Making Wireless Connections to the Web
After years of hype, mobile phone carriers have begun to roll out new services that may finally give travelers an easy and reliable wireless connection to their e-mail and the Internet.
One such service by AirTouch Cellular, which debuted last week in Seattle, Salt Lake City and Michigan, provides the fastest data service currently offered by a major U.S. mobile phone carrier. It also represents the first move to make wireless computer connections available wherever voice service is present.
AirTouch Cellular, a subsidiary of Vodafone AirTouch, is the nation’s second-largest wireless company, serving about 9 million customers in markets spanning 25 states. The company plans to offer its new service in all of its markets, including California, by March 2000.
“I think this is the start of something major,” said Andy Seybold, an industry analyst and editor of the Outlook, a technology newsletter. “There are 25 million notebook computers out there, and the people who have them need an easy way of accessing their e-mail several times a day.”
Other carriers, including GTE, US West and Sprint PCS, are planning similar services. Although the companies have not yet publicized their roll-out plans, each has placed big orders for Web-enabled phones. Analysts expect GTE and Sprint PCS to unveil their services before the end of the year.
The new AirTouch service, called Net Access, allows customers to use a digital mobile phone as a wireless modem for their laptop computers. The system does not require a special modem or modem card, and will provide transmission speeds of up to 14.4 kilobits per second over its existing digital network, AirTouch said.
In addition to a monthly fee, customers pay for transmission time just as they would for voice calls--first using up minutes that come with their service plan, then paying a set per-minute price for additional time. Through January, AirTouch is offering the service without its planned monthly fee of $4.95.
To use the AirTouch service, customers will need the digital Thin Phone made by Qualcomm and costing between $69 and $150. The phone has a built-in mini-browser that works with new Web portals by Phone.com and Microsoft, the two leading sites that are tailoring Web content to the constraints of a wireless phone.
Roving workers going wireless have primarily used services based on Cellular Digital Packet Data, a technology adopted by AT&T; Wireless, Bell Atlantic and others, but sold primarily to corporate customers. The service can provide speeds of up to 19.2kbps but is not widely available.
Pacific Bell Wireless and some other U.S. carriers offer wireless data transmission through their mobile phones, but the speeds top out at 9.6kbps.
Some travelers have turned to Metricom, which sells a data-only service called Ricochet. Ricochet provides data speeds of up to 28.8kbps and has proved itself at speeds of up to 128kbps in beta tests.
But Ricochet is available in only a handful of cities, has a steep monthly fee and requires equipment that can cost more than $300.
“Ricochet is the envelope-pusher from the speed point of view, but it’s not available many places and their network is very expensive to build,” said Mark Lowenstein, a senior vice president at Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm. “It’s not a broad-based service yet.”
Lowenstein and others acknowledge that some may be unmoved by a wireless service touting a paltry 14.4 data speed when wired speeds typically top 56.6kbps.
But he noted that this is the first phase in a massive shift to make wireless networks accommodate the fast-growing demand for data transmission.
“The 14.4 service will download e-mail faster than I can read it, and that’s fast enough,” Seybold said. “If people want to download Web pages with lots of graphics and pictures, that’s not what wireless is all about today, and it won’t be for a few years.”
Times staff writer Elizabeth Douglass can be reached at elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com.
