From the 3G license auction extravaganza to the thorny issues linked to location-based mobile
commerce applications, via manga downloads on i-mode, DIY Wireless LANs and the impact of SMS
on society, Bruno Giussani's book on the nebulous world of the wireless Internet provides a thorough
and well-balanced guide to the subject. "Roam (Making Sense of the Wireless Internet)" manages to
achieve the author's aim of tempering the "over-enthusiastic promises made in 1999 and 2000", while
making clear that "we've entered a long-term trend towards ubiquitous connectivity".
Hype has always been at the heart of technology like a malfunctioning pacemaker. By beating out of all control it has left the marketplace strewn with casualties, with the dot.com mania and subsequent crash being the most apparent example. What "Roam" brings to the fore is how the hysteria of hype has also affected the perception of wireless applications and infrastructure, and the much anticipated m-revolution (with the "m" standing for mobile, after the "e" fashion for all things electronic).
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A perfect illustration of hype running riot is provided by the story of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). Giussani chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of a technology that promised the marriage of the Web with mobile telephony and the birth of a mobile Internet, from the slogan-laden grandiose welcome given to WAP at the Telecoms99 exhibition to the drab reality that emerged a year later. From ads such as the British Telecom one featuring a cyborg-like animation surfing the dynamic and colour-rich waves of the wireless infosphere, to those early adopters standing round the display of a Nokia 7110 (the first commercial WAP phone) trying to read six lines of black text against a greenish background downloaded at unbearably slow speed, it is not surprising that WAP became a flop.
Beyond the slow connection speed, the bugs and configuration problems, the fall of WAP (by then known as
Wait And Pay) is also linked by Giussani to poor content. In turn, the lack of engaging and application-tailored content is seen as deriving from greed, with operators unwilling to share revenue with content providers, thus driving many of the latter out of business.
3Greed
The prime example of greed in action, however, is to be found in the sale of Third Generation (3G) mobile
licenses in Europe. While the use of 3G spectrum was given away for free in Finland, the United Kingdom
decided to auction its five licenses. It was the year 2000. A year in which every analyst, operator and
manufacturer published one of these two statements: "by 2002 there will be over a billion users of data-enabled wireless devices" and "by 2003 more people will access the Internet though their mobile phones than by using Personal Computers". The conditions were right to rake in the money. The British auction ended up bringing in for the government a staggering 22.47 billion euros, setting an example for the rest of Europe to follow. Germany made €50.4 billion, while other countries, such as Spain, backtracked on previous agreements to join in the windfall.
Behind this mad scramble to grab a 3G license at whatever cost, there was little tangible evidence that this was a smart move. According to Giussani:
"It is difficult to understand 3G. It is unproven technology - it barely works on experimental networks and in laboratory conditions, with handset prototypes still the size of shoeboxes. It has no clear business model, the contours of consumer demand are at best elusive and discussions are based on unstated and ambiguous assumptions."
With an infrastructure initially scheduled to be in place by 2001-2002, these timelines have now been postponed to 2005-2006, and 3G may never actually happen.
The meek shall inherit the airwaves
While Europe fumbled with text-only WAP, in Japan people were using a different technology to download
news and cartoons onto the high-resolution colour screens of their mobile phones. The name: i-mode. Introduced in 1999, by NTT DoCoMo, i-mode was never hyped as a mobile Internet. According to one of its creators, "i-mode was sold as just i-mode". By July 2001, the service had 26 million subscribers, enjoying what has been described as a "killer environment" rich in quality content. At the same time, no initial license fee was paid by the operator, but a yearly usage fee per subscriber was adopted, allowing NTT to keep investing in the system.
Similarly, SMS (Short Messaging Services), has achieved a huge and unexpected success in Europe. Initially
introduced as an afterthought, without any of the hype, SMS has grown into a social phenomenon, having been adopted by teens, employers, parents, lovers and street protesters alike.
Beyond these specific technologies, "Roam" also examines the challenges and opportunities that reside in the growth of mobile commerce and business applications and in the development of wireless devices. From staff empowerment to ubiquitous computing, each issue is examined for its pros and cons. For example, when
discussing location-based services, the author points out both the benefits that can derive from being always traceable (such as the enhanced 911 emergency service being devised in the US) to the privacy issues that will arise and the risk of being bombarded by location-specific spam.
Divided into four parts (the Four Births of the Wireless Internet; the M Factor; the Devices; the User's New Issues), the crisp journalistic style adopted by Giussani makes for an engaging and informative read. Rich in quotes from major players and well researched, the book provides a comprehensive picture of the up and coming 'wireless world'.
(German version)
(Copyright Telepolis, March 2002)
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