As one company fine-tunes its debut for narrowband personal communications services, others bide their time by determining market position and devising rollout strategies.
SkyTel Corp.-through its PCS bidding entity Destineer Corp.-plans to activate its nationwide two-way advanced messaging service during the second half of the year. But AirTouch Paging, BellSouth Corp.’s MobileComm and others express no hurry, possibly waiting an additional year before initiating services.
Along with its pioneer’s preference license awarded by the Federal Communications Commission, SkyTel, a subsidiary of Jackson, Miss.-based Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp., won two other nationwide narrowband licenses in last fall’s auction. SkyTel will operate its two-way service using Motorola Inc.’s ReFLEX 50 protocol and Tango pager unit. ReFLEX 50 transmits outbound data at up to 25,600 bits per second, 11 times the speed of POCSAG.
Both Motorola and Glenayre Technologies Inc. will supply network infrastructure, said Jennifer O’Mahony, SkyTel’s public relations manager. Inaugural service will include three core applications: a message acknowledgement capability, a “canned” response menu from which users will select response choices and a preprogrammed response function that will allow users to input more than 100 customized responses. SkyTel expects the function to especially benefit professionals who work outside the office.
SkyTel is positioning its two-way services initially to meet the needs of its one-way paging users-mostly businesspeople-and will target a more diverse consumer market later. The company intends to have service available in 300 markets by the end of the year, O’Mahony said.
On SkyTel’s heels are PageMart Inc. and Paging Network Inc., which both plan to begin beta testing voice paging technology and services later this year. PageMart won one nationwide and five regional licenses; PageNet acquired three nationwide licenses.
PageMart’s VoiceMart and PageNet’s VoiceNow products are based on Motorola’s stored digital voice technology and InFLEXion protocol, capable of transmitting outbound data at 112,000 bps. However, voice paging currently is limited to one-way transmission. PageMart’s network also will use ReFLEX 25 technology.
Although voice paging is not a new idea, Plano, Texas-based PageNet intends to be the first to deliver quality voice transmission at a reasonable cost, commented Don Shirley, director of advanced wireless technology at PageNet. PageNet has priced its VoiceNow service at $20 per month. Marketed as a pocket-sized answering machine, VoiceNow will allow callers to send voice messages up to four minutes long, according to Scott Baradell, PageNet’s manager of corporate communications. The network also will accommodate two-way data service.
Along with its voice paging service, VoiceMart, Dallas-based PageMart also plans to provide acknowledgement messaging and advanced data transfer functions, said Katarina Oppel, manager of public relations for the company.
PageMart plans to activate its narrowband service no later than first quarter 1996, while PageNet is looking at third or fourth quarter 1996.
However, VoiceNow will precede VoiceMart in the marketplace because PageNet has a six-month exclusivity agreement with Motorola for the voice technology. Like SkyTel, Glenayre Technologies and Motorola will provide network infrastructure for both PageMart and PageNet.
Alternatively, AirTouch Paging is pursuing narrowband applications that will be lower in cost and less feature-rich, indicated corporate spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg. AirTouch intends for the new two-way service to complement its other services and will focus on growing both its paging operations, as well as cellular and future broadband PCS services, Rosenberg added.
A winner of one nationwide and three regional narrowband PCS licenses, AirTouch does not desire to be first to market, but plans instead to proceed cautiously, exploring what kinds of applications customers want. As such, the company will begin beta-testing ReFLEX 25 late third or fourth quarter this year, with commercial service ready sometime next year, Rosenberg said. Families with children will be one potential market for acknowledgement paging, Rosenberg noted, adding that menu-based responses will likely be sufficient in such safety-related situations.
Akin to AirTouch’s unhurried approach, MobileComm, the Jackson, Miss.-based subsidiary of BellSouth, is carefully investigating what features customers want and which equipment and technology will best apply. “We didn’t do it to make a quick buck,” said Jean Coppenbarger, MobileComm’s marketing communications manager. “Before we sell one unit, one pager, to one customer, we will spend $100 million in capital to deploy the service,” she added.
MobileComm’s distinct competitive advantage lies in its distribution, said Coppenbarger. The company will deliver its two-way services through more than 15,000 retail outlets that today market MobileComm’s one-way products and services. At first, MobileComm will feature a canned or menu-based message acknowledgement function, followed later by custom-response paging, in which unique messages can be sent, Coppenbarger explained.
Later this year, MobileComm will conduct network equipment trials with Glenayre in Dallas, although no equipment nor technology providers have been confirmed, according to Coppenbarger. She expects two-way service to cost about 50 percent more than current one-way paging.
Few other narrowband licensees have stated which protocols they will use or who will build out their networks. Several, however, indicated plans for testing ReFLEX technology.
One company, AT&T Corp., is swimming against the Motorola FLEX family tide. AT&T plans to introduce its own two-way messaging protocol, according to Theresa Roberts, group marketing manager for the messaging division of AT&T Wireless Services. The protocol will be open standards-based and symmetric-capable of sending equal amounts of data inbound and outbound-Roberts added.
AT&T is researching a number of applications, including voice paging and “initiate response” paging, to deploy on its nationwide network. As opposed to answering pages from a menu of canned responses, explained Roberts, initiate response would enable a user to respond with an original message. Roberts noted AT&T is in discussions with several manufacturers that may develop products based on the new protocol.
The company plans to begin testing its narrowband PCS system in the fourth quarter and introduce commercial service by year-end 1996, commented Roberts.
In charge of PCS planning and implementation for Ameritech Mobile Services, Evan Richards said the company will provide customers a “kitbag” of complementary telecommunications services-including basic and cellular telephony, narrowband and broadband PCS and a full line of data services constituting a full service network. Richards noted Ameritech’s narrowband license is for the FCC-designated Region 3, overlapping much of its current footprint.
The company plans to begin offering commercial service mid-year 1996. Ameritech is testing FLEX technology, Richards noted.
Miami, Fla.-based Insta-Check Systems Inc., a diverse company co-founded by brothers Anil and Suresh Gajwani, doesn’t plan activating its Region 2 service before late 1996, said Suresh. Most other licensees indicated they would be in service by late 1996 or early 1997.
