Wave Of The Future: Wireless Tools Enabling E-Access

<B> Wave Of The Future: Wireless Tools Enabling E-Access</B>

By Megan Hjermstad

New integrated products with wireless connectivity--cellular phones, pagers, personal digital assistants--promise to speed the acquisition of information, ease communications and improve productivity of business travelers on the go. Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia earlier this year independently released new wireless phones that put Internet content on a small graphical display.

The new digital phones are compliant with the new wireless application protocol (WAP), an emerging global wireless technology standard that provides a common platform for developing Web content for access by devices with smaller screens, lower connection speeds and less memory than computers. The technology allows users to access select information from the Internet and corporate intranets, as well as e-mail accounts.

The three companies are founding members of the WAP forum. In conjunction with more than 180 corporations from various segments of the wireless industry, the three companies are working together to ensure a common platform for Internet content on wireless products.

Nokia unveiled two new phones in the 7100 series, including a tri-mode phone, which works on several different U.S. and European frequencies. The phones, Nokia's first WAP 1.1 phones designed for the U.S. market, are an enhanced version of the European WAP-enabled phone announced by Nokia in March. The newest versions, which have a memory-caching feature to compensate for slower connection speeds, will be available in the first half of 2000.

Meanwhile, Ericsson released its third WAP-compliant product, the R320. The phone uses a WAP browser to access content and operates on a GSM 900/1800 dual band. The R320 has a full graphic display that features five rows of Latin text or three rows of Chinese characters. The product will be sold abroad during the first quarter of 2000, and a U.S. product should be available soon after.

"This is the transition point in the industry today," said Jonathan Ruff, senior manager of business development and strategy for Motorola. "Everybody's announcing products, and we're all bringing products to the market at the same time."

Motorola in August introduced the Timeport L7089 phone, a tri-band phone that works on all three GSM frequencies, enabling usage in Asia, Europe and the United States. The micro-browser inside the phone, which allows users to access Web information, meets the WAP 1.1 version specification and by 2000 will be included in all of Motorola's digital phones.

The digital phones with browsers will appeal particularly to travelers who need to quickly and easily access favorite Web sites for up-to-date information, such as news, flight schedules, weather reports and stock quotes.

"Initially, as with most new high-tech toys, this is going to appeal to the mobile professional--someone who uses a phone a lot and doesn't want to carry much," said Nokia spokeswoman Megan Matthews.

Limited by WAP, the phones are not designed for Web surfing, but they will enable users to enter addresses of Web sites they regularly check. WAP works only with Web sites written with wireless markup language (WML). One task of the WAP forum is to encourage more Internet content carriers and corporations to support separate WML-based sites. "WML allows network operators and content providers to provide their information in a way they never even thought of before," Matthews said.

Industry analysts estimated that 200 million units equipped with WAP browsers will be shipped next year. "We are going to see a significant change in the way people do Internet content just because of the sheer number of devices," Ruff said.

Nokia beginning Dec. 15 also will offer corporations access to the WAP server 1.0, which gives mobile workers access to internal corporate networks via the wireless network. The software lets companies control the end-to-end security of access to confidential data.

Nokia and Ericsson also are working with content providers to offer specialized information services for WAP products. In conjunction with IBM and Sabre, Nokia has designed a real-time interactive travel service that will allow travelers to monitor travel plans, change itineraries and receive automatic flight updates from airlines via their cellular phones. Nokia officials said they will begin a pilot project soon, with the mobile service available to the general public in the first quarter of 2000.

Nokia also has teamed up with CNN Interactive to offer CNN Mobile, the first mobile telephone news and information service to be available in the United States. CNN Mobile in February launched its services abroad and already is offered by 15 operators throughout 12 countries.

Although Nokia was the only cellular phone manufacturer directly involved in developing the WAP-compliant platforms for these particular information services, the interoperability of the WAP standard will give users of all products with WAP-compliant browsers access to the same valuable services.

Meanwhile, Nokia will enable travelers to carry fewer electronic devices by developing a combination of a handheld organizer and wireless phone.

Looking to disencumber the business traveler, Nokia and 3Com in 2001 will introduce a two-in-one device. The pen-based, dual-functionality product is the first attempt by a wireless phone maker to integrate digital wireless phones with information management applications in what has become another integrated product category.

"The key here is that there will be many different devices in the future and you will be able to choose what type best suits you," said Matthews. "This will appeal to people who want to carry just one product."

In the recently formed partnership, Nokia has licensed the Palm Computing Operating System from 3Com, which will allow user interface and applications to run on Nokia's phone, and enable users to enter text by writing on its display with a stylus. "We've chosen to use the pen-based interface because people in the United States are familiar with the palm product," Matthews said.

The Palm OS also will allow personal and professional information management and organizer capabilities, and should synchronize with other palm products, PCs and laptops.

The Symbian Epoc platform will be used, enabling Nokia to run other data applications with Internet content in addition to the Palm application. Symbian is a joint venture of wireless phone makers Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Psion and Matsushita, which is becoming a standard core operating system for wireless phone and Internet communications.

Meanwhile, 3Com in October released nationwide its latest organizer, the Palm VII, previously only available at select retailers in the New York metropolitan area. It now retails for $499, reduced from the original price of $599. The integrated handheld organizer enables immediate wireless Internet access and offers wireless messaging service.

As vendors increase the types of wireless devices and the availability of them, GDSs are expanding their travel-related services to create applications for the handheld market.

Sabre earlier this month unveiled its Virtually There Web site (www.virtuallythere.sabre.com), a personal travel domain that offers up-to-the-minute itinerary and destination information via the Internet to business travelers with a Sabre reservation. By mid-2000, the mobile traveler will be able to download the destination information to a PDA or handheld device.

"If this is a traveler who feels confident using the Internet, it's really going to be beneficial for them," said Calvin Evanoff, vice president of business development for Sabre. "There are always going to be a few holdouts, but the majority of clients will enjoy the features."

Travelers no longer will need to rely on a paper itinerary and, in fact, will get the latest version of their itinerary online, updated with any last-minute flight changes. "Agencies are not going to send out paper itineraries to entire corporations anymore," said Evanoff.

Also by mid-2000, upon booking a trip, travelers will receive e-mail itineraries in text format with hot links to the online version that include air, hotel, and car reservation details. The traveler can enter a reservation number and last name to gain access to a full itinerary of their travel plans, with flight and gate details, inflight service information and destination information, including weather, maps and driving directions.

Meanwhile, Galileo International Inc. and Motorola Inc. earlier this month announced that they together will develop a travel automation application for Motorola's PageWriter 2000X two-way wireless communication center. PageWriter2000X users by early next year will have the ability to change flight itineraries and receive notification of flight changes via the smart pager application.

"Business travelers are traditionally very mobile people--especially high-end business travelers--who are doing a lot of traveling and find it really difficult to log on to a computer or find a phone," said Josephine Posti, spokeswoman for Motorola. "This will allow them to make travel changes or cancellations on the fly, without going through more complicated routes."

The wireless pager is a consolidated personal messaging device that enables travelers to send and receive pages, e-mails and faxes. In addition, users can synchronize and exchange important data with a PC or another PDA. Although it is small enough to be worn on a belt, its large screen and graphical user interface, with a 49-key keyboard, make it simple to use.

"We are targeting customers in the corporate market--those most likely to have those devices," said Paul Conley, senior manager of corporate marketing. "The growth rate of these products is very swift and the market is growing rapidly. We're always looking to provide service on whatever platform is available."

Business travelers may see Galileo software become available to other handheld devices in the future. "There is an opportunity to expand different business relationships with Motorola," said Conley. Galileo also is in discussion with other companies. "We're talking to telephone, PDA vendors--basically any suppliers of wireless or palm devices."

Carriers also are jumping on the bandwagon to offer direct connections to flight information via handheld devices. Delta in October announced that by year-end it will offer a direct link to customers' flight itineraries, up-to-date flight arrival and departure information, same-day gate information and complete flight schedules from handheld personal digital assistants and smart phones with wireless Web browsers.

The introduction of this application will be the first of a suite of products being developed by Delta using the extensible markup language, the emerging standard for information presentation on handheld devices.

"The use of particular devices--smart phones, PDAs, Palm VIIs--are really going to explode in the next year. We are taking a proactive approach to provide connectivity opportunities from anywhere for our customers," said Andy McDill, spokesman for Delta.

While paper tickets gradually are being replaced by e-tickets, paper itineraries soon will be enhanced by updated digital versions. "Print was great for 30 years ago, but now you need wireless devices to get up-to-the-minute information," said Rory Veevers-Carter, vice president of GoldenWare Travel Technologies, the company that created a similar wireless application for American Airlines.

Meanwhile, American also recently released its electronic timetable application for the Palm VII, which enables customers to get the same valuable real-time flight and gate information, as well as complete itineraries and updates on the latest specials and rates.

"This is for the road warrior who is early to adapt to new technology, has the latest gadget and keeps one step ahead," said Veevers-Carter. "But even I find it very useful to have when I'm traveling," he added.

United Airlines also offers a wireless application that provides limited information on the status of a given flight, but does not enable customers to access an individual itinerary or get more comprehensive information. Palm VII owners can download the American and United applications and other non-travel-related applications at www.palmnet.com.

One feature not yet available on any of these applications is the ability to actually book a flight or change a reservation. "The way the existing product is working off a schedule, an electronic timetable, it isn't designed for it," Veevers-Carter said.

So the question remains: Will business travelers actually be able to book flights on a similar type of handheld application in the future? "The Palm has the ability to do secure transactions, but booking is going to require a lot of development," said Veevers-Carter.