“Getting wired” is starting to sound a little old-fashioned.
While most people have some kind of Internet access from work and home, corporate road warriors have found themselves stranded, cut off from such rudimentary technology as e-mail and web access.
Thanks to a bevy of new services from wireless phone providers, that’s about to change. Most wireless phone providers operating in Orange County have unveiled or have plans to offer services that allow unfettered access to e-mail, the web and even voice-activated information services.
“For me, it’s gold,” says Robert Adams, an independent technology consultant who uses wireless service from Sprint PCS. “I look better in meetings because I have access to all the data I need and can respond to the client immediately vs., ‘I’ll get back to you.'”
Wireless providers generally offer access in two ways: by acting as an Internet access provider (allowing subscribers to connect their laptop modems and handheld devices to their cellular phones) and through the phones themselves, which use built-in web browsers that display text and limited graphics in tiny phone screens.
For an extra $5 per month and 15 cents per minute, Pacific Bell Wireless customers can connect at speeds of up to 9,600 kilobits per second, excruciatingly slow by today’s standards. But company officials say the service allows otherwise disconnected customers to perform basic tasks such as checking stock quotes and retrieving e-mail.
For a straight $5 per month, users can send and receive up to 300 e-mail messages, with extra messages running at 10 cents each.
AT & T; Wireless offers free access to stripped-down versions of about 40 sites, including Yahoo, ABC-News.com and CNET. Subscribers also get a personalized web portal that provides quick phone access to news, weather and other information. The company promises speeds of up to 19.2 kilobits per second.
For an extra $7 per month, subscribers get unlimited fax and e-mail through a service synchronized with web portal Excite. And for $15 per month, AT & T; will throw in an online calendar, address book and to-do list, all coordinated through Excite’s web-based service. Users also get unlimited access to the text elements of any web page.
Sprint PCS offers Internet access as one of its free options (or $10 per month when ordered separately), which allows phone-based Internet access counted as regular airtime and 50 text-only updates or messages. Additional messages and updates are 10 cents each.
Verizon Wireless, formerly known as AirTouch Cellular in the Orange County area, is set to launch its 13.2-kilobit-per-second Internet services in Orange County within the next two months. The service is up and running in other parts of the United States, including Phoenix, Michigan, Ohio, Washington and Oregon.
Unlike most providers, Verizon’s service will be counted entirely as regular airtime with no additional charges, though carefully worded press releases are reserving the option of graduated pricing. Verizon will offer its own Internet access service, allowing subscribers to connect through modems almost instantly with a two-digit code.
At the same time, the company is working on phone-based service integrated closely with Microsoft’s Hotmail, Expedia and other MSN-branded web sites. Like AT & T;, Verizon plans to offer a personalized web site with online calendar, contact and to-do functions.
None of the services is completely free, however, since all require a web-ready phone that can cost as much as $300. And most plans require a lock-in contract of a year or more, a chancy proposition that makes it difficult to switch to a lower-cost provider.
But for many gadget-happy wireless customers, it’s a small price to pay.
“It’s worth it big time,” Adams says. “I make more money,I can decide faster, and that makes me look real good.” n
