Now, the Finns have their eyes on the phones and networks that should make these grand promises real. Nokia and the other phone manufacturers are coming out with the first set of Internet phones to use the new global standard, Wireless Application Protocol. They're planning zippier models, with high-definition color screens, to be sold by the end of this year. Phone companies, meanwhile, are racing to raise the data speed by a factor of six. This means that the mobile-phone users in Finland should be ready for serious Web surfing by this time next year.
Much work still has to be done.
The trick is to come up with custom services for the mobile market, and scores of Finnish software companies are springing up to produce these programs. Around a former ceramics factory outside Helsinki, an entire high-tech community focused on mobile communications is taking shape. At the dawn of the mobile era, the cell phones in Finland are ringing happy tunes. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.