| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JUNE 26, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- BUSINESSWEEK LIFESTYLE
Wireless Web, Euro-style (int'l edition) Trying to Net surf by cell phone is a frustrating sport Seated at an outside cafe near Paris' Pompidou Center, I decide to turn away from watching street life and enter mobile cyberspace. I type America Online Inc.'s Internet address into my Alcatel One Touch View wap cell phone. Typing in the exact address is tedious. After three minutes, the phone starts beeping and a message pops up telling me ''your client is not allowed to access the requested object.'' I'm ready to give up and toss the phone under the wheels of a bus. I keep my calm, though, reminding myself that there's a shoebox full of other WAP--for Wireless Access Protocol--test phones waiting for me at the office. After fishing out the Nokia 7110 and clicking the Internet icon, I wait patiently as the phone slowly and silently runs a blinking line across the screen to let me know it's connecting. Nearly a minute goes by before I get the gray menu listing nine options such as weather, news, stock quotes, or entertainment. And it takes another 30 seconds to get the WAP-music subheading. From there I can listen to a choice of the latest rock or techno hits, though the sound quality is poor. Even if I keep things brief, at a rate of 15 cents to 35 cents per minute, I'll probably end up paying nearly $1 for this call. Tests of eight phones have convinced me that Wireless Internet access has a long way to go. Services vary dramatically from country to country and from phone to phone. Scandinavia is the most advanced. There, you can use your phone to order pizza online or reserve movie tickets for a Friday night show. Boxman, an online music retailer, sells compact disks from a WAP site. A music band in Finland called Nylon Beat released its latest single, Not Guilty, exclusively over WAP. But in France, Germany, and most of the rest of the Continent, the pickings are still slim. One trouble is that many phone companies are still in the beginning phases of WAP, and they block access to other service providers. This is known in the industry lingo as a ''closed garden.'' And for the time being, that garden has high fences. When I go to Germany with my French Web phone, I can only gain access to the Web through an international call to France, where I get a French weather report. This will change in the next year or two as phone companies adapt their Web services for roaming travelers. For now, though, patience is required. Phones bought individually have to be configured so that they work with each phone company's WAP service. I tried typing in a series of numbers and codes to configure the sleek Siemens S35i but had problems with certain features, such as checking into my bookmark page. One of the most difficult things to do is make travel arrangements through the Web phone. In an effort to order airplane tickets, I click on to travel and choose the subheading ''airline schedules.'' Two connections and nearly a minute later, I type in a Paris departure for June 26. By the time I've figured out that I can't get any schedules for New York or Istanbul destinations, nearly five minutes go by. I settle for a European city and choose London. Although I get flight schedules for Air France and Air Canada (but not for British Airways), booking options and price information are nowhere to be found. Eight minutes online for nothing. Catching up on the news is far easier. When I click on ''news'' in France Telecom's menu of services, the connection is seamless. Going to finance, I check the Nasdaq to see how Microsoft Corp. stock is doing. France Telecom doesn't include actual stock trading in its menu of services, though companies in Finland and Germany do. But I can check to see if Magnolia is playing at the Odeon movie theater, near the Sorbonne. And I can arrange for news flashes to be sent to me. The phone vibrates to tell me about a coup d'etat in Fiji or the death of Hafez al-Assad. Perhaps the most exciting discovery on my WAP phone is that I can read my Yahoo! e-mail from a phone. On my Nokia 7110, I sail onto Yahoo on the first try. Although typing in my user name and password is a chore, within seconds I am reading my e-mail. Writing a reply on these tiny keys, though, is an excruciating endeavor. It will likely be about two years before wireless Internet access becomes easy and cost-effective enough to lure millions of Europeans. Until the technology catches up to users' expectations, I think I would prefer walking into a travel agency to reserve a flight or sauntering into the Pompidou library to do research. Hey, I can even return to my cafe and use my phone to make a call. Now there's a concept. By INKA RESCH _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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RELATED ITEMS The Ripening of the Wireless Web (int'l edition) TABLE: Europe's Mobile Madness Wireless Web, Euro-style (int'l edition) TABLE: What You Can Do on Your Web Phone Phoneless in America? (int'l edition) INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
