Thursday, March 28, 2024

Will 3G Wireless Change the Enterprise?

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” wrote poet laureate

Robert Frost in 1915. ”Don’t fence me in,” echoed Cole Porter 20 years

later, in a song recorded by everyone from Bing Crosby to Willie Nelson.

There is something that just doesn’t feel right about living in a

Dilbert-style cubicle world. Fortunately, the growth of the Internet has

made it possible for workers to shed their corporate tethers and venture

out into the wide world beyond. Tens millions are doing just that, either

working from home or as mobile workers using Wireless LANs and cell

phones to stay hooked up.

It appears the office is now becoming little more than a place where

employees call to get a connection to the network.

And all this mobile working is getting easier all the time. According to

London’s Informa Plc, the number of public hotspots worldwide will

surpass 100,000 by the end of 2005. Analyst firm Gartner, Inc. pegs that

number as closer to 120,000.

But there still is one major drawback. Executives don’t want their mobile

employees spending all their work hours in Starbucks just so they can get

a connection.

”Wireless LAN coverage is limited to within a few hundred feet of an

access point,” says Allen Nogee, principal analyst for In-Stat/MDR.

”Coverage is getting better, but it will never reach the level of

coverage that cellular networks provide.”

After many false starts, American telecoms are finally rolling out

third-generation (3G) wireless networks. And that makes wireless

computing available anywhere someone can find a phone signal.

”I can remotely administer the network from anywhere in the world as

long as I have a good Internet connection,” says Shane Avery, operations

manager for Urban Display Network LLC in Henderson, Nev. ”But sometimes

I am out where there is no Wi-Fi or there is no hardline connection, so

3G has really helped with that.”

Dial-up to DSL

While Wi-Fi coverage is just starting to become widely available,

telecommunications firms have been rolling out their networks for

decades. In the United States alone, wireless companies have a cumulative

capital investment approaching $200 billion and nearly 200,000 cellular

transmission sites, according to the Cellular Telecommunications &

Internet Association. And each of those cellular towers covers a much

broader area than a Wi-Fi hot spot. Globally, cell phone penetration is

even higher.

At the same time, 3G networks take the established cellular

infrastructure and boost transmission rates so they can be used for

high-speed data access, not just voice transmissions. Earlier generations

were similar to dial-up Internet connections. However, 3G is more like

DSL. While this is still slower than what Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet offer,

it is more than adequate for most users, particularly those accessing the

network though a smartphone, PDA, blackberry or other device with limited

screen size and processing power.

”Unless you are using a laptop with a cellular card, you are probably

not going to see any speed difference between 3G and Wi-Fi,” says Nogee.

There already are 50 million 3G subscribers worldwide, mainly in Japan

and EU. But the trend now is starting to catch on in the U.S.

Sprint is finishing the roll-out of its EV-DO network (400Kbps to

700Kbps) in most metropolitan areas. Cingular uses a competing technology

called Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). Its network

deployment is nearly complete, but its data rate only averages about 135

Kbps. In the meantime, it has begun deployment of a newer network called

UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) with twice the

performance. It will have it available in most major areas by the end of

2006.

As these 3G networks become broadly available, people will start to use

them for more than just downloading ringtones, checking stock prices or

finding out the latest sports results. UPS, for example, uses an EV-DO

network to give 4,500 sales reps access to its customer relationship

management (CRM) system.

”Our sales representatives spend nearly all of their time on the road,”

says Sheila Dunn, senior director for CRM technology at UPS. ”We wanted

to provide them with the tools they need to be more effective when

meeting with customers.”

UPS has given each of these representatives a Dell or IBM laptop equipped

with a wireless PC cards from Novatel or Verizon which can access

Verizon’s EV-DO network. (Where EV-DO is not available, they still can

connect, but at lower speeds.) The field worker and managers can log into

UPS’s custom CRM application to view prior customer interactions, as well

as access five Web-based reporting tools, email, calendaring and other

functions.

”With these tools, our sales reps can be more productive,” says Dunn.

”They can spend more time dealing directly with our customers one-on-one

rather than chasing information.”

Similarly, Urban Display’s Avery doesn’t just use 3G connections on his

own laptop, but also for delivering the company’s products. The company

owns and manages a network of 79 LED video billboards in Manhattan which

display commercials and other information. Inside each display is a

computer equipped with a Sierra Wireless AirCard 5220 to connect to

Verizon’s EV-DO network. The initial trial involved downloading the ads

to the billboards using Wi-Fi hot spots. But this proved to be

unreliable, requiring sending technicians on excursions around the city

to manually upload the content.

”It called for a lot more maintenance visits and ‘sneaker netting’ or

updating content by physical visits rather than remote control,” Avery

explains.

When EV-DO became available, however, that support load greatly

diminished. He says sometimes there still are issues the technicians need

to deal with manually. For example, occasionally when Verizon’s network

goes down, instead of automatically reconnecting, technicians need to go

out and click an on-screen dialog box to reestablish the connection.

Nevertheless, it is a huge step up from using Wi-Fi.

”Although it is not perfect, it is a lot more reliable and it has also

allowed us to expand our service,” Avery says. ”Now we can offer

realtime data, such as sports tickers, stock tickers or weather

information which updates every 10 minutes. Before, we couldn’t guarantee

anything better than once every 24 hours.”

Subscribe to Data Insider

Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, data security, and more.

Similar articles

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Data Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Latest Articles