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Technology
The Future is in Your Hand
Thanks to advances in technology, the cell phone is being transformed into a multimedia and location-tracking tool.
Anyone who has ever left a wireless phone in a cab knows that when it happens, a few words spring to mind. "Inconvenience" is one of them, though usually not the first. No doubt, we're growing more and more dependent on our mobile phones, but you'll want to hang on to them tight—we're just getting started. "A few years ago, the phone handset was purely a voice tool; now it's more of a communications tool," says Keith Waryas, research manager for wireless business network services at IDC, a market research firm in Framingham, Mass. As he explains, "Instant messaging is taking off, picture messaging is expanding, and the next step is the phone as information platform, using it to download information for your own needs."
Already, subscribers are using their phones to pull all sorts of content off wireless networks, from ring tones to wallpapers—the background images that display on your phone's screen—to games. It may be a new phenomenon, but it's certainly not a rare one: In the U.S., 49 million games are expected to be downloaded in 2004, according to the Yankee Group, a market research firm in Boston. This, however, is just the beginning. New location-based services promise to transform the way we use our wireless devices. Forget having to ask a stranger for directions the next time you're driving around lost. You'll simply pop open your phone and get the directions on your screen. When you're bored, you can use that same phone to watch short video clips or listen to music. Motorola is working on phones that integrate with Apple Computer's popular iTunes service—look for them next year—and several wireless carriers already offer video on their phones, though the quality won't make you skip a trip to the multiplex anytime soon.
While games and music will entertain wireless users, location-based services promise to boost efficiency, productivity, and peace of mind. For these services—which are starting to trickle out now but won't hit the market in force for another year or two—you can thank a government mandate called E911. The advantage of wireless phones has always been that you can take them wherever you go. But in emergency situations, that advantage has actually been a problem. When you dial 911 from a landline phone, that call is automatically routed to the nearest emergency services line—an easy task, as the phone system knows exactly where the phone is. But wireless phones could be anywhere, and without any way to immediately track your location, emergency calls couldn't be routed properly, potentially leading to disastrous situations. To remedy this problem, the FCC ordered that precise location data must be transmitted with every 911 call (E911 is currently being implemented, but not yet available everywhere).
 It didn't take carriers long to realize that the same tracking technology used for emergency calls could be used for all kinds of location-based applications. "Field service personnel are already using their phones to get driving directions and traffic information," says Waryas. "Location-based services are going to be particularly useful for business travelers, who often know roughly where they are, but not exactly." The services we'll soon be seeing will be able to tell us how to get to the nearest cash machine, gas station, or wireless hotspot—without making us type in, or even know, our current location.
Digital Convergence
A little further down the road, you can expect to see big advances in the way phones handle multimedia, particularly video and audio content. Already phones have some fledging abilities here, letting you download ring tones, digital photos, and games. As wireless carriers roll out faster, more sophisticated Ô3G' networks—capable of speeds that, in some areas, approach that of a broadband Internet connection—they can offer more data-intensive services, such as video and stereo-quality sound. "Before the really cool stuff could happen, networks had to get faster and more efficient so that data could be delivered at a cost that was attractive both to the operator and to the consumer," says Jeremy James, senior director of marketing at Qualcomm Inc., the company that pioneered the CDMA technology that serves as the basis for today's 3G networks.
Even with the faster networks in place, carriers will need to squeeze every last bit of efficiency out of them to send the huge amounts of data that multimedia applications require. One technology that Qualcomm is working on is called multicasting—a technique that is designed to increase the capacity and reduce the cost of delivering video, audio, and other content to wireless subscribers.
 Multicasting involves sending a large number of people the same content. For example, a video program is sent over the network to 1,000 users simultaneously, or a new dungeon level is sent to thousands of gamers every Monday morning. "Multicasting enables all sorts of network efficiencies," says James. "If 1,000 users want the same 1MB of content, the network only has to send 1MB data which ends up as 1,000MB received on the users' phones. This kind of efficiency enables operators to transmit high-quality TV-like content to wireless phones. Without multicasting, you've simply got too much data for the network to handle economically when you have a large subscriber base." Qualcomm expects trials of its multicasting technology to begin next year, with commercial rollout in 2006.
The Next Generation
In Japan, where high-speed 3G networks are the norm, wireless providers are already far along in their quest to turn the mobile handset into something more than a phone. In July of this year, NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile communications company, introduced its i-mode FeliCa service, which combines NTT DoCoMo's mobile Internet service, called i-mode, with a new contactless IC chip technology from Sony. The system works like this: Within the handset, the Sony chip contains data such as credit-card information or identifying information about the user. The chip is integrated with an internal antenna, allowing that data to be accessed by an external reader. In layman's language, you can pay for a movie by simply waving your phone at a machine at the theater. Because a variety of data can be stored on the chip, the FeliCa handset can be used not only as a mobile wallet, but also as a membership card or even a personal identification to enter to your office.
At the end of September, NTT DoCoMo's i-mode FeliCa services were being offered at 14 companies in more than 10,000 shops and other sites throughout Japan. All Nippon Airways uses the service for check-in on international flights. Passengers can purchase a ticket and reserve a seat from their phones, via NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, with the information stored in the FeliCa chip in the handset. At the airport, the passenger receives a boarding pass by simply waving his handset across an automated check-in machine.
By October, NTT DoCoMo had 400,000 i-mode FeliCa users, a number the company expects to grow dramatically, as FeliCa will soon become a standard feature in all new handsets the carrier sells. Services are expected to expand, too—focusing on those most useful in users' daily life and business. NTT DoCoMo has no immediate plans to extend the service outside Japan, but given its success, it's only a matter of time before FeliCa-like services find their way to the U.S. Then you'll have more reason than ever to use your wireless phone—and still more reason not to lose it.
www.qualcomm.com
www.3gtoday.com
www.nttdocomo.com
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