At long last, a wireless carrier has announced its intention to launch the Revolv service from Wireless Knowledge L.L.C., the joint venture Qualcomm Inc. and Microsoft Corp. formed more than a year ago.
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it plans to include the service as part of its PocketNet rollout, expected in the first quarter. Revolv was designed to give users remote access to their corporate e-mail, calendar and contact list applications on wireless devices, as well as Internet-based information content.
First introduced last January, the service was expected to be commercially available by the second quarter. But difficulties in establishing secure connections between enterprise networks, Wireless Knowledge’s network operating center and public wireless networks proved problematic.
Adding to the technical challenges was the reluctance of corporate information technology managers to expose their private networks to a public realm. In addition, wireless carriers insisted on a rather intense testing period before making the service available on their networks.
AT&T Wireless said it has signed several agreements with corporate customers for the service and is working with Wireless Knowledge to implement Revolv within those corporate environments.
The carrier said it will allow customers using a Mitsubishi MA-T250 phone-equipped with the UP.Browser microbrowser from Phone.com Inc.-to use the service over AT&T Wireless’ Cellular Digital Packet Data network. The company recently added Los Angeles to its list of markets with CDPD coverage.
The Revolv announcement is the first from Wireless Knowledge’s new leader, Eric Schultz, who replaced John Major as chairman and chief executive officer. Schultz was previously director of wireless strategy and sales at Microsoft.
