate network via a
laptop computer and mobile phone, the GPRS offering from BT Cellnet
was something which could potentially be useful for business.
Again, BT Cellnet was promising far lower speeds than GPRS could
actually supply, but it was bullish about going commercial in
providing email, live news and stock market information, as well as
travel and leisure information. The consumer versions of this
service, like the Orange solution, are set to appear by the end of
the year. BT Cellnet's core network is being built by Motorola,
using kit provided by Cisco. Working with WAP and supporting HTML
and Microsoft Office applications, the laptop/phone GPRS solution
is designed to give mobile access to corporate intranets. BT
Cellnet sales and marketing director Peter Richardson says there
has been intense interest in GPRS in the business market. To entice
firms into the solution, BT Cellnet offered a single promotional
tariff before a new range of prices - ie increases - are brought in
later this summer. The billing model BT Cellnet decides on will be
interesting, as there are a number of options. Should the customer
of an "always on" technology, which only fills bandwidth when used,
be charged a one-off monthly charge, be charged for each service
subscribed to, or pay for every packet of data actually sent or
received? (GPRS is like the Internet and sends data in Internet
Protocol packets, rather than traditional GSM circuit switched
data.) Another factor firms should consider about WAP, GPRS and
UMTS is that every small leap towards more efficient transporting
of data usually involves the purchase of a new batch of phones.
BluetoothBluetooth, a short-range wireless technology that
allows devices to communicate, has had more than its fair share of
publicity since its launch in 1998. Some 1,500 companies are
looking to build products using Bluetooth and all are members of
the Bluetooth special interest group. However, the only commercial
product to have appeared is an Ericsson headset that allows
wireless communications between a mobile phone and one or more
headsets. The main reason for this lack of products, according to
these companies, is Bluetooth's popularity in the industry. The
story goes that the initial interest group members, including
Ericsson and Nokia, were surprised by the number of other companies
taking an interest. Consequently, hundreds of potential products
have caused an interoperability backlog, leading to a delay in
commercial launches. The companies involved in testing regularly
hold "plug fests", which involve them testing each others' products
together. The popularity of Bluetooth is partly due to the fact
that it works in the unlicensed 2.4GHz spectrum band, which means
users do not have to pay access charges to run their devices. A
drawback, however, is that many other technologies use this
unlicensed bandwidth space, and there have been reports that
Bluetooth may interfere with these other services. Bluetooth's
performance could be curtailed in busy usage areas such as
airports, trade shows and campus sites. Because Bluetooth has so
far not been widely used, users cannot see whether reassurances
from suppliers about this possible problem hold true. But it can be
expected that remote workers will want to take advantage of two
opportunities Bluetooth offers: wireless communications between a
laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA) and mobile phone, and
shared wireless links to the Internet via a variety of different
mobile devices. In the first instance, a user could write email on
a laptop or PDA when in a place which offers no transmission
opportunities - for example, on a pLANe - and when the opportunity
does arise, like LANding, the data can be quickly sent via a mobile
phone without any cables connecting the two. Both Nokia and
Ericsson have promised Bluetooth PC cards to enable this to happen
by the end of the year. One could say this opportunity already
exists via infra-red, but infra-red relies on line-of-site between
the two devices, and does not have the same 10-metre range as
Bluetooth. More importantly, Bluetooth offers connections for
multiple users sharing the same Bluetooth system. The range of
Bluetooth can also be extended up to 100 metres with boosters, and
this, along with its other attributes, has led to companies like
Madge Networks and AxisCommunications launching Bluetooth radio
base station systems,which allow users at an airport to use
theirmobile devices to gain quick and easy access to the Internet.
A Bluetooth-enabled mobile device would not need a booster, but to
access these radio base stations initially, the provider would
supply a user with a Bluetooth toggle to fit on their device. Both
Axis and Madge have promised commercial base station products this
year. What we are also still waiting for are the phones to
communicate with Bluetooth PC Cards and base stations without
having to use fit-on toggles. The first phones
tobeBluetooth-enabledare promisedby Ericsson - one model this year,
and another probably early next year.
Wireless Local Area
Networks Of all the emerging mobile technologies, the wireless
LAN is the most established. Used in hospitals, on many campuses
and increasingly by IT suppliers in their corporate premises, the
wireless LAN is now looking for the commercial big time, partly
through new standards which allow users to send and receive data at
up to 11mbps. The arrival of a series of standards from the
Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers last year has
helped to develop a massive wireless LAN industry, but there have
been drawbacks. A well-publicised test inaugurated by Tolly
Research last year showed how easily wireless LAN communications
can be seriously curtailed in heavily-shared office environments.
Contributory factors include the amount of traffic being
transported through the fixed lines of PCs that wireless
connections from other PCs are trying to communicate with. Simple
obstacles such as a thin dividing wall can also seriously hamper
speed. There have also been arguments between suppliers over which
type of 11mbps protocol to use. This has caused uncertainty in the
market, even though use of wireless LANs is rapidly growing in the
public sector, in the conferences market and in companies that
employ temporary staff who regularly switch offices. Wireless LAN
supplier Elsa, which provides kit built using the recently passed
11mbps protocol 802.11, is clear about the aim of wireless LANs.
Elsa UK general manager Fiona Faulkner says, "Wireless LANs are not
intended to replace conventional LANs, but they give the user
additional flexibility. "You can add new workstations or laptops to
the network in minutes without knocking holes in walls, and you can
stay in touch with the server or even access the Internet when
working on your notebook in a conference room or on the shop floor
- you don't need to be tied to an Ethernet point or a phone
socket." Elsa sells PC cards at prices ranging from £150 to £200,
and the base station points they communicate with to get network
access cost £525.
Future personal digital assistants The
future direction of mobile data devices is now dependent on mobile
voice telephony. Users are crying out for devices that can provide
a voice channel as well as a means of allowing them to effectively
run an office while on the move. The popularity of 3Com's Palm
Pilot has demonstrated the need for devices that do simple but
essential things on the move - but users want to carry one device
to do the lot. The launch of Microsoft's Pocket PC this year was a
major step in this direction. Microsoft is working on cut-down
versions of its Office suite, to allow users to write notes, view
and send email, and add to spreadsheets with the same graphical
user interface they use in the office. At the same time it
synchronises data travelling between their mobile and office
locations - and uses the same type of browser technology too. At
the same time, Microsoft says it is also aiming to combine all
these features with a phone facility on the same device. But it is
not the only supplier aiming to do this, and there is a chance it
may be beaten to it, for a change. Symbian, an alliance consisting
of Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Psion and Panasonic, has launched the
Quartz initiative which aims to do exactly what Microsoft pLANs,
and it would be fair to say it has many advantages over Microsoft
when it comes to mobile voice, including an impressive array of
backers. Quartz, in the spirit of the Symbian initiative, seeks to
use the Epoc operating system. This was originally developed by
Psion and was the arch rival to Microsoft's Windows CE mobile
operating system. Motorola is slated to be the first of the Symbian
partners to launch a Quartz product. The Quartz specification
offers a half-sized full-colour VGA Palm Pilot-style screen and
supports HTML, unlike WAP. In addition, Quartz delivers WAP support
over GPRS, Bluetooth connectivity, and a simple pen device for
compiling data. When asked whether Motorola's first offering would
have all this, Symbian confirmed that it would, but Symbian was
cagey as to when exactly it would be made commercially available.
The first showing is expected some time this year, but Microsoft
isn't even in a position to hint when the Pocket PC will be
equipped with voice. These types of device are in the pipeline, and
it is understandable why some users just want solutions that get
the most out of their humble laptops. The SpeedStep processor from
Intel is one solution that has already hit the shops, but it is
expensive. Laptop users want extra life from their batteries and
more processing power to get the most out of their applications.
That's why Intel introduced SpeedStep. But such a solution - which
gets 25 per cent extra battery life from a machine - can add around
£1,000 to the price of an average laptop. While Intel got there
first, users can wait a little longer for solutions from Transmeta,
which promises chips that are much cheaper and offer a lot longer
battery life. The first Transmeta offerings are expected this year.
Like everything in the mobile world, users should see how the first
products perform before getting their wallets out.
Antony
Savvas