Wireless communication

Wireless communication is becoming more commonplace today.
Not only have cell phones saturated the market, companies
are coming out with wireless video phones, PDAs with
wireless internet connections, phones that can receive
and send email, wireless networking for the home and office,
and other gadgets.

Alpha-numeric pagers have helped the office communicate with
people in the field or who were otherwise occupied elsewhere
but their biggest disadvantage is that they only provide one
way communication - that is until recently anyway. Several
companies are now providing two-way paging. While limited in
functionality, it can provide a limited alternative to
respond to the office from the field when a phone isn't
available.

Cell phones provide an increased benefit for users because
they allow people to conduct normal dynamic conversations
quickly and relatively cheaply. Today, some phones offer
limited internet connectivity to check email, browse the
web, or make stock trades. The problem is that it can be 
tough on an one inch display. There is also the question of
analog vs digital. While a digital signal provides a cleaner
sound, it's availability is often limited in some areas
since it either makes a good connection or no connection.
Analog often provides a noisier sound but is more widely
available. Analog usually is slightly more expensive than
digital because of it's increased availability but digital
phones usually can fall back on an analog signal if a
digital connection can't be made.

Wireless PDAs and more advanced cell phone technology make it
easier to get access to the office or other important places
for more complicated needs than a simple message. People have 
been using laptops combined with a cell phone for access for 
several years now but it's often bulky to carry around a large 
laptop and a cell phone to simply update an appointment 
calendar or check your email. One company is now offering a
PDA with a built in cell phone. It offers all the convenience
of a PDA with the conversational capabilities of a phone
combined with a 14.4k internet connection allowing people to
to do just about everything they could with the bulky 
laptop/cell phone combination in a 2.5 inch by 2 inch unit.

Inside the office, wireless LANs driven by the 802.11 protocol
are becoming more popular. They allow a business to create an 
intranet, possibly with a gateway to the internet, without 
having to make messy cable runs through the office every time
a computer gets moved. Solutions are available from a wide 
variety of providers and often provide decent bandwidth.

Looking to the future, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications 
System, also known as 3G, should provide even faster digital
wireless access worldwide but has many of the faults that
digital phones possess. It's successor, 4G, aims to clear up
those problems with even newer technology. With these 
improvements most communications could become entirely 
wireless in the future, finally living up to the dream of access 
everywhere.

Ken Witherow
This article is Copyright 2000, Ken Witherow. All rights reserved.
For questions or comments, email phantoml@rochester.rr.com