It is 'm' now, succeeding the existing profound 'e'

It is 'm' now, succeeding the existing profound 'e'

JAKARTA (JP): One of my grand aunts enthusiastically showed me
her new PC set, saying that she could now browse the Internet and
"more importantly, I can send e-mails to my children and
grandchildren and receive m-mails from them."

She made me smiled as she joked that m-mails stood for mobile-
mails as the message senders were always located in different
places. She could be correct. One of the most major buzzwords in
information technology now is "mobile", not just "electronic".

The era of the "e" world, which is marked by most terms
beginning with an "e" prefix, will likely lose out, being
replaced by an "m" world.

We are about to encounter the mobile world.

Watch what people are talking about: m-commerce -- mobile
commerce, instead of the popularly e-commerce -- this is to make
account transactions or payments over mobile phones.

There will also be m-shopping, to order goods, check
availability or price and delivery information; m-banking, to
check statements and payment and other transactions; m-brokering,
information on exchange rate and stocks; m-sign, to confirm
orders requiring signatures; m-reservations, for traveling
information and request; and so on.

As an initial beginning of the m-world, we now have WAP
(Wireless Application Protocol), which permits development of
attractive applications and business applications such as Mobile
Internet Access (MIA) for subscribers. In this new millennium,
the fields of information technology and telecommunications will
merge, sparking tremendous potential for private and industrial
customers. Increasing numbers of on-the-go subscribers will
create a huge mobile market.

The Internet is coming to the palm. WAP permits the delivery
of Internet directly to cell phones and hand-held computers. It
tailors Web pages to appear on hand-held gadgets.

Telecommunications equipment makers claimed that the next
generation of cell phones will have enough bandwidth to function
as portable Internet terminals. They said that wireless Internet
users will far surpass PC Internet users in a few year.

Patrick Aronson, senior manager of Personal Network Group for
South Asia of telecom equipment maker Motorola, believes that
many people will use mobile phones to access the Internet for the
first time.

"It's the 'm' era. It's estimated that by 2003, the world will
have some one billion wireless Internet users," he said.

The growing demand for mobile Internet-based services creates
the need for more speed within mobile networks. WAP will only be
a stepping stone before we see other packet-oriented data
transmission technologies like GPRS (General Packet Radio
Service).

GPRS is one of the key steps in the migration route of today's
2G to 3G, the third generation of mobile communications, UMTS
(Universal Mobile Telecommunication System).

Collaboration

Every one may want to have access to the information they
need, anytime and anywhere. Anticipating this, leading
telecommunications equipment giants have allied to develop mobile
access for them.

The world is experiencing the alteration from the 2G -- second
generation -- which include the current GSM technology in
Indonesia, to the 3G. The next generation of mobile cellular
technology offers a tenfold increase in data throughput rates
(from 9.6kbps to 115kbps).

Very soon, we will see GPRS which uses eight 14.4 kbps time
slots simultaneously (instead of one 9.6 kbps slot in GSM) to
provide bandwidth on demand for data applications such as
Internet access. GPRS is a reliable system with all of the
advantages of integrated services. It also offers an optimized
point-to-point transmission of high-frequency, small-volume data,
together with point-to-multipoint transmission in specific
geographical areas.

There will also be the so-called Bluetooth technology. It is a
global specification for wireless connectivity permitting phones,
hand-held PCs, televisions, disc players, cars, alarms and so on,
linking each other and transmit voice and data by way of radio
frequencies rather than cables. Bluetooth devices and appliances
are estimated to be applied in hundreds of millions if cell
phones and millions of other communications tools, like headsets,
PCs and handheld computers in less than two years.

Later, we will have the UMTS, the realization of a new
generation of mobile communication technology, featuring
bandwidths of up to 2Mbps and allowing transmission of voice,
data and multimedia. This will allow video-conferencing with
excellent picture quality, fast mobile net surfing and
transmission of e-mails (or m-mails) with large file attachments
a usual thing.

UMTS is based on two duplexing modes: FDD (frequency division
duplex) and UMTS-TDD (time division duplex). But, its system will
not sweep away the existing GSM networks overnight. Instead,
there will be a gentle migration to the new technology.

German Siemens and Japan's NEC for instance, have joined
forces to gain maximum synergy and to combine their technologies
in developing UMTS radio systems.

French Alcatel has also cooperated with Japan's Fujitsu to
anticipate in the booming 3G market.

Siemens stated that the mobile communication market has proven
to be one of the fastest growing segments in the
telecommunications market. In the field of mobile data solutions,
research has shown that the annual subscriber growth rate will
rise from 60 percent to 85 percent for business users and from 60
percent to over 100 percent for residential users by 2002. Mobile
data solutions will, therefore, play an essential role in shaping
the immediate future of mobile telephony: they offer tremendous
business potential and create lucrative new sources of revenue.

Milestone

Future wireless systems will provide users not only voice,
text and audio features, but also high-quality images and video
in the wideband frequency. This will include interactive news
delivery (voice, video, e-mail, graphics), interactive audio,
Internet games and video conferencing with file transfer
capability.

The 3G comes from the existing GSM technology (working in 900
megahertz or 1.8 gigahertz). There are also GPRS and EDGE
(Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution) before coming to UMTS.
UMTS is the part of the International Telecommunications Union's
(ITU) IMT-2000 vision of a global family of third-generation
mobile communications systems.

IMT-2000 is the term used by the ITU as the specification for
3G services, based upon a "family" of compatible standards, of
which a GSM-based evolution is set to be the most widespread.

ITU recently stated that another milestone in the history of
third-generation mobile systems has been reached with the formal
adoption of the IMT-2000 radio interface specifications. The
agreement came at the ITU Radiocommunication Assembly meeting in
Istanbul early this month.

The approval of the technical specifications of IMT-2000 opens
the way for a whole new world of multimedia mobile
communications. With speeds nearly three times faster than
today's basic rate ISDN for fast-moving mobile terminals and even
higher speeds for users who are stationary or moving at walking
speed, IMT-2000 systems will definitely change the way we
communicate, access information, work or even carry out social or
personal activities.

ITU said that the 3G market is estimated to grow from US$1.5
billion in 2001 to $9.2 billion in 2005, with investment in
infrastructure to support 3G services reaching some $1 billion in
2001 and peak in 2003 at over $5 billion. (icn)