Mobile phones offer range of features

Oh, you can talk on them, too.

Telecommunications companies are rapidly introducing wireless Internet services locally, each with their own perks to lure buyers. Many promoters tout the speed and convenience of beaming to cyberspace from anywhere, whether it's a crowded airport terminal or an isolated construction site.

"Essentially, you are trying to get information," said Scott Hoganson, area president with Nextel Communications.

The Reston, Va.-based company, which includes Microsoft as a major investor, unveiled its Nextel Online System in the Charleston area and nationwide last month. The Carolinas had served as a test market prior to the rollout.

But Nextel is not alone. Late last month, Sprint PCS entered the Charleston area with a big marketing blitz. Sprint, the first U.S. carrier to launch wireless Internet last September, will have three retail outlets and 75 employees here by June.

Four other companies - Alltel, BellSouth Mobility DCS, GTE Wireless and SunCom - offer Internet access or are working on new versions of wireless Internet products this year.

While acknowledging benefits, some observers aren't sure of the advantages of surfing the Net on a 3-inch screen that accepts a few sentences at a time and no graphics.

"That's a big question," said Roberta Wiggins, director of wireless mobile communications with The Yankee Group, a Boston-based telecommunications research firm. "With a phone, you can't go and browse the Web like at a desktop," she said.

"The content is limited," said Michael Mears, South regional president for SunCom. He questions a big market for mobile phone Internet services "until it becomes more robust."

How it works

Still, carriers agree on a few things. Wireless online services are growing daily, and phones are expected to play a role in linking people and businesses to the Internet.

"The wireless Web technology is in its infancy," said Charles T. Robinson, marketing manager for Sprint PCS in North Charleston. Today, about 30 percent of the U.S. population owns a wireless phone, said Jerry Anderson, general manager with BellSouth Mobility DCS in Charleston. The total is expected to jump to between 70 percent and 80 percent in the next decade, he said.

Meanwhile, a rising number of handsets are Internet-ready. Hoganson estimated a third of Nextel's subscribers have phones that have the ability to go online, Hoganson said.

Wireless Internet services typically transmit users to special sites tailored to mobile phones. They may provide news articles, sports, weather and other features such as stock quotes. A small but growing number of media outlets, Internet search engines and other businesses have their own wireless editions.

To go online, phone users scroll through a menu, using the up and down volume keys or other keys that link them to preset sites or ones they have bookmarked. Users also can key in Web addresses using the letters on the phone face although that can take some dexterity. Phones usually have a help key to assist users.

Digital Internet phones retail for $99 to $249. Local carriers charge a monthly fee from $5 a month for e-mail and limited Internet up to $19.99 a month for total access. In the future, rates should come down, said Skip Smith, business solutions manager with BellSouth Mobility DCS.

Internet capable phones are made by Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola, among others. Wiggins said the wireless Internet services in the United States have been directed at business customers, but mobile companies are likely to tap into the larger consumer market later on.

In Europe and Japan, the Internet phones are entertainment sources for teen-agers who can chat online, play simple games, or call up their horoscopes or the joke of the day, Wiggins said. She questions the value of services such as Internet headline news and weather that customers can access other ways. Local information, such as the location of the nearest gas station or movie listings, is a more attractive feature, she said.

Phones that allow users to customize information they want to receive online also can be a plus. "They even have music. If I like waltzes, they can send an alert" if a waltz comes on a radio station, Wiggins said.

The whole package

In addition to online services, mobile wireless companies are promoting features that complement Internet access, including low-priced rate plans for phone use and expanded local, long-distance and roaming coverage areas.

Nextel has what it says is the first four-in-one phone, which acts as a mobile phone, pager, two-way radio and Internet source. The company distributed phones beginning last June to hand-picked customers in the Carolinas as one of six test markets nationwide.

One of the test customers is the Medical University of South Carolina's information technology unit, which oversees MUSC's computer system and 4,000 desktop terminals. The department, managed by Healthcare.com, has five online phones and expects to convert up to another 45 by next year, said Bill Stith, senior systems engineer.

A chief advantage of the Internet phone is that it permits the crew to be away from the office to go online - for instance, to access a vendor's Web site - or log on to MUSC's internal online system to solve a computer glitch. Once Stith was at a friend's house at 11:30 p.m. when MUSC's computer system went down. "I went to my car and hooked the laptop to my phone," he said. "I dialed up (MUSC's online network) and corrected the problem." He said, "It's a nice, comfortable feeling. I can respond to a problem if I need to."

Nextel started offering online service to retail customers in Charleston early last month. "We are targeting business customers - doctors, lawyers, construction people," said Brian L. Hurd, corporate account executive with Nextel's office in North Charleston.

The network has features that are convenient for active users such as business people. Data is transmitted in bursts of energy. As a result, someone could call in while the user is online and not get a busy signal or voice mail.

Also, the two-way radio feature works like a walkie-talkie in which the user presses a button to talk and releases it to listen. Commonly called phone numbers can be programmed in. "It's so much easier than dialing," Hurd said.

Within weeks of Nextel rolling out its online service, Sprint PCS entered the Charleston market. "We are going to bring a lot of new innovations," said Charles T. Robinson, local marketing manager. Robinson, who headed Sprint PCS' debut market in Washington D.C. in 1995, also worked in corporate development in Kansas City, Mo.

"I traveled a lot. That's where you have (the advantage of) data link," he said. For instance, a user could log on to GoTo.com and find the locations of five popular seafood restaurants in Charleston.

Chad Beckett, event coordinator with Sprint PCS, said he queued up Fox Sports' online headlines while at a Charleston Swamp Foxes' arena football game to check the up-to-the-minute score of a South Carolina Stingrays hockey game. Or a user could log on to Ameritrade, find a stock and buy or sell it, all by pushing buttons on the phone. The investor can program the phone so that it will beep if a stock drops or rises 20 percent or more.

Sprint is partnering with a regional company, Airgate PCS, to run the Charleston operation, but the Sprint name is used on all marketing.

While Sprint PCS and Nextel came out with a big splash, GTE Wireless this year introduced its Wireless InfoManager with less fanfare. For about $10 a month, customers in digital markets such as the Charleston area can search online for news headlines, sports, weather reports and movie listings. "You can get directions and see a restaurant guide," said Dominique Milton, general manager for GTE Wireless in South Carolina.

Users can also send and receive e-mail, receive customized alerts and reminders and use the phone as a daily calendar.

Steady course

Some telecommunications companies are taking a more deliberate approach to online services.

"The big thing, there's lots of ways to connect to the Internet," said Smith of BellSouth Mobility DCS. He said users can go on the Internet or send and receive e-mail via a handset, but it's hard to read. "Maybe a real quick stock update, it's fine," he said.

Instead, customers may want to use the phone as a modem to connect to the Internet or send faxes while using a laptop computer, said Jerry Anderson, general manager in Charleston.

There are alternatives to phones for mobile access to the Internet, too. BellSouth has an interactive pager with a keyboard. There are also pocket computers designed by Microsoft, among others. And in the future, phones may have wider screens and include more text and graphics.

Hoganson of Nextel said Motorola is working on a handset where all the keys are on the flip part and the other part is all screen.

BellSouth and SBC Communications are merging their wireless services into a separate company. "It really gives us a large footprint," Anderson said. The combined company would have 16.5 million customers, more than AT&T and second only to Verizen Wireless, spun off from Bell Atlantic.

SunCom, meanwhile, is testing a number of products for online data and e-mail. "We want to be one of those portals," Mears said. "We have the technology."

First, the company wants to see what the consumer experience is going to be. The company plans to roll out an Internet-ready system in the third quarter. "We are looking at the pricing," Mears said. When SunCom introduces something, "it's not going to be a step down," he said. New computer software is being developed that has the capability to bring significant content to the handset, he said.

In the Charleston area, Alltel has a service where customers can access the Internet via a digital phone. They can log on to certain Web sites such as mobilenet.com to get news, sports and stock quotes. The phone also will work as a pager and send and receive e-mail, said Patty Johnson, communications manager in Cary, N.C.

Alltel is test-marketing a system with broader online capabilities in Little Rock, Ark., and Charlotte and could expand the coverage to other digital markets such as Charleston. Johnson said mobile phones will continue to be tailored to the varied customer desires. Some buyers may want online, paging and other features on a single device "attached to the hip," she said. But other customers may prefer the basic mobile phone, using it "for safety reasons, just for travel."

Jim Parker covers banking, insurance and investments. Contact him at 937-5542 or at jparker@postandcourier.com.