| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 18, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- EUROPEAN COVER STORY
Taking a Net Phone for a Spin (int'l edition) For the dawn of the mobile Internet, it's not much to look at. I'm in the Paris offices of Alcatel. And after a couple minutes of clicking menu options on a normal-looking cell phone, I have the image of a small grey ring on a tiny screen. It's Paris' ring road, le Boulevard Peripherique. The darker sections signal traffic jams. But I wouldn't take a detour based on the blurry spot. The first generation of mobile computing is likely to appeal largely to geeks--along with a few million Scandinavians. Dialing up the portal takes time, and the surfing choices are pretty slim. The choices don't go much beyond the weather report and stock quotes. What's worse, each call racks up chargeable minutes on the cell-phone account, which cost from 10 cents to more than a dollar. Things should improve fast. Ericsson and Alcatel are coming out with much bigger screens later this year, and phone companies will be rolling out all sorts of services. But I won't be phone-surfing until about this time next year. That's when we'll be able to surf data all day long without making calls. Ever a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team, I'll gladly pay a few cents for a short message each time they win a game. And if I can figure out a way to scroll down BUSINESS WEEK e-mail on the phone, maybe the company will spring for the $500 machine. By Stephen Baker in Paris _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 RELATED ITEMS Smart Phones (int'l edition) COVER IMAGE: Smart Phones TABLE: Europe's Edge in the Net-Phone Battles Taking a Net Phone for a Spin (int'l edition) PHOTO: Alcatel's Web Touch Phone ``I'm Online All the Time, and It's Free'' (int'l edition) INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
