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September 25, 2000

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Wireless Apps: Problems And Opportunities

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More on Nextel:

sidebar: ASPs Can Free IT Managers From Tangle Of Wireless Data

Tele.com AT&T-Nextel Deal All Talk? (9/18/00)

TechWeb Finance: Analysts Say Nextel, AT&T Wireless Would Be Good Fit (9/7/00)

EETimes: FCC report sees mobile data and fixed wireless poised to boom (8/28/00)

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The responsibility for wireless voice and data seems to have landed in the laps of the data folks, and wireless-data technology is fraught with complexity. Different standards and applications exist on devices ranging from phones to personal digital assistants to notebook computers.

"There is a trend organizationally to merge telecom and IT. That's because of convergence. You've got voice running on data networks and companies like Nextel offering data services on phones," says Bob Stack, VP of information systems for Natural MicroSystems Corp., a network-performance-acceleration company and a Nextel user. "When you merge, you can share skills, organize things, and provide a growth path for the company."

Natural MicroSystems doesn't use the data-oriented services Nextel offers, but it has been testing the wireless-data waters on its own. The company built a wireless data network at its campus in Framingham, Mass.

"We feel wireless data is on its way and that the only way to deal with it is through a merged entity made up of telecom and IT," Stack says.

ValueStar Inc., a consumer-rating company in San Francisco, also has merged its technology groups. "We are an organization that, by necessity, has integrated our voice and data functions. Our entire telephony system is run by the IT staff," says Ben Lyon, ValueStar's Web engineering manager. "We run an automated call center that is integrated into a computer database. Nextel's services have to come through an integrated IT-telecom department." Like Natural MicroSystems, ValueStar hasn't yet subscribed to Nextel Online.

Bob Stack Photo by Tsar Fedorski While many companies have been late to the cellular party, the city of Hillsboro, Ore., established usage policies more than a year and a half ago. A story in The Oregonian newspaper two years ago revealed a pattern of cell-phone charge-back fraud in the city's police department that spurred action.

"Since then, we established usage and expense procedures for most users. The responsibility for cell phones still falls under telecom, but it's very blurry," says Greg Mont, network administrator for Hillsboro's information systems. "We haven't yet subscribed to Nextel's Internet services, but we would require access to our intranet, and, from what I know, they don't yet offer that."

Nextel executives consider the company's current technology the first phase of a multiphase effort. Nextel is working with systems-integration partners such as Aether Systems Inc. to develop apps that will do more than just grant canned access to public sites.

"We're looking at ways in which companies can get to that Holy Grail of having intranet information available," Nextel's Santoro says. "We also want to create a set of vertical applications that will get at mobile field sales and service and transportation."

Wireless data presents challenges to IT departments, many of which have already been met in the wired world. In fact, IT's current problems with wireless data and voice are reminiscent of the network and systems problems of an earlier time. Perhaps the trick for Nextel is to keep its flying submarine airborne long enough for IT to get over its fear of untethered heights.