Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Wireless learns to navigate the internet
More than a year after the Internet burst into the wireless space, the big story in mobile data continues to be how the industry is responding to this communications phenomenon. While circuit-switched cellular still is the standard for wireless data connectivity-offering near-universal access for dial-up wireless communications-we’re becoming a packet-switched world driven by the Internet and the access it provides to the larger world of computer networking. Circuit-switched data transmission requires setting up a dedicated two-way link while packet-switching breaks up the transmission into small data packets that share the channel with other packets or, in some cases, voice transmissions. “If the Internet trend continues, packet will assume a dominant role because it is so congruent with the Internet,” noted Kendra VanderMeulen, vice president and general manager of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s Wireless Data Division. The Internet’s Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol provides a common set of rules so different networks and devices can communicate. And accommodating TCP/IP gives wireless carriers an advantage in attracting the applications developers that mobile data ultimately needs to succeed. “It’s much easier to get a market started by springboarding off what is already popular,” said Ira Brodsky, president of Datacomm Research Co. “There’s tremendous value in being compatible with what people are already doing. Having an IP-based data network is definitely an advantage in attracting and working with developers. You can’t sell a solution that is alien to them,” he said. … Read more
Nokia introduces new GSM messaging with internet access
IRVING, Texas-Nokia Mobile Phones introduced a service that allows direct Internet access from standard Global System for Mobile communications cellular phones. “The main idea behind Smart Messaging is to combine Internet access with wireless telephony in a seamless manner,” said Mikko Terho, vice president of Wireless Data for Nokia Mobile Phones. “Any GSM phone with Short Message Service capability, such as the Nokia 2190, can access the services. The specification is designed to be scaleable and it supports not only standard GSM phones, but takes full advantage of enhanced communications devices such as the Nokia 9000 Communicator.” … Read more
Pagenet allows voice messages
ATLANTA-Paging Network Inc. launched its VoiceNow voice paging service in Atlanta. The service allows subscribers to receive a caller’s voice message. Service packages begin at $10 per month and the VoiceNow pager may be purchased for $180 or leased for a smaller monthly payment, the company said. The messages are stored at a central location rather than being broadcast like typical paging messages. A locator message is broadcast first to search for the subscriber’s pager. Within about a minute, the locater page is acknowledged and the voice page is sent to the transmitter nearest to the pager and forwarded. VoiceNow uses PageNet’s narrowband personal communications services network. … Read more
Consolidation across a shrinking paging industry
NEW YORK-When it comes to further consolidation in paging, the industry in the United States has taken a deep breath and is waiting to exhale. During 1995 and early 1996, the paging industry underwent rapid consolidation. “Public stock prices have been off considerably over the last nine to 12 months, and this puts a damper on some of the things operators in the industry can do,” said Brad Busse, chief operating officer of Daniels & Associates, Denver. “There will be a slowdown until the financial markets get comfortable again.” By the end of 1996, the top 10 paging companies had about 80 percent of the 34.1 million subscribers, with the other 300 or so carriers dividing up the remaining slice of the pie, said Iain Gillott, manager of wireless communications research for IDC/Link Resources, Austin, Texas. “[Paging Network Inc.] owns about 25 percent of the market and is doing OK,” Gillott said. “If you look at the difference in size among the top 10, it’s huge.” The question no one has answered yet is how many paging carriers will be necessary in the tough marketplace of this low-margin business. Ultimately, Gillott said he believes, “PageNet will be left standing, but beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.” PageNet, with about nine million subscribers, “never has had a strategy to be an acquirer,” said Jeanine M. Oburchay, managing director, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc., New York. “Arch (Communications Group Inc.), with 3.3 million subscribers, is still digesting its Westlink acquisition and cleaning up its balance sheet to develop free cash flow.” … Read more
Wireless opportunities in Latin America
NEW YORK-Latin American countries may offer new opportunities for wireless telecommunications carriers, but they must be prepared to compete against incumbents for purchasing power that is concentrated in the hands of a few. “A lot of the licenses coming up are for the third or fourth provider, so you are looking at a mass market right from day one,” said Toby Dingemans, senior associate in Booz-Allen & Hamilton’s Communications, Media and Technology Practice, New York. In many Latin American countries, as much as two-thirds of the population earns an annual income of less than $2,500. “Many of these people don’t have an indoor toilet, and they’re not likely ever to have a cell phone,” Dingemans said April 29 at a Booz-Allen seminar on “The Future of the Latin America Wireless Market.” This year, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela are scheduled to expand their wireless markets from duopolies to markets with three-to-five players. The same kind of expansion should happen at a somewhat later date in Brazil and Columbia. Personal communications services “auctions for other countries are definitely in the pipeline,” Dingemans said. Using the historical perspective afforded by the wireline telephony industry, Dingemans said: “Latin America isn’t an unlimited market opportunity.” … Read more
A ‘new telecom era’ takes shape
WASHINGTON-Overarching economic, trade and political policies evolving in the United States and abroad are likely to eclipse telecommunications policy as the key drivers of wireless commerce in the next century. The trend toward telecommunications deregulation around the world is making telecom policymakers less relevant and shifting the balance of power into the hands of trade czars, finance ministers, central bankers, diplomats, industrialists, financiers and, of course, the free market. The foundation for this new economic order is beginning to take shape. The 1996 telecommunications act extended the wireless deregulatory model of 1993 to the rest of industry. As such, it’s the law of the jungle for wireless operators, local telephone companies, long-distance carriers, videocasters and Internet service providers. Already, though, winners and losers in the digital game have been largely determined. It is a field dominated by telecom giants the likes of AT&T Corp., MCI Communications Corp., Sprint Corp. and the regional Bell telephone companies. Ultimately, the field will be comprised of multinational conglomerates. The Federal Communications Commission, following last week’s rulings on universal service and access charges, has now implemented the three major components of the telecom act. The courts likely will get the next crack at it. And if some Republicans get their way, the FCC will go the way of the dinosaurs. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
