Wireless Office Services (WOS)
Office complexes, manufacturing warehouses, and
other facilities that are spread out and supported with disbursed
populations of employees offer ideal opportunities for the wireless
service provider. Motorola, which introduced its M-Cell GSM (Global
System for Mobile Telecommunications) access product at the 1998 GSM
World Congress, was able to provide attendees with support for over
16,000 calls during the three-day conference. This system is
essentially an internal telephone system that functions like any other
PBX system except that it is supported by a localized GSM wireless
network operator. In this environment, building distributed RF (radio
frequency) units linked to cluster controllers support internal
interoffice calling. When a user leaves the office, his or her calls
are then seamlessly linked via the local GSM wireless network. Once
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support is added to the network,
nonvoice services also can be supported.
In the United States, service providers are now
pursuing wireless office services (WOS) as a new market niche. In this
environment, the service provider establishes a distributed radio
system (DRS) throughout the office or multitenant facility in much the
same way that a PBX system or wireless LAN is configured. In this
scenario, mini base stations (MBS) are interfaced to distributed
antennas (DAS), forming the basic infrastructure. The MBS units are
linked in much the same way as in building data networks, which in turn
are linked to a central radio. The advantage of these carrier-provided
solutions is the transparent mobility of the end users in the system.
While in the building or corporate facilities, the end users do not
incur any per-minute billing; however, once they leave the premises,
they are treated like regular mobile users and billed accordingly.
In this arrangement, the end user is never out of touch
and always within reach, as one assigned telephone number follows the
end user both on and off premises. Cellular One on the West Coast is
currently offering this service in the San Francisco area.
Sprint has begun to offer wireless data service
over its PCS network, which comprises over 11,000 base stations. This
network exceeds the BellSouth Wireless Data service and ARIDS combined
data networks. The Sprint data network will work through Sprint PCS
smart phones, such as the Nokia, Motorola, or Qualcomm, that support
smart set displays. Further, these smart sets, when configured with
microbrowsers, can be used to access the Internet for e-mail and other
abridged services. This new data service also provides access to stock
quotes and other time-critical information. Kits are available to
provide Internet access for laptops or PDAs at 14.4 kbps.
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