I’m not proud. Or special. I don’t look like any of those glassy-eyed maniacs in Reefer Madness. In fact, my problem might not be apparent to you. I could be one of those people who says hi at the water cooler. But though I may look like any other working stiff, I have a deep, dark secret: I’m a junkie. A user. I’m hooked on wireless communication.
I’m one of the millions worldwide suffering Mobile Addiction Disorder – aka Mad – a fast-growing byproduct of tech-savvy cultures. Victims are mostly 25-45-year-old urban professionals; and the disorder is characterized by the urge to use wireless communication devices, and by feelings of uneasiness, alienation and vulnerability when deprived. If you haven’t heard of Mad, you soon will; it’s about to hit epidemic levels.
I have many standard symptoms. My cell phone is my crutch. I have used it to escape awkward social situations (like pretending to be tied up instead of talking to my boss); to relieve feelings of helplessness, guilt and anxiety that I’m falling out of the loop. I have lied to my family and friends to conceal the extent of my involvement with my wireless device. Most days I sneak off to the men’s room, hide myself in one of the stalls and check e-mail.
Many fail to understand the allure of mobile technology now that it’s no longer about phones with weak batteries and patchy signals. In fact, voice communication is just a small part of the mobile menace. It’s about portable devices that combine telephony and internet access. Now I can use my mobile for e-mail, fax, the web, or anything else I do in my office.
Even when away from my desk I still feel plugged-in. Last week I had to leave work to drive a friend to the dentist (how many junkies can say that?). The dentist’s trip didn’t keep me from participating in my conference call – I just dialed right in – although I was asked to leave the waiting room when I started screaming above the din of signal break-up. (Okay, so there are still some bugs to be worked out.)
Killer application
The killer app is Wap (wireless application protocol). Wap enables web browsing on digital wireless devices – phones, pagers, personal organizers and two-way radios. It’s an open, global specification developed by Phone.com and, among others, the three wireless telecom heavyweights, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia.
An IRO from one of the big three comments: ‘Wap will enable internal e-mail in the workplace. We’ve already been able to send short messages for a couple of years now. It’s a very useful tool that’s incredibly popular in Europe and Asia and is now coming here to the States,’ he predicts.
Wap devices access the net through micro-browsers. Although most web sites are still unavailable – info has to be customized to the wireless format – compatible sites are growing. Yahoo, Excite and others have begun packaging their sites for wireless use. And Wap is what got me hooked. Before that I was just a casual user. You might call it a gateway.
I always used to think Palms and the like were for sissies – they didn’t command the awesome power of the web. But the latest Palms do, and I’ve added a couple to my gadget collection. The good thing about them is that they operate on a paging network, so they work in many places where cell phones don’t.
Unreliable transmission is the bane of every mobile junkie’s life, leading to fits of phone rage when the signal goes. But I’m basically a peaceful soul – unless something comes between me and my connection. Once connected, I’m pleased as punch. Docile, even. I can check stock quotes, news headlines, sports scores, movie and restaurant listings, airlines, weather, traffic and horoscopes. I never have to wonder how the Dow’s doing; the answer’s at my fingertips.
The new solution
Every day it seems the newswires are flooded with announcements from companies offering internet access through telephones, pagers, wristwatches, microwave ovens, fridges… Now that our collective consciousness is saturated by technology catch phrases (e-this, i-that and @-otherwise), the techno-lexicon is adding a new letter: m, for mobile.
The research firm Strategy Analytics expects 134 mn internet-ready wireless phones to be shipped next year, more than the number of PCs. They’re cheaper and easier to use than PCs too. And by the end of the year, all the largest manufacturers’ new phones will have microbrowsers. For addicts, this is akin to Asia’s poppy harvest.
‘Three things are happening that I think will blow this industry out of the water,’ says Bill Seymour, Nokia’s IR manager. ‘One is the availability of handsets able to use this technology. Then there are the services that will be available – people can download the Wap toolkit and begin designing applications in their garages, for instance. In addition, people are figuring out the whole operability between handsets and networks. So all of that is happening right now, and it’s going to just explode.’
The so-called third generation of wireless devices (digital cell phones were the second) should hook new users, just as powerful Pentium chips and high-speed internet did for e-mail. But not without a fight. The nefarious social activists Mothers Against Mobility (Mams) are among the most vocal opponents of wireless comms. You might recognize the Mams, who advocate a return to simpler living and good, old-fashioned landline phones, by their slogan, Just say no to life on-the-go!
Wireless internet devices do have an inherent problem: They need to be big enough for practicality but small enough for mobility. You’d have to be pretty committed or desperate to use one as your main web browser. The dim screens are about the size of a Post-it note and the keyboards minuscule. Still, many of us rely on them. I can often spot fellow junkies by their nimble little fingers, slouched posture and thick glasses.
Wap devices are also constrained by today’s narrowband airwaves. (Some critics say the acronym stands for Why Abuse Phones?) Long messages and attachments continue to be a problem. Web links load slowly. But in my opinion the feeling of freedom is worth the trade-off. Of course the trade-off is much greater in the US than elsewhere. I often shake my fist at Uncle Sam and wonder why he couldn’t siphon as much funding to wireless research as he did to numerous drug cartels. Then again, I’m not exactly an unbiased source.
I admit, I have euro-envy. And why shouldn’t I? The Europeans are so far ahead. For all Silicon Valley’s posturing as the techno-capital of the world, when it comes to wireless, it’s got nothing on Helsinki. Or Stockholm. Or Berlin, for that matter. I am amazed that European phones can roam from country to country and still work properly. Here in the US we can’t seem to agree on standards. The state-to-state roaming model makes me giddy, but not nearly as giddy as the pan-European model.
And others may already be moving further ahead of the US, with a successor to Wap already on the horizon (see Dial-up dealing, page 73). It’s already two years since Finland’s wireless use exceeded traditional phone usage. Thanks to Nokia, more than 60 percent of the country’s entire population uses wireless phones. The other Scandinavian countries are not far behind, but then again, neither are their southern neighbors.
Electronic bill paying is catching on in the US, though it’s nothing new in Europe. Halifax internet bank has done its part in the UK by offering free Wap phones to the first 150,000 customers who open new accounts. Free phones, folks! Researchers say the UK alone will have 30 mn mobiles by the end of 2000.
The European tradition of having to pay for local calls wasn’t the only factor driving their development of mobile technology. Europe was also able to come to some early agreements about standards, unlike the US. The current European standard is called GMS (global system for mobile communication). Later this year the new standard, called GPRS (general packet radio services), will begin its phase-in to provide third-generation devices with greater bandwidth.
The US has advocated competition to determine its standards, but this has resulted in four separate systems that are mostly incompatible. Cell phones have been more expensive and less reliable here. So have wireless services. The mobile culture is less developed in the US, partly because of the multiple-choice marketplace. No one wants to invest in a phone that may be obsolete in a year. I myself solved the problem by buying one of each.
On the other hand, the US has a thriving pager culture. No upstanding American drug dealer worth his salt would be caught dead without his beeper. Thankfully, corporate mobile junkies like me now have a turbo-charged beeper called the Blackberry. Check this out: I sync up my Blackberry with my computer back in the office, and each time I get an e-mail it vibrates or beeps. It displays the e-mail’s sender and subject, and I can decide to read, forward, fax, delete, save or ignore the message. I can even hook it up to my phone messaging system. Of course, I have to call the messaging system to hear it.
Wireless data exchange is getting better, stronger, faster… And in the world of technology that means cheaper. The Blackberry is a far cry from the ten-digit numeric messaging of its pager predecessors. Qualcomm’s Thin Phone is just two-thirds of an inch thick. The same company’s PdQ phone lets me make calls straight from my address book by tapping on the phone function. It also comes with a headset to free up my hands while speaking. Can you say multitasking?
Meanwhile a voice-based online service called Tellme understands my voice commands for time- and location-sensitive information. This includes stock quotes, news, weather, etc. It then finds that information on the net and reads it aloud to me over the phone. Say goodbye to tiny text and cramped screens.
Yet the Mothers Against Mobility and other social activists have tried to demonize my kind. They say we can kick the habit if we’ll only change our lifestyle, but that’s just not something I can do. Overcoming the sensation of a cell phone at my ear is just the first step.
The real challenge would be to overcome my sinking feeling that something important is happening and I don’t know about it.
To give up smoking you can get a patch, but the only patch for this mobile addict is a wireless transmitter implanted in my skull to let me send and receive messages without the hardware. Imagine that – mainlining the net. Sure, you can take my mobile phone from me – when you pry it from my cold, stiff fingers.
Editor’s Note: Some of the names in this article have been changed to protect the innocent.
