by
Mark Sedenquist
A
few years ago for my birthday I received as a gift a trip
to a one-day parachute jump school. My static-line jump
at the end of the day was made all the more memorable by
joining the special events squad of the 101st Airborne Division
in their rental aircraft. They were using the airfield that
day to practice for an upcoming competition. My own short
flight under the parachute was not entirely "by the
numbers" and memories of that slightly surreal descent
were triggered by my attempts to understand more of the
wireless world this week.
What
I remember most about my descent under that parachute was
how orderly (& small) the vegetation looked on the ground.
But the lower I went the more the neat brown and green lines
seemed to merge. As I neared the landing zone, I noticed
that downward velocity seemed to be increasing and that
what appeared to be some bushes were inexplicably now in
view directly below my feet. After I landed-- not exactly
a perfect execution of the touch-and-roll technique I had
been taught-- I was surprised to discover that the orderly
green landscape seen from 2800 feet had metamorphosed into
a complex ecosystem of tall shrubs that blocked my view
of the best way back to the air operations office. I wasn't
quite lost, but it certainly was a lot more complicated
than I thought.
Just
when I begin to believe that I am getting a handle on the
state of the wireless industry, I hit the ground hard and
notice that the single blade of grass in front of my nose
is really a giant Sequoia. Six weeks ago, I was smug in
the knowledge that I knew, in a non-technical sense, most
of what was going on in the wireless arena. Today, I suffer
no such illusions.
Craig
Smith, a friend from Toronto whom we met during our first
year on the road, gets the kudos this week for introducing
to me this week's Blade of Grass: The Blackberry, a wireless
PCS device that is produced by Research in Motion, Ltd.
RIM produces a variety of high-performance RF-modems for
the narrow band PCS markets. This Blackberry features a
386 microprocessor with a 2-watt transmitter housed in an
attractive case that seems to be an excellent choice for
sending and receiving e-mail on the road. For more information,
check out www.blackberry.net
and www.rim.net.
One
of Rim's partners is Itronix Corporation, www.itronix.com,
which produces among other things a hardened laptop designed
for mobile professionals, (like Dashboarders) called the
X-C 6250. Itronix developed and deployed a field service
application in the late 1990s when they used a combination
of the Norcomm1 satellite and ARDIS radio networks to deliver
2-way data and messaging services to 12,000 Sears service
technicians through their laptop computers. For the latest
information about current mobile solution, check out their
"Go-Book"
program.
Other
news from the CTIA conference in New Orleans as reported
by Wireless
Now, suggests that an interoperability agreement
between the two major wireless consortiums, (representing
just about every major telco) utilizing the protocols of
GSM, (North American Global System Mobile), TDMA, (Time
Division Multiple Access) and AMPS, (Advanced Mobile Phone
Service using circuit switched cellular) has been hammered
out. Such an agreement signals the possibility of a day
when a single wireless "telephone" could access
the best available network in a given area and just maybe
allow a Dashboarder to actually be "at work, at home
and on the road, all at the same grand moment."
There
are hints in the press that Nortel-France has achieved limited
success with a third-generation W-CDMA 36 protocol that
may allow high-speed web browsing in a wireless environment
at speeds in excess of 360 Kbps. Such news fires the imagination
of this Dashboarder who is still looking for that magical
connection. Every week as I sit down to prepare these ramblings,
I face the paradox that I know less about what is really
going on than I did the week before. But such a realization
certainly provides lots of room for more blades of grass.
Keep ‘em coming! ...And thanks!
Mark
Sedenquist
Pasadena, California
February 15, 1999
