Tuesday, February 29th 2000, 12:00 am
"Wireless is probably the component that's really going to take the scenarios that we've always believed in and make them a reality," said Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in a keynote address at Wireless 2000, the mobile telecommunications industry's biggest trade show. The trade show, in New Orleans through Wednesday, is expected to draw more than 20,000 attendees from mobile phone service providers and manufacturers.
Nextel and Vodafone Airtouch agreed to make Microsoft the software available to their customers, and Microsoft is working with other carriers and developing more applications.
"As we're looking at how we allocate our R&D resources, we decided that the wireless area would receive the greatest increase of all the things that we're doing," Mr. Gates said.
America Online also said it!
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will provide content, e-mail and other services over Sprint PCS phones, and Nokia and Motorola will offer versions of its services on some wireless devices. Sprint said it also plans to offer EarthLink e-mail and information services over its phones.
Such partnerships - and even Mr. Gates' presence at the show - seemed to indicate that Internet and software companies are finally taking mobile data seriously. Yankee Group, an industry research firm, projects that the number of mobile phone users worldwide will top 1 billion by 2003, and about 60 percent of them will have wireless access to the Internet. By 2005, wireless users will conduct 14 billion e-commerce transactions, for a total market of $200 billion yearly, according to Strategy Analytics.
Mr. Gates' keynote speech Monday was his first appearance at a wireless industry trade show.
People who skipped early-morning sessions - featuring Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard and AT&T Corp. Wire!
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less group chairman and chief executive John Zeglis - stood or sat cross-legged on the floor in the packed hall to hear Mr. Gates. His presentation included a videotaped spoof in which he played a "shagadelic" version of Austin Powers, shouting, "I put the sin in syntax, baby!"
Also on Monday:
Dr. Keigi Tachikawa, president of NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc., said the company's popular data service has 4.5 million subscribers paying an average of $25 a month more than they would just using voice services. They pay a flat monthly fee of about $3, increase voice usage by about $12 a month and pay the balance for information on a per-packet downloaded basis. Dr. Tachikawa acknowledged that the pricing system is complicated but, at .03 cents per unit of information, he said, users "understand it's cheap."
Vodafone AirTouch chief executive Chris Gent said U.S. policy-makers should require calling parties to pay to dramatically increase mobile phone subscriber rate!
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s. Regulators currently prefer letting companies decide how to set prices. AT&T's Mr. Zeglis, however, said that it's more appropriate to let companies set pricing plans they think most appropriate for various customer groups. He said U.S. wireless subscriber rates are set to take off as more customers use data applications.
While wireless data is the unofficial emphasis of this year's trade show, a study released Monday showed that just 25 percent of wireless phone users have "quite a bit" or "a great deal" of interest in wireless data services.
Mr. Zeglis said that's not surprising. "It's like asking a farmer in the 1830s what he would like to have to improve production. He wouldn't have said a tractor, he would have said a stronger horse," he said. "As long as we sit here today and tomorrow and try to list what these applications are going to be, we'll fail."
In other announcements:
Nortel Networks and Vodafone Airtouch said they will test advanced wireless Intern!
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et technology in the Dallas area.
Swedish manufacturer Ericsson said it will work with 724 Solutions Inc. to develop a common financial services platform that will enable secure payment between financial institutions, merchants and consumers.
Sprint PCS said it will be the first U.S. carrier to offer new CDMA phones from Samsung that respond to Spanish-language voice prompts.
February 29th, 2000
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