Finland's Wireless Fast Track Thanks in large measure to mobile handset pacesetter Nokia, this small nation, about the size of Montana with a population of some 5 million people, is where the rest of the world looks for wireless guidance. But so far no one is willing to put it together. Printer friendly version.
E-mail it to a friend.
As more companies make their Web sites accessible to wireless devices and offer services and software to support wireless connections, they urgently need not only to consider how well the existing infrastructure will support their applications, but also to anticipate how these applications can be engineered to take advantage of next-generation networks as they become available. Although much of the first generation of wireless services is geared toward simple text menus and short chunks of information that can fit on a small screen, the 2.5G infrastructure will support persistent, always-on connections. Web sites and application developers will be able to offer instant messaging and alerts that have a better chance of reaching wireless subscribers in a timely manner. But the extent to which planning ahead for the gradual rollout of such services will be immediately important to Web site operators and service providers depends on the accuracy of current predictions about when the next-generation networks will be ready. The speed of development depends to a large extent on how much bandwidth will be available to the carriers, how much the carriers can afford to spend to retrofit their base stations and network equipment, and how quickly both carriers and application providers can monetize their investments and convince end users to pay for value-added wireless Internet services.