Wireless PDAs Will Proliferate

Jon Pepper

Mobile phones are on the verge of experiencing the same sort of growth and options that personal computers did years ago. Not only are there new products on the horizon, but new parts of the radio spectrum are coming into play thanks to the deregulation in the U.S. of the airwaves and the subsequent auctions by the Federal Communications Commission. Digital wireless offers numerous advantages over today's analog system, including relief from congestion in urban areas, support for voice and data, and better security through encryption.

One of the most innovative of the new breed is the Nokia 9000 communicator, which offers far more than just wireless voice communications. The Nokia, which uses the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), looks like a conventional phone but can open up to reveal an inside that looks more like a small palmtop computer. In this mode, the Nokia can be used to send and receive e-mail messages that you can type on the small keypad. You can also send and receive messages to and from a fax machine. In fact, the Nokia 9000 not only looks like a palmtop computer when fully opened but also includes some functions that are more typical of a hand-held organizer. A calendar, a notepad, an address book, and a calculator are built in.

Beyond this, the Nokia 9000's capabilities include Internet access, although the gray-scale 640- by 200-pixel LCD doesn't deliver the type of spiffy Web graphics you may be used to. Still, the ability to log on from a device that weighs less than a pound is pretty slick.

The Nokia 9000 Communicator is an impressive product (in fact, it won BYTE's Best of CEbit award last year). However, even if you're prepared to spend roughly $2000 to buy one, you'll have to wait. The phone is available in Europe but won't be rolled out in the U.S. until sometime later this year, partly because its communications network is not fully in place.

In fact, the larger issue for buyers may be whether GSM and the rest of the alphabet soup of personal communications service (PCS), including CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), PACS (Personal Access Communications Systems), and DCTU (Dominant Certified Telecommunications Utility), represent a fractured market that make them an unwise buy. According to Bukasa Tshilombo, research manager, world wireless markets, for Northern Business Information (New York City), buyers shouldn't worry. According to Tshilombo, by the year 2000, GSM will enjoy broad coverage in the U.S., as it does in Europe today. However, don't expect a device that supports the U.S. version of GSM to automatically work in Europe. U.S. GSM phones will operate at a different frequency than GSM devices in Europe.

Tshilombo predicts that users in North America will soon have numerous wireless options. "Over time, all of these various options should offer reasonable price and coverage," he says.

That's certainly good news for those attracted by the charms of the Nokia and similar PCS-based phone/communicators. Clearly, talk alone isn't going to be enough in the untethered world.

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U.S. Digital Standards

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A wealth of wireless communications options will be available in the U.S., according to NBI's forecast.