Mobile data: What the market wants and needs
Everybody seems to be talking about it: mobile data—the final digital frontier.
To a savvy communicator worth his salt, mobile data is a “must-have.” But why haven’t consumers and commercial users fully embraced it yet? Whose fault is it? Does anyone really need mobile data?
With the telecommunications market in an unprecedented slump, many people are asking hard questions, such as: “Where are the consumers that marketing studies said would embrace mobile data?”
“Dot-com” companies have gobbled up literally billions of dollars in hard currency to transform ideas into leading-edge telecom products or online services. The need for bandwidth, or faster transmission speeds, became a hallmark of many newer whiz-bang data applications.
Increasingly advanced software features often have required increased communications bandwidth. You’ve seen the same progression in microprocessor developments: The faster the processor, the more features that can be designed into software products.
Moore’s Law
Unfortunately, Moore’s Law (Moore stated in 1965 that microprocessor speed would double every 18 months, a surprisingly accurate prediction) does not necessarily apply to telecommunication products or communications media. Legally and practically, only so much bandwidth is available.
Many times, if not enough bandwidth is available to make an application work, it simply can’t be used to its fullest benefit. In most cases, data applications are being placed into narrow channel allocations that were intended for voice communications. Such channels are simply not wide enough to support a high data rate. The difference between the growth rate in computer speed and applications and the growth rate in telecommunications bandwidth may account for a lot of the stagnation in mobile data today.
It’s natural to want to use wireline applications on wireless networks for mobility. What’s hampered mobile data has been limited speed or bandwidth that rules out some of the best applications. To make them work, bandwidth-hungry applications would have to be rewritten to transmit small bits of information with high value (called “minimized data”) over the system instead of large numbers of overhead-laden packets better suited for wireline connections. So what is the problem?
Lumbee River EMC
If more and more users port over their voice communications systems to automated data systems, overall voice traffic would diminish. Case in point: Lumbee River EMC in Red Springs, NC, saw a 50%–75% drop in voice traffic once its mobile data system was implemented.
Of course, a data system would never completely replace direct, human contact for safety reasons. But it would alleviate the expanding needs for voice frequencies in RF-congested areas. With the FCC pushing for smaller and smaller emission masks, consolidating communications into mobile data applications makes sense.
Radio users whose repetitive, redundant voice communications would lull nearly any scanner listener to sleep would be the first to benefit from a mobile data system. Similarly, mobile commerce would benefit. Witness the change in the way most cab drivers operate when they have MDTs that handle Visa and MasterCard charges.
Anyone in the mobile data business would tell you that the hardware is there; it’s the “killer application” that is missing. Legal and practical bandwidth limits restrict users to mobile data hardware that won’t work effectively with much of the software otherwise available for computers linked by high-bandwidth media.
What makes matters worse is that it appears few in the industry recognize what consumers need today. They are too busy thinking five years ahead. That’s why consumers are slow to embrace mobile data technologies. They probably won’t automatically jump to 3G, if it even becomes a reality in Europe next year.
So what is available today, and why don’t people flock to buy it? Consider some examples that point to buyers’ needs as opposed to “good ideas that didn’t make it in the marketplace.”
‘Head-scratchers’
Metricom’s bankruptcy and subsequent sale of assets
— Metricom’s system was by far one of the best ideas to come along for mobile data. With its Ricochet system, a laptop user could access the Internet at speeds up to 128 kilobits per second and while in motion—even at 70mph.
That was great, but who needs that data rate while mobile? What applications might take advantage of fast transmission rates at highway speeds? Too few answers and too few subscribers contributed to the business’ failure.
The talk about 3G
— Everyone talks about how fast 3G will be, and how any applications will run on 3G. Well, what about deploying 2G first?
It’s better to know your market before you do a lot of engineering. Unfortunately, so much 3G hype bombards consumers that when they see what is available today, they are disenchanted and disinterested. This focus on the future together with a lack of investment in today’s technologies may explain the stagnation in telecommunications business growth.
Motorola may not know how many people remember that “Web Without Wires” TV commercial; the one with crows sitting on an invisible or non-existent telephone line? The commercial piqued the imaginations of a lot of consumers and business managers although no product was displayed—only the concept of a wireless Internet. For most people, a wireless Internet remains a mere concept because little infrastructure exists to support it.
We’ll see where Motorola’s new operating group, suitably named “Telecom Next,” will go. The new group’s stated mission is to develop new technology concepts for the future, 4G. If 3G is slated to go to market by 2005, then consumers should anticipate seeing 4G products on the market after 2007.
Nextel’s data services
— Nextel is beginning to offer data services to subscribers. Even though Nextel offers extensive wireless coverage to many urban subscribers, its coverage is not seamless over a wide area. For example, Nextel has a big footprint in North Carolina. But off the beaten path, coverage is spotty at best. Users who need a high degree of connectivity are almost better off using analog 800MHz cellular telephones with data modems than trying to access Nextel’s system.
To its credit, Nextel is working with industry partners to develop “killer apps” that will work on its system. As an example, through a partnership arrangement with Corrigo, Nextel-equipped field workers can receive digital dispatching requests for simple work projects. A typical vertical market for their application is apartment management. Renters can report maintenance problems through a Web interface, and then the work order is sent as a short data message to a Nextel or other Web-equipped cellphone. This effort gets a thumbs-up for efficiency and utility, but the product’s vertical market placement seems far too narrow to fit this concept into other field service businesses.
CDPD
— Cellular digital packet data seemed to be a winner, but its roll-out beyond metropolitan areas has been lacking. After looking at coverage maps released by the FCC concerning commercial wireless operations, one might ask where there is coverage, rather than where there isn’t.
Implementation costs stand in the way of suburban and rural CDPD use. With increasing numbers of voice users filling network traffic time, access for data users may diminish. The cost of constructing dedicated CDPD subsystems is high, relative to its potential revenue.
On-target
Now, how about some praise for on-target winners? Some application providers have thought about customer needs when telecommunications plays an integral role, yet without making bandwidth requirements the centerpiece.
workforce management software and Lumbee River EMC — More than two years ago, Lumbee River Electric Membership found that it needed to improve service efficiencies in its rural territory. One problem was how to most effectively manage the placement of fleet vehicles and employees over a fairly large geographical area.
Imedeon offered to pull its customer information system, geographical information system and outage management system into its workforce management application to automate work orders and asset placement.
Imedeon’s workforce management program forms the heart of the system, which brings together several back-office software systems. When power fails, phone calls pour in. With caller ID, the customer’s number can be quickly and automatically cross-referenced to an address. When several calls come in, outage management software developed by Utility Automation can determine the probable location of the outage. Imedeon’s software uses the information to determine which field assets are in place to quickly repair the outage.
Using vehicle location information, truck inventories and employee skill set inventories, the system automatically determines which trucks should be called. The dispatcher approves the action, and each lineman receives a complete paperless work order. With the work order, a lineman can electronically access maps of the affected area, information about consumers affected, and inventory information about parts that might be needed to fix the problem.
Each of Lumbee’s 40 work crews has a ruggedized laptop computer that communicates through a Securicor Wireless 220MHz radio system. The computers give access to most of the utility’s back-office applications through the Imedeon application.
Workers don’t even need to come to the office, unless they need supplies or to meet with other employees. The comparatively slow yet reliable mobile data system saves Lumbee enough expense that the utility can afford to add 20,000 more customers (a 32% increase) when it begins delivering power to the U.S. Army base at Fort Bragg, NC, next year.
Why is this rural utility considered to be a trendsetter? Lumbee River EMC is one of 1,200 electric power cooperatives that serve about 85% of the continental United States. One down, and 1,199 utilities to go.
Aether Systems Mobile Government Division’s main PacketCluster product line for public safety users
— Aether Systems credits itself for pioneering products for state and local government users, such as PacketCluster and FireRMS. Having seen the productivity, economic, safety and community relations benefits derived from deploying mobile data technology, other government agencies see that they, too, should use mobile computing.
Where do we go from here?
In a twist to the usual case, some available telecommunications technologies have gone unimplemented for lack of applications.
Conversely, some existing applications that can be supported by existing hardware remain to be implemented widely. One particular idea, a wireless data kiosk, has proven to be a solution for one group and could be easily transposed to a variety of other vertical markets.
What is a data kiosk? Although wireless LANs have begun to permeate urban areas, little attention has been given to transporting the LAN to remote locations. Furthermore, IEEE 802.11-compliant devices are now available even from retail outlets.
If a mobile computing user were to interface its hardware to a Bluetooth-equipped transceiver, then the only variable left is the proximity of the mobile user to the Bluetooth base station. One way to bring the two close together is to extend networks to drive-up kiosks, where any subscriber to a service could pull up and request service from the comfort of his vehicle.
Internet service providers could offer the service as a revenue-enhancer. Public safety and utility users could access fast connections instead of relying on slower data networks. Some consumer subscribers, especially those outside of urban areas, would have faster rates at data kiosks than what their home-based systems could deliver.
The newly safety-conscious public would like drive-up data kiosks. To use one, the vehicle has to enter the site’s limited footprint (about 5,000 square feet) and park to eliminate a distraction to the driver. Encryption, spread-spectrum technologies and close proximity requirements would enhance security for information accessed from or transmitted to the network.
And the user never has to unlock the doors to the vehicle, meaning that even late-night jaunts to the kiosk are possible. But just as people asked why gas stations and grocery stores would ever need to be open 24 hours a day, one can be sure that data kiosks would have late night visitors, too.
Legally, such a system would operate under CFR 47 Part 15 rules. Users would have to know that interference might occur, and that there may be little recourse if it happens. Yet, if only small, well-engineered footprints are used, data kiosk users should have little to worry about.
It’s working now
But how could this concept really work? Lumbee River EMC has wireless network point-of-presence (POP) in their main office’s parking lot. Using IEEE 802.11-based products, utility trucks can drive up and access their intranet at 2 megabit speed. Once a truck is logged in, IT specialists can then use “push” techniques to update software and upload data. This might include mapping updates, inventories, and application updates.
The amount of data that Lumbee River EMC lineman can transmit in one day could be staggering. However, because all of the mapping information is stored locally on hard drives, a lot of bandwidth use is eliminated. By using the minimized data model, field users can get a lot of information over the 220MHz mobile data system without gobbling up huge amounts of bandwidth. Transmissions of large files await the wideband data connection with the data kiosk in the parking area.
Because the utility serves a wide geographical area, it will make sense to install several more data kiosks in its territory, especially in the Fort Bragg area. With a fiber optic plant being planned for construction between Red Springs and Fayetteville early next year, an inter-kiosk network transport will be easy to overlay onto the new optical system.
Who else could use this concept? ISPs could be tapping into new revenue streams that haven’t been considered before. 3G and later technology developments can be implemented. Better-defined mobile data needs can be addressed. Marketing professionals can apply well-engineered products to fulfill real needs instead of having to invent needs to fulfill an engineering achievement.
New ideas
Motorola’s new Greenhouse product offers a fresh look at how to use the new 700MHz band for public safety communications. Running as fast as 460kbps and using industry open standards (like H.323 protocol vocoders for voice over IP), this technology looks like a champ. However, Motorola will need to resolve important matters such as interoperability between agencies and multipath interference.
One of the better features of the Greenhouse product is its scalability and adaptability. For example, if a user is too far from the base station, the mobile radio adapts to lower speeds. It automatically selects bandwidths from 50kHz to 150kHz. Because data rates depend on bandwidth, the system slows down to provide adequate connectivity.
Although Greenhouse is operational, it operates under an experimental FCC license for a 150kHz channel in the 700MHz band. This use of the 700MHz frequency band is a good idea, especially with the current contention between public safety communicators and broadcasters for this band. It is unknown how a possible wide band allocation might affect commercial opportunities in this band through FCC-licensed band managers.
It seems as though everyone wants either to get into the mobile data business or to be able to buy products that offer that service. Before data services can mature, vendors will have to offer products that include hardware, software and applications instead of spending money on plans for future technologies. With the telecommunications market in disarray, healthy expansion may only come from concepts that combine hardware, software and applications.
The author
Todd Ellis has more than 15 years of experience in the computing and communications industries. As the operations manager for the Telecommunications Division at Booth & Associates, Raleigh, NC, he oversees a staff that addresses various mobile data and computing system-level projects. Ellis has conducted extensive business in the form of consulting, contracting, system design, and project management both domestically and internationally. He has written or contributed to several magazine articles published in communications-related magazines, including Mobile Radio Technology and Cellular and Mobile International magazines. He and his family reside in Raleigh.
