Wireless does not always make sense in terms of return on investment, and coverage can be a problem. That s exactly the analysis made by St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab, which sells billions of dollars worth of pest control and cleaning products to businesses every year. At Ecolab, more than 3,000 sales and service people now carry a mix of powerful Hewlett Packard and Intermec handhelds that hold product, customer, order and other information. Considering all the information stored in the handhelds and its relative freshness, there s not much point in making the handhelds wireless, figures Ecolab chief information officer Alan Blumenfeld. If there s a need to reach someone immediately, they ve got pagers.
Nothing is cheaper and more reliable in coverage than a pager.
Regional and national wireless data coverage and reliably figures to get better within a few years, as carriers introduce third-generation services, many industry observers believe. The idea behind them is to provide reliable, very high-speed wireless connections over limited areas, including corporate campuses or stores, rather than strive to provide lower speeds over metro regions.