The first half of 1997 is full of promises for narrowband personal communications services, and as a few industry leaders fix and fine tune, Wall Street waits to see what flies.
The troubles SkyTel Corp. had last year with its two-way network killed the post-auction momentum of NPCS. Some say problems are to be expected when introducing a new technology, but investors felt problems were a reason to sell. SkyTel’s setback, combined with speculation that broadband PCS will devour the market for two-way messaging, and the near ruin of merged MobileMedia Corp./MobileComm, have spurred doubt about the success of two-way and advanced paging services.
SkyTel is steadily climbing back on track. “We analyzed the problems with the system and product itself,” said spokesman Johnny Hales. “Now we are putting in more transmitters.” The carrier reported 27,000 SkyTel 2-Way units in service at the end of third quarter, said Hales. The company also created “2-Way U,” a two-week training course to educate SkyTel’s direct sales force about messaging and how to market it.
SkyTel has directed its sales focus to the new SkyWriter service, which is marketed in conjunction with Wireless Access Inc.’s AccessLink pocket-sized device. AccessLink allows users to exchange messages in near real-time and via Internet e-mail, create custom messages and responses using an onscreen keyboard or send preprogrammed messages.
SkyWriter service will run about $25 per month, and include 100 messages up to 80 characters in length, said Hales. The AccessLink unit will rent for $15 per month or sell for about $400.
Hales said SkyTel 2-Way is positioned as a business tool that complements a cellular phone and which provides distinct value in its own form. “Initially two-way is going to appeal to companies with 20 or more employees, doing a lot of intercommunicating,” said Hales. Target users might be two co-workers in separate meetings who are exchanging information they otherwise couldn’t without causing a disturbance.
Still, for the price some question whether a cellular or PCS phone, alone, would appeal more to the business user.
Paging Network Inc. will be first to market its VoiceNow voice paging service, which is based on Motorola Inc.’s InFLEXion protocol. Service is scheduled to begin Feb. 24 in Dallas, and soon after in San Francisco. PageNet holds six-month exclusivity on the technology, which means other InFLEXion licensees have the disadvantage (or the benefit) of watching the other guy build a network and observe the market’s response.
PageMart Wireless Inc. could be first to market with ReFLEX 25. “We’re chomping at the bit,” said Wayne Stargardt, vice president of PCS business development at PageMart. The company’s rollout depends on when production quantities of controllers are received from Motorola. “We have product now, but we don’t have a commercial version,” said Stargardt.
The company is finishing RF testing and conducting alpha tests this month, added Stargardt. The launch will be in Dallas, followed by Austin, Texas, and the company’s Southern and Northern California markets, said PageMart’s spokeswoman Catarina Wylie.
PageMart will kick off its ReFLEX service with an exclusive feature. The company’s proprietary Enhanced Services Platform paging terminal will allow ReFLEX users to interconnect with a variety of sources, including the Internet, corporate intranets, specialized databases, news services and other information feeds, said the company. Users can preprogram different canned responses for every unit and canned responses can be changed over the air. Because ESP was designed in-house, PageMart can add functionality for a certain user or group of users very quickly, said Stargardt. If a corporate customer wants to connect to the paging network via the Internet, PageMart can add an Internet encrypted protocol.
“We don’t have the ability to do that with commercial paging terminals,” said Stargardt.
ESP supports Motorola’s PageWriter-to be available in the spring-which allows users to key in original messages. The platform “will support any of the announced products you have heard of,” said Stargardt.
ESP has been in development two years. Beta tests will begin in March and the platform will be ready for first commercial deployment in the second quarter, said Stargardt. PageMart plans to keep ESP proprietary.
VoiceMart’s InFLEXion-based service is on the back burner for now, said Stargardt. “We’re letting a few other people shake out the bugs.”
Conxus’ Julie Greene said the company will launch its InFLEXion service the first day PageNet’s exclusivity runs out. The company is amidst beta tests in Atlanta and Boston and when it does launch, service will start simultaneously in a number of markets, where PageNet is planning a market-by-market rollout, said Greene.
AirTouch Paging has scheduled beta tests for ReFLEX 25 at a Motorola camp in Dallas, said spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg. The company is waiting on additional infrastructure for testing and commercial service likely will not begin this year.
