Marino said one U.S. Cellular subscriber is a beverage firm which provides its salesmen with digital phones equipped with a messaging service. When the salesmen are on the road, they can receive e-mail originating from a computer in the company's main office. The message goes over the Internet to our computer center and we send it over the wireless network to the salesman's cell phone. Further, he said, users soon will be able to obtain desired information from the Internet with their digital phones. For example, if people are interested in learning about restaurants in Boston, they will log onto the Internet through the use of a digital phone and receive the phone numbers of the top 10 restaurants.
Some users presently receive stock quotes from the Internet on their digital phones.
Shortly, he said, they also will be able to use those phones to conduct stock transactions on the Internet. He said a government official in a northern New England state, whom he declined to identify, uses a cell phone to send and receive messages over a wireless fax machine while he is in his car. Marino said an undetermined number of lives are saved daily in the United States due to the quick action of cell phone users in calling 911 to report motor vehicle accidents, fires, explosions and other life-threatening situations which they come upon in their travels. More than 90,000 calls from wireless phones are received each day by 911 operators, he said. Rescue crews say the first hour is vital in stabilizing victims and getting them to a hospital for emergency care.