Evolution of Mobile Internet Services
The
idea of wireless Internet has been around for a while. Many companies
have invested heavily in developing wireless Internet applications and
services, but have failed to find the silver bullet due to the lack of
the most important aspect that could turn it into an everyday aspect of
life: fast, reliable broadband connection. At the dawn of the wireless
Internet, many companies emerged with a grand idea of extending
existing Internet content and services to mobile devices, making
personal and corporate data and applications services available
"anytime, anywhere." While the idea promised grand success, as was
proved by the amount of venture capital invested in companies focused
on development of mobile and wireless platforms, applications, and
services, the most important component was missing: the connection
medium with speeds capable of satisfying the end users. Among the
companies that will go down in history as wireless Internet pioneers
will be Metricom, Palm, GoAmerica, OmniSky, and Phone.com.
The evolution of the mobile Internet very much
replicates the evolution of the tethered Internet services. The
pioneering wired Internet services were very slow and
expensive. The first computer modems capped at 9.6 kbps data transfer
rates. The services have been offered on per-minute bases at very
expensive rates, basically making early Internet services unavailable
to the wide audience. As time passed, PC modem technology improved, and
today individuals enjoy fast T1 and T3 connections averaging 10 Mbps
data transfer rates in their offices and at least 100-kbps broadband
Internet services on home PCs. Mobile Internet technology is following
a similar pattern. It started with slow speeds and poor coverage and
has been slowly growing to higher bandwidth and more dense coverage.
From the plain old cellular AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System)
networks that became the base for the first wireless data
communications, all the way to fast, newer standards like NTT DoCoMo
and WiFi, wireless Internet evolved providing faster, more-secure, and
more-reliable data connections with each new technology offering.
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