Race to link Wi-Fi, cellphones picks up speed

Mobile Internet, The, August, 2004

Imagine walking to work while talking on your cellphone. Out on the street, you're using a cellular network and paying your mobile provider for each minute you gab. But once you reach the office, your cellphone detects a signal from your company's wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi, transmitter and automatically switches your from the cellular network to the Wi-Fi one. Your call is now being routed over the Internet, saving money on cellphone fees. You're also able to browse the Web on your cellphone at superfast broadband speeds.

Such technology--under development in Japan and elsewhere--stands to revolutionize telecommunications on two levels. For the consumer, the technology combines the convenience of cellular access with the low cost and high speeds of Wi-Fi, all in a single device. For the industry as a whole, this technology illustrates a new but increasingly common theme: how the convergence of once discrete technologies--in this case, mobile phone service and the Internet--is pitting unlikely rivals against each other in a battle for chunks of a brand new territory.

Japan serves as a prime example. Here, two companies have just announced handsets that function on cellular and wireless networks. One is made by NEC Corp. and will be marketed by NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest cellular provider.

The other device is from Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., a unit of computer maker Fujitsu Ltd., which has long cooperated with DoCoMo by making handsets for the carrier's exclusive use. This time, however, Fujitsu, in a joint project with telecommunications equipment maker Net-2Com Corp., is striking out on its own.

Of course, Japanese companies aren't the only ones developing such devices.

Other companies, including Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, have unveiled phones that combine cellular and Wi-Fi technology.

But the race to develop this new type of phone stands to be particularly heated in Japan, a country where cellular technology is more advanced than almost anywhere else. Nearly 70 percent of the population use cellphones, many of the phones packed with fancy features like TV tuners and video conferencing capabilities.

Moreover, amid intense rivalry, cellphone operators are struggling to find new markets and ways to distinguish themselves. Devices like Fujitsu's and DoCoMo's--designed specifically for corporate use--are seen as the next big thing.

Fujitsu's phone can function on wireless networks--both office Wi-Fi systems and public, wireless, Internet-access points called hotspots. When the phone isn't within range of a Wi-Fi transmitter, a networking card inserted into the top of the phone allows it to function on cellular networks. The changeover from one network to another takes place without disruption of the service, using Fujitsu software called Seamlesslink. A price hasn't been set for the handset, which will be available this fall.

The phone can be equipped with a card that can store personal identification data, with sensors installed around the office communicating with the device and determining the employees' location.

Calls that come in to the employees' work phone number are routed right to the employee, no matter where he or she is. And when an employee sits down at a workstation--any workstation--that person's personal computer desktop is automatically called up onto the computer monitor. In the conference room, users can use the phone to display documents on television screens for others to see.

For further information, visit www.motorola.com