Xypoint Answers Call for Free Web Wireless Access
If you want Internet information on your mobile phone, most wireless companies will tell you to buy a phone equipped with a special mini-browser and sign up for Web access service.
But a rebellious little company named Xypoint Corp. is out to prove that there’s another way. Its free WebWirelessNow service, which debuted earlier this month, is already a promising rival to services sold by Sprint PCS, GTE and other mobile phone carriers.
Before I tell you about WebWirelessNow, an important clarification: No matter what those commercials say, you cannot get the Internet on your wireless phone--at least not yet. For now, it’s mostly a text affair, with no graphics, pictures or any of the other bells and whistles of the Web.
Today’s latest gadgets do allow you to buy books and CDs and get a growing list of specially formatted information from the Internet.
The Web information that tends to be most popular among people on the move remains real-time stock quotes, weather forecasts, sports scores and the like. Nearly all of the available services include ways to get that data displayed on your mobile phone.
Retrieve Information Any Time You Want
What makes WebWirelessNow attractive is that it is free, while other carriers charge an extra monthly fee for Web access. In addition, the service works on any digital wireless phone--not just those with a mini-browser that reads programming in the new wireless application protocol, or WAP.
Instead, WebWirelessNow uses short message service, a technology that has been around for years and typically is built into wireless networks and digital mobile phones.
Xypoint’s service also allows you to retrieve information any time you want--and as many times as you want--simply by speed-dialing a phone number and hanging up after the first ring.
That maneuver avoids air-time charges but triggers the service to immediately send you a message with the desired information, such as a recent stock quote.
To use the service, you need access to the Internet because you must initiate and customize your WebWirelessNow account through a Web site. In addition, your underlying wireless service provider must offer short message service.
Some carriers include text messaging in their digital service plans for no extra charge, but both Nextel Communications and Pacific Bell Wireless tack on an extra monthly fee.
Setting up my WebWirelessNow Infolink account was surprisingly simple.
I went to the company’s Web site, https://www.webwirelessnow.com, and selected a sampling of Infolinks that I wanted to activate from a list displayed on the site, including sports scores (San Diego Padres), stock quotes (telecommunications firms AT&T;, Qualcomm, MCI WorldCom and Global Crossing), humor (random jokes), weather and traffic.
After selecting the first link, the company asks for your e-mail address and the mobile phone number to which you want to receive the information. You set a password (and a hint word in case you forget the password), and that sets up your custom account.
For each link selected, WebWirelessNow sends your phone a text message that includes the phone number for the Infolink. A duplicate notification is sent to your e-mail address.
A Quick Response but Fewer Links
The first time you call the sports link, for example, the service will answer and instruct you to save the sports phone number in your phone’s address book or speed dial buttons (this can be a tricky task at first but quickly mastered) and label it “sports” or whatever you like.
From there, you need only call “sports” and hang up after the first ring. The service then captures the needed information from a Web site and forwards it to your phone in a message.
I tried the WebWirelessNow service using two different digital phones and two different underlying carriers--a tiny new Nokia phone with voice and messaging service from PacBell and a Motorola i1000plus phone with service from Nextel.
The free service worked equally well on both phones, with the only noticeable difference being the way the incoming text is displayed and retrieved on the phone. The messages were a bit harder to read on my pager-size Nokia phone than on the Motorola device, which had a larger screen and clearer type.
Over four days of testing, I nearly always received the requested information in less than a minute. That response time held up while traveling on trains and throughout hectic days on Wall Street, when I called frequently for stock prices.
The company’s Web site also is well designed, making it easy to add or delete Infolinks, send test messages and change the mobile phone number you want to use. WebWirelessNow users also can set up “superlinks,” which combine two or more links so the information can be retrieved with one phone call.
Right now, the main drawback for WebWirelessNow is that it offers fewer content links than its more expensive rivals. That gap could decrease over the coming year, when Xypoint adds e-mail delivery, location-based services, as well as content from Web portal AltaVista and other partners.
In addition, WebWirelessNow hopes to get a content boost from Web site developers who want to extend their reach to wireless phones. Xypoint makes its developer’s software available for free from the Web site, and using it makes the developers’ content compatible with any digital phone with messaging.
Seattle-based Xypoint hopes its open-technology strategy will encourage participating developers to post a “WebWirelessNow” logo on sites that are compatible with the service so visitors can add the site to their Infolink account by just clicking on the logo.
In the future, the company plans to extend service to other wireless devices, such as alphanumeric pagers and hand-held computers such as the Palm.
For me, WebWirelessNow is plenty good right now. It’s free, works on my existing phone and gives me reliable access to the same sorts of stuff I can pay to get from Sprint PCS and other rivals. What’s not to like about that?
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Xypoint Information Service for Phones
What
WebWirelessNow, a custom Internet information-retrieval system for digital wireless phones, developed by Xypoint Corp. of Seattle.
Price
Free.
Requirements
Internet access, digital wireless phone plus text-messaging service (some wireless carriers provide messaging for free; others charge extra for it).
Available Web Content
Stock quotes, weather, sports, flight times, lottery, ski reports, horoscopes, humor, Magic 8-Ball game.
Pros
Free; works on any digital wireless phone, on any carrier’s network; no special software or phone mini-browser needed; simple to use and customize; user gets info on demand.
Cons
Limited content for now; messaged information can run together, depending on phone’s screen size and shape.
Availability
Through https://www.webwirelessnow.com. Future premium services will tie in e-mail delivery and location-based information such as driving directions.
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Sources: Times research; Xypoint Corp.
