NEW YORK-Wireless data is like a diamond in the rough, waiting for ways to smooth out its rough edges into sparkling facets that will attract growing numbers of consumers into increasing amounts of usage.
Where there is a business problem, so too exists a business opportunity. That is the case with wireless data delivery, a space into which a host of players has entered to tackle different parts of the dilemma.
In a sampling that is by no means all inclusive, RCR Wireless News examined the offerings of six companies in this niche in order to provide a flavor of what is and will be available to refine and tame wireless data.
Mspect
Sometime in May, Mspect Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., plans a “beta test focused on a core set of customers” to monitor in real time the quality of service of short message service, Wireless Application Protocol, CDPD and Mobitex on mobile phones and handheld computers.
The service will provide alerts about applications availability and quality, network performance and comparisons of service levels in different metropolitan areas. Mspect’s monitoring also will offer comparisons for measuring applications performance on multiple networks around the world so carriers can evaluate how they stack up relative to competitors.
“We’re testing CDPD packet networks run by AT&T and Verizon for failure rates and latency. We are working closely with several carriers on 3G. In 2.5G, we could implement a GPRS solution, but we are waiting for GPRS handsets,” said Mark Adams, chief executive officer and co-founder.
“We are a distributed network of nodes, handsets attached to PCs that are testing 24-by-seven. We are, in effect, a wireless customer.”
The company has applied for a patent for its Mspect Distributed Platform.
SMARTS
SMARTS Inc., formerly System Management Arts, White Plains, N.Y., deploys its InCharge automated service assurance software, typically by installing a CD-ROM on the server dedicated to managing the wireless network, said Shaula Yemeni, president and founder.
Because wireless and data networks were not designed to work together, each adaptation to bridge that gap generates a new set of problems, she said.
“Each problem has a unique signature in the symptoms it causes. Ours is a patented approach that leverages problem models and codifies behaviors, independent of individual infrastructure components, (i.e.) base stations, routers, and switches. It’s similar to a medical diagnosis, in which a set of symptoms is mapped to symptoms of known diseases,” Yemeni said.
“What happens when networks have problems is that some of the symptoms get lost and are never known by the operator. … And each device is designed to send so many alarms, like car alarms going off all the time. So operators either get no data or too much.”
InCharge also notifies carriers of early warning signs of problems that could result in system failures, like temperatures out of range or memory that is improperly configured.
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. is a customer. Ericsson Inc. has incorporated InCharge into its Messaging over IP solution.
FAST
Fast Search & Transfer, Westborough, Mass., is testing its FAST Mobile Search engine and filtering service with Telia’s Speedy Tomato, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, Orange Switzerland, OracleMobile and Ericsson’s WISE Portal.
“There are really two main problems. First, you can’t simply chop and retag for wireless consumption the existing HTML. As more and more content providers publish in WML, WAP, i-mode and PDA formats, there will be an enhanced user experience,” said Tom Wilde, executive vice president of marketing.
FAST is available in 46 spoken languages and today provides searches through 14 million pages accessible over WAP, HDML, i-mode and PDA formats. The number of pages available to it has been doubling every seven weeks. The company also provides access to mobile multimedia searches, including MP3 files and images.
“The second big problem is that wireless users are accustomed to the ubiquitousness of (wireline) search engines. We’ve approached the wireless Internet from the search engine perspective. We crawl the Internet and index content, using advanced search parameters to default to usable options,” Wilde said.
Fourelle
Late last year, Fourelle Systems Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., introduced commercially its patented Venturi solution to accelerate the delivery of Internet content over all wide area networks, including satellite and wireless.
“We developed this technology back in 1995 while trying to increase the speed of Internet traffic over wireless CDPD networks. Our early wireless innovations and the resulting technology are now applicable to accelerating content delivery on all types of Internet connections from any type of client,” said Patrick Glenn, chairman and chief executive officer.
“Content demands will always outpace availability of bandwidth, and our technology solves the ever-increasing problems of network congestion and delay.”
Mobil operators using Venturi include Verizon Wireless, Bell Mobility and Sprint PCS.
“With Venturi in a CDMA network, users can realize a 400 percent performance improvement, the equivalent of a 56 kpbs landline connection,” Fourelle said.
“These gains are achieved by … use of content-specific compression and a lightweight, optimized … protocol to maximize narrow bandwidth, effectively sending 50 (percent) to 90 percent less data across the network, with no loss of data to the user.”
W-Phone
Late this year, W-Phone Inc., San Jose, Calif., plans to make commercially available its MobilEmPower data delivery system for wireless 2.5G and 3G networks.
“The pager was very successful for its time because you didn’t have to search and retrieve, and the same kind of user experience will be required for wireless data: images, stocks, advertising, corporate information, instant messaging,” said Alfred Navarro, senior director of global marketing.
“Ours is intelligent data delivery that ties into a push model. It’s a wireless push portal. The end user will set up parameters for content delivered on a regular basis, similar to newspaper or cable TV subscriptions. If they want to bring up a Web portal, they still have that option.”
W-Phone believes XML will replace HTML and offer “superior formatting for multiple displays using XML filters, and this will make content availability more universal,” he added.
While that evolution to a new “universal translator” will increase information options for wireless customers, it will not reduce the bandwidth consumption inherent in the back-and-forth query process that searching and navigation requires, he said. W-Phone has designed its push portal to help relieve that congestion, Navarro said.
Mark Johnson, chief marketing officer, said W-Phone has two carrier trials going on in China, has received a commitment for a similar test from AT&T Wireless, is in discussions with another American operator and has “seven more agreements in the pipeline.”
Flarion
By the middle of next year, Flarion Technologies Inc., Bedminster, N.J., expects to begin selling commercially what its founder and chief technology officer, Rajiv Laroia, said he believes is a superior and cheaper alternative to third-generation wireless.
“The basic system design of 3G is basically a voice technology trying to carry data. … The Internet defines its own protocols for mobility management, but IP doesn’t support soft handoffs, so 3G uses non-IP mobility management,” he said.
“Our base stations will plug directly into a generic IP network, whereas 3G base stations will require huge, non-standard, non-IP boxes to connect to the IP network … Our system is 10 times cheaper than 3G, can support more v
oice than 3G without additional spectrum. We carry packet-switched voice, while 3G carries circuit-switched voice.”
Flarion’s system also will support quality of s
ervice control and differentiation.
“Carriers can offer all-you-can-eat service to kids for $20 a month and for enterprises at $100 a month with priority over other users so kids can’t clog up networks with MP3 downloads,” Laroia said.
