Licensees of narrowband personal communications services report their development, testing and introduction plans for two-way messaging services are right on schedule. But Ian Gillott, manager of wireless research for IDC/Link Resources, suggests carriers have shifted to more conservative time schedules.
Many service providers say they are evaluating the available protocols and will start service in 1997-as they said a year ago.
Certainly some paging carriers are gun shy in the wake of SkyTel Corp.’s launch debacle, spurring questions about network mechanics and technology. Adding to a climate of reticence is skepticism that two-way messaging will not achieve success based on market factors. This argument reasons that a user’s communications needs can be better satisfied either by one-way paging, which offers a price advantage over two-way, or by broadband mobile voice telephony, which delivers greater capabilities than two-way service.
Conversely, others in the industry expect two-way messaging will revolutionize communicating in the consumer market.
Carriers are asking these questions as they prepare to go to market:
Which applications will meet the most demand in the marketplace?
Who is our target customer?
How can we differentiate our services?
Which technology is best oriented to deliver our services?
Is that technology proven?
There are three basic technology choices, Motorola’s ReFLEX and InFLEXion technologies, and personal Air Communications Technology developed by AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Ericsson Inc.
A handful of carriers plan to use ReFLEX and/or InFLEXion-based service. Only AT&T and LanSer Communications of Canada, partly owned by AT&T, have committed to pACT.
PageMart Inc. spokeswoman Katarina Wylie said the company is building its network in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where PageMart is located. More than 70 base stations should be installed by the end of the year. When the network is completed, PageMart will begin internally testing its system infrastructure, subscriber devices and both ReFLEX and InFLEXion messaging protocols, which it has committed to using. Beta tests are likely to begin early in the first quarter, which will include system trials and market evaluations of business and consumer users.
A ReFLEX-based service is scheduled to begin in January, contingent on suppliers’ schedules, said Wylie. Deployment of VoiceMart-PageMart’s InFLEXion-based voice paging product-can occur no sooner than six months after Paging Network Inc. launches VoiceNow. The Dallas-based carrier is testing its systems and plans to introduce service by the end of the year or early in 1997.
On the other side of the technology fence is AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Don Vendetti, AT&T Wireless’ program manager and director of business development plans for pACT, said other carriers are testing pACT, but declined to specify names.
Analyst Gillott doesn’t expect many two-way licensees will immediately welcome pACT. “Many carriers have a long standing relationship with Motorola … FLEX is up and it works. pACT still is testing,” he explained, adding that development of pACT-based devices is not yet complete. “You’re going against the grain by using [pACT].”
Carriers already operating with thin margins may perceive pACT as too risky and choose ReFLEX or InFLEXion instead, added Gillott.
However, he conceded, “pACT did make Motorola sit up and take notice … and be a little more realistic and reasonable in its pricing.”
Though pACT is capable of voice messaging, AT&T’s immediate plans are for text messaging only. Vendetti said AT&T is carving its niche in narrowband by offering two-way text messaging to its current one-way paging customers. Promising applications for AT&T’s messaging services include symmetrical two-way messaging between users, comparable to an e-mail conversation, and telemetry services, noted Vendetti.
AT&T plans to announce specific details for starting service in the next few weeks. Vendetti said because of the uncertainty that surrounds a new technology and network, “We don’t want to over-commit ourselves.”
Customer trials will be conducted in Seattle and San Diego.
Pacific Communications Sciences Inc. is supplying the chip sets for pACT. NEC Corp. and other manufacturers are building pACT-based messaging devices, said Vendetti.
Benbow PCS Ventures, a partnership of June Walsh-owner of Cal Autofone in San Diego-and Arch Communications Group Inc., is performing technical testing of ReFLEX and InFLEXion protocols with Glenayre Technologies Inc. and Motorola.
Walsh is 50.1 percent and controlling owner of Benbow’s license. Arch became her partner when it purchased Westlink Paging several months ago.
On a protocol choice, Walsh commented, “At this point, we are absolutely an open book and we are gathering data.”
“We’ll write [rollout] schedules after completing technical testing,” said Walsh. “There are a lot of things we want to know” about the capabilities of the protocols and equipment, she added.
Walsh said she believes having Arch as a partner “will help us move forward.” Arch also is part owner of PCS Development Corp., which previously announced plans to build an InFLEXion-based system.
AirTouch Communications Inc. plans to begin beta testing ReFLEX in Dallas in the fourth quarter, but that is contingent on equipment from Motorola. The company also is testing Nexus Telecommunications Systems Ltd.’s proprietary digital spread spectrum technology in Chicago, in conjunction with Minneapolis-based American Paging. Ann Lynch of the Yankee Group describes the technology as a piggyback service. Receivers are added to base stations of existing one-way systems for limited two-way functionality. AirTouch plans to rollout two-way services in the second or third quarter next year, in one city. Rosenberg noted acknowledgement paging and telemetry will be among the first services provided.
