Opportunities for software service companies in the wirelesss arena

Abstract

The year is 2005. You are travelling io the passenger seat of our work-col leagues ear with your laptop computer on the table in front of you. You sip a cop of coffee while ou write a short report on the meeting you attended earlier that day, Suddenly you hear the tone that tells you there's an incoming videoconference call You click on the screen icon, the computer screen changes and you see your assistant's face. The two of you have a brief conversation. Then she tells you about a new Intranet site that could be useful for your next customer meeting. So without interrupting the conversation, you take a look at the Web site, and your assistant guides you to the most interesting pages. A few minutes later, your sales department calls and sends you the technical speeifications and pricing information that you need for your next meeting. At the same time you send your completed report to the eight people who need copies. Meanwhile, a memo from one of your codirectors arrives on \our computer. It's about an important item on your own company, broadcast on that morning's TV news report, A clip of the TV item is attached to the email, so you watch it. This is not science fiction! It is a preview of even day communication services that will be a commercial reality within the next few years. The so-called 'third-generation1 wireless services will significantly expand the range of options available to users and allow communication, information and entertainment services to be delivered via wireless terminals. The exciting thing is that the foundation for these sen ices has already been laid down —in the shape of todays digital mobile phone networks. All that is needed to support these advanced multimedia services is to expand the information capacity or 'bandwidth1 of the radio communications technologThe telecommunications world is changing as the trends of media convergence, industry consolidation, Internet and Internet Protocol (IP) technologies and mobile communications collide into one. Imagine if one had to just carry a single device, probably less than l/4th the size of today's laptop and irrespective of one's location, one could do everything that today's IT and telecom technologies can together offer! Anywhere, Anytime and Anything is what the users demand and what futurists claim will happen. What remains to be seen is how each of the pieces of the puzzle that are required for such an event would evolve in the immediate time frame and fuse together to form that imminent eventuality. As the number of wireless subscribers has exploded, so too has the number of new data-centric applications, in turn attracting more users. That has increased the pressure for the rapid development of sophisticated high-speed wireless communications standards. One of the most significant developments that should happen for realizing such a service is the deployment of a true Wireless Data Network - a network that would offer its subscribers wireless connectivity across the globe and provide for quality voice and high speed data access. People have realized the tremendous gold mine of information that is offered by Internet and have seen how Internet has changed their life styles for better. People have also seen the tremendous benefits they have had by using wireless technology and have realized how this has brought dramatic improvements in their life styles. Then why not combine the two and get the best of both worlds? From a mere need, wireless is expected to translate itself into an absolute necessity. Wireless is one story that not only the telecommunication industry, but also the IT players are keenly watching world over. In this emerging and challenging environment, lots of exciting things are expected to unfurl for the subscribers to their own benefits. More importantly, unlike any other times in the past, the telecom industry in general and the wireless industry in particular looks towards the software industry for support.The project is an effort in that direction to explore the role that the software industry can play in the emerging wireless arena. A brief study on how this entire spectrum of wireless domain looks like and what opportunity it offers to the software industry has been attempted. The project would serve as a good reading material for the business managers of the software industry in general and the decision-makers in particular. It gives pointers to the various opportunities available for software service companies in the wireless domain and hints at possible strategies that these companies can adopt to gain a foothold in the burgeoning wireless market. It also serves them as a guide to understand the basics of the emerging wireless data network and how they can map the wireless data network's software requirements to their own business strategies to remodel their resource and business plans