You sign up for it on your PC and give your cell-phone number. About an hour or two before your flight the service will send a text message with a link. When you click on the link your phone will dial into Impulsity's voice service, which will ask you the Federal Aviation Administration's mandated questions and send a bar code to your phone, which serves as your boarding pass. At the gate, you swipe your phone against a bar-code reader and board. By next year, most new cell phones will include global positioning system chips or other electronics that will make these kinds of services possible.
Analysts warn, however, that sophisticated location-based services are a while away.
Also, the privacy backlash could be fierce. It is still unclear how consumers will feel about having their every move tracked by wireless companies. Other industry watchers suggest that U.S. companies go after kids by offering games and instant messaging on phones. That's how DoCoMo's i-mode took off in Japan. We need to find the equivalent to Pokemon cards.