Wireless companies in the United States are holding their breath, waiting for the widespread use of wireless data products and services, and-according to a variety of recently released reports-those companies will have to continue to wait while carriers, network designers, application and service providers and others get their act together to make it happen.
According to Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, it’s going to be the applications that really drive users to wireless data services and the mobile Internet.
“To be successful, the mobile Internet will need to find its own killer applications-it won’t just be the conventional Internet delivered on a handheld device,” said Eric Berg, a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Technology Centre and editor-in-chief of the group’s new report, “Technology Forecast: 2001-2003.”
“This is particularly true in regions where business professionals and consumers already have widespread access to PCs.”
The limited nature of wireless devices, including mobile phones and personal digital assistants, do not lend themselves to large amounts of data. The only way to overcome these shortfalls, according to the report, is to offer applications that take advantage of the mobile aspect and offer users benefits despite the limitations.
Besides tailored applications, PricewaterhouseCoopers echoes other solutions that have been offered by many in the industry. According to the report, business use of the mobile Internet will drive up usage and will create a way for businesses to interact with consumers, employees and business partners. In order to fully take advantage of the mobile Internet, businesses will have to take a multichannel approach, engaging users through a variety of outlets by combining the wireless world with the wired Web, already-established store fronts and call centers. Additionally, PricewaterhouseCoopers said, the advent of 2.5-generation networks-which will provide an always-on, packet-based network-will serve to garner more wireless data users.
According to analyst and consulting company Ovum, another solution to the slow uptake of data services will be the wireless application service provider model of business, in which mobile operators offer services based on applications and platforms from ASPs.
“ASPs can address new markets by adding wireless capabilities to their existing services and by developing new applications that specifically leverage the capabilities of wireless networks-namely mobility and location awareness,” said John Delaney, senior analyst at Ovum. “In addition to the existing enterprise market, the WASP model will open up a new market for the ASPs: the mobile operators, who are seeking service providers to run application service platforms on their behalf.”
In addition, the wireless ASP business model will engage a third group-the wireless application infrastructure providers, who will develop, host and manage the connecting products and services between wireless access and the applications.
Ovum predicts this type of wireless ASP business model will soon experience significant growth, with revenue from business subscribers totaling $12.1 billion and individual subscribers totaling $6.5 billion by 2006.
And while wireless data in the United States still has some major obstacles to overcome, other countries are fairing much better in their wireless data and Internet offerings.
According to Goldman Sachs’ “Global Wireless Communications Report,” only 4 percent of the U.S. wireless subscriber base was using wireless data services at the end of last year, and that only accounted for 1 percent of carriers’ revenue. Comparatively, 37 percent of subscribers in South Korea, close to 50 percent in Western Europe and about 57 percent in Japan were using some kind of wireless data service, including short message service.
However, according to the report, wireless data is beginning to catch on in the United States, and it predicts that wireless data revenues will have a meaningful impact on U.S. wireless carriers by 2003.
The Goldman Sachs report, echoing the PricewaterhouseCoopers study, also points to compelling value-added services and faster 2.5G networks as the fire lighting the way for wireless data.
In an effort to spur the usage of wireless data and the mobile Internet, the Mobile Wireless Internet Forum recently released the second version of its “Network Reference Architecture Technical Report MTR-004,” which the group said will help the further integration of mobile access networks with Internet protocol-based solutions for next-generation mobile devices.
The report focuses on the architecture behind a variety of issues, including authentication, billing, configuration management and policy and profile servers.
The success of wireless data and the mobile Internet in other parts of the world, most notably in Japan with NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service, is proof that the technology can be profitable, and many companies are positioning themselves for the possible explosion of wireless data in the U.S. market.
“Wireless Internet is coming to the U.S., one way or another, sooner rather than later,” said John Freidenfelds, a senior consultant with InfoTech, which recently released a report the company said will help businesses looking to take advantage of the wireless Internet in the United States.
