The Internet is supposed to be fast, but many of us are traveling faster than the Internet, or at least faster than traditional phone lines can keep up. It’s ironic that the Internet, a technology that is supposed to make geography irrelevant, has yielded countless new business opportunities that force people to spend more and more time traveling away from their offices.
The Internet can become even more important when people are on the road. Reports need to be revised based on information obtained in the field, schedules have to be updated, orders need to be input into the host system. There are a plethora of ways to connect to the office or ISP system from someone else’s computer. Methods range from Web-based mail to Telnet, but analysts report that more and more people want to connect to the Net from wherever they are, even if there’s no phone line nearby.
Those of us who do much of our work on laptop computers in strange places–airport lounges, park benches, hotel bathrooms–are sick of connecting. It’s bad enough our batteries only work for a few hours, but that can be dealt with by packing multiple batteries. If most of your work involves communicating or collaborating, connecting an analog phone line (portable ISDN and portable Ethernet aren’t yet affordable or trustworthy) at PC-card rates is slow, cumbersome, and often unreliable: plug an analog modem into a digital port and you may see fireworks. The remaining option? Go wireless.
THE COMPANY CONNECTION
Although wireless email solutions like RadioMail and WyndMail have existed for years, it might be easier for companies to go wireless than individuals. Indeed, many companies that started out in the late ’80s and early ’90s providing service and support to people on the road are now developing business plans around keeping companies connected. It’s a higher-margin business, but at the same time these service companies can make a strong financial case for wireless.
A company connecting to the Net via a T1 line pays roughly $1000 monthly for that connection, plus several thousand dollars for routers. The pieces of a wireless connection (radios, antennas, installation, service contract) usually cost less than $10,000. In less than a year, it’s saving a company money. Individuals don’t have $10,000 to put up front and save money, but companies do. As wireless Net connections for companies become more reliable (Ethernet bridges now adhere to an IEEE standard), they may penetrate the mainstream. Problems remain: interference is less than a problem but still an occasional one, though it’s worth pointing out that this sort of communication is far more reliable than the usual wireless method–cellular phones – because many wireless services use the federal government’s Data Encryption Standard (DES).
Wireless Net connections might be especially attractive to ISPs and other companies that need backup systems for their high-speed networks. Rather than connect a main systems room and a backup room with a T1 line (at the $1000 per month rate, plus the routers), a wireless connection saves money. The larger the company, the more internal connections, the greater the savings. Expect some bumps as you upgrade to the new Connection – temperature and wind fluctuations can wreak havoc on a radio connection, and there is a tiny consideration called lightning (your antenna is connected directly to your main system and should be the subject of multiple grounding) – but systems are improving and getting faster: speeds over 10 Mb/s rival landlocked Internet connection speeds.
A BIG DEAL
You can expect growth and speed to accelerate, especially since the Big Boys are entering the wireless business. Last month, AT&T spinoff Lucent Technologies, Inc. and Advanced Radio Telecom Corp. (ART) cut a deal for Lucent to provide $200 million worth of equipment and services for ART’s packet-switched wireless network geared toward businesses (rather than individuals). Lucent and ART will build networks in Seattle and Washington, D.C., first; a subsequent rollout of nearly a dozen cities is reported to include Chicago. ART’s spectrum licenses cover 210 U.S. markets, so if these trials are successful, the Lucent/ART combo might get very large very quickly.
Lucent’s deal follows some more modest wireless moves by its former parent AT&T, which offers wireless Internet service to its Digital PCS personal communications service, PocketNet phone, and paging customers. Its email service connects to the expected systems (namely cc:Mail and Exchange, both being phased out by Lotus and Microsoft, respectively); its wireless Web service is even more skeletal.
But companies are thinking big: according to Forrester Research’s David M. Cooperstein, “Billions of dollars in new satellite network investments are planned over the next five years.” And much of that money is being directed to helping companies get on the wireless Internet.
GOING IT ALONE
Right now anyway, it’s not companies that are looking for wireless solutions – it’s individuals within companies who are demanding the flexibility. Said one salesman for a Massachusetts computer company, “There are 27 of us in this department and I’m the only one who’s on the road enough to really need full-blown wireless access. So, even though I’m a very good performer, there’s no compelling reason for the entire department to adopt some big, expensive solution. I need it just for myself. The company will reimburse me for everything, of course, but I’m the one who has to go out and find the solution. It’s my responsibility.”
Individuals on the road want to feel connected in both directions, which is why wireless data integrators like Aether Technologies are aping the Web-content model by trying to deliver timely data to people on the road via its wireless systems. In February, Aether and Reuters America launched MarketClip, a wireless system to deliver financial data and news via a wireless modem connected to a handheld PC like Hewlett-Packard’s. As with aggregators in “traditional” online space, Aether is one of many vendors hoping to offer multiple wireless Net services under one roof.
Similarly, Unwired Planet develops software that lets people with cellular phones and two-way pagers “read” text-based Web sites. Its HTML-based technology consists of four components: a micro-browser (UP.Browser), a server (UP.Link), a paging service (UP.Mail), and a developers’ tool kit. Like many others in the business, Unwired Planet is advancing a wireless standard. There are many proposed standards fighting for space in the ether; none has emerged as a widespread favorite.
WHAT IS NEEDED
No current wireless solution does it all. Ricochet comes closest, but it is available only in a handful of communities. Go.America works reasonably well, but it forces hard-to-remember multiple hardware configurations. RadioMail and WyndMail are proprietary solutions that offer little if the Web and Usenet are essential. Cellular and GTE Airfone are much too slow and even more expensive: Airfone, for example, connects at 2400 bps and costs $5 each minute. So what do companies need to build to make the wireless Net a reliable, cost-effective alternative for individual Netizens ?
– “Expand existing networks.” The existing networks, of which RAM and ARDIS are the largest, have too many holes in their coverage areas. Just as rural telephone service is subsidized, perhaps rural wireless service will be, too. Right now, there are too many places where the expensive equipment simply doesn’t work. No one will choose wireless if he or she needs to consult a map whenever it’s time to connect to the Net.
– “Adopt Internet standards.” POP, SMTP, IMAP, IP, TCP-IP, Winsock, etc., are tried-and-true standards that landlubbing Net users can trust. Some of them are being utilized in some of the wireless services. The wireless Net won’t explode like AOL until it’s as easy as AOL.
– “Promote reasonable pricing.” Unlimited use of RadioMail’s email-only service costs $149. AOL offers email, the Web, and its proprietary content for less than $25.
– “Aggregate.” Aether and Reuters may not turn out to be leaders of the wireless revolution, but their notion is that multiple wireless services from one vendor is a winner. As with everything else, most people want to write only one check for a service, not three.
Are these four things happening ? Yes, but slowly. Don’t expect Ameritech to offer comprehensive wireless Internet services any time soon. But the Internet society is an extremely mobile one that demands high quality in its products. The first company that deploys a widespread, reliable, all-in-one wireless Internet solution could be the next Microsoft.
USING RADIOMAIL
For years, companies like (www.radiomail.net) RadioMail and (www.wynd.net) WyndMail have offered wireless email. I tested RadioMail for several months, forwarding email from other accounts to my RadioMail account. I also used it at home, at the office, and on the road. For a modem, I used 3Com’s AllPoints Wireless PC Card, which looks like a card that has eaten too much: it fits into any notebook computer, but has a battery case (it needs its own nine-volt power supply to work) and a gold telescoping antenna sticking out the end. It’s the antenna that people notice nowadays more than the laptop, which has become commonplace – I did receive some strange looks on the subway from someone who thought I might be building a bomb or something equally sinister.
RadioMail works reasonably well if you’re in a major metropolitan area and not too close to large electrical fields. Mail goes back and forth quickly from city parks, cinema lobbies, and pediatricians’ waiting rooms. Transfers of brief messages are nearly instantaneous, depending mostly on the speed of your recipient’s mail server. Also, I sent and received email from American Airlines planes and Amtrak trains, although I did stop the former when I read the American in-flight magazine and learned that “transmitting information from an FAA-supervised craft” was illegal (then why are there data ports on in-seat phones ?). The email from planes and trains was mostly of the “I can’t believe I’m sending you email from a plane” variety, but eventually I settled down and got some work done.
One major annoyance is moving between RadioMail and a standard email program like Eudora. RadioMail doesn’t use POP or any standard email protocol, and because it is a proprietary system you have to use its proprietary software, which hasn’t been updated in nearly two years and – more important – is incompatible with every other email program on the planet. So don’t expect your multiple mailboxes to merge.
The biggest problem this causes under normal circumstances is that the RadioMail client doesn’t accept attached files, which are essential to getting work done online. I was able to get some files opened and sent back using a freeware UUENCODE program I hadn’t used since the Bush administration, but most of the time the attached spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations came across as garbage.
But wander too close to a powerful electrical field and you’re in trouble. I tried RadioMail in two conference halls that are 2,000 miles apart and full of video and audio systems (as well as many other laptops – the service is portable across systems), and I couldn’t get the RadioMail network to acknowledge my existence. The same thing happened when I tried to use the system in more remote areas: on a ferry or in a car driving through sparsely populated regions. RadioMail works well where it works, but it only works in the most common areas.
And don’t forget that the service is called RadioMail and not RadioInternet. RadioMail (as well as WyndMail) offer only email services, with a bit of indirect Web access tossed in: you email a Web address to a server and you get a text-only version of the page back in email. That’s insufficient, of course, but don’t expect it to get better anytime soon. It may get worse, particularly if you don’t work for a large company. Both RadioMail and WyndMail are directing their future efforts to support virtual private networks rather than individual customers, and RadioMail tech-support personnel acknowledge openly that the company won’t be updating its existing single-user software ever. More ominously, RadioMail has dropped its 24-month service plan and gone to a month-to-month billing plan. This does not suggest a bright future for the product, but right now there is little one can do for an alternative except run up large cellular bills and wait for Ricochet to come to your town.
HOW TO CONNECT
If you live in or around Chicago, you don’t have many wireless Internet options. Ameritech doesn’t offer any wireless Net service, nor do the cable companies. RadioMail or WyndMail can be solutions if all you need is wireless email. Depending on how much you expect to use your wireless modem, these services will cost from $50 to $150 per month. You’ll get complete portability, which means you don’t have to hear the high-pitch dial-up sounds of a modem. Wireless email may be in its infancy, but at least it’s quiet.
For wireless Web, an Illinois resident doesn’t have access to Metricom’s lauded Ricochet service, because Ricochet has yet to move up to mainstream availability: you can get it only in San Francisco, Seattle, cities in Oregon and Nebraska, and on a handful of college campuses.
A relatively easy, but expensive, way to get wireless Internet is to purchase a cellular modem. These are PCMCIA cards ($250-$600) that connect to a cellular phone, and you press a combination of buttons on your computer and cellular phone until the lengthy connection procedure commences. It takes roughly two to three times as long to log onto an ISP via cellular connection than land connection, and you can expect your connection to be slow (a 33.6K cellular modem usually bounces down to 9600 or even 4800), noisy (lost packets are the rule), and expensive (unless you have an unlimited local connection, which is expensive in itself). The pluses of cellular connections are that you can use existing hardware and software and you don’t have to sign up to a new service. But no one doing serious work on the Net can stand for such an iffy connection all the time – cellular connections are acceptable as backup connections methods, not as primary ones.
Several companies are offering more general wireless services. One that bears watching is (www.goamerica.net) GoAmerica. Working with generally available wireless PC cards from AllPoints and Motorola, GoAmerica works on standard Internet protocols like POP and IP addresses and lets you use your usual email and Web software as well as that bundled with the service. But there is a big tradeoff: you have to install the GoAmerica drivers and remove all other network services (DialUp adapter, NT, Netware, etc.) to get it to work. You can get around having to reinstall everything every time you switch by creating multiple hardware configurations, but even then it takes much to long to switch modes. It’s not a great solution, but it does work – this is a reasonable way of stating the state of the wireless Net industry as a whole.
WIRELESS RESOURCES
Before you set out for the wild, wireless Web, you might want to use your reliable, land-locked Net connection for some exploring.
If you want to try one of the email services, see(www.radiomail.net)RadioMail or (www.wynd.net)WyndMail. If the wireless Web intrigues you, see (www.metricom.com) Metricom or (www.goamerica.net)GoAmerica.
Need a wireless modem ? (www.3com.com)3Com and (www.motorola.com)Motorola sell ’em. More interested in infrared communications that use your computer’s existing IrDA port ? Start with the (www.irda.org)Infrared Data Association.
One of the industry groups boosting with wireless Net is the (www.wlana.com//index.html)Wireless LAN Alliance. The government’s views on wireless matters can be found via the (www.fcc.gov)Federal Communications Commission. Two publications that cover the industry are (www.mobilecomputing.com)Mobile Computing and (www.volksware.com/mobilis/) mobilis.
When you’re ready to go deeper, there are comprehensive lists of wireless links all over the Web. Many of them point to each other, which can make you dizzy, but try CMU’s (www.monarch.cs.cmu.edu/related.html) Monarch Project links or the list from (winwww.rutgers.edu/pub/Links.html)Rutgers’ Winlab.
AltaVista reports 1,045,210 on the Web with the word “wireless”; HotBot finds only 354,168. Happy searching!
