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6 Building brands with text messaging
10 Enterprise office automation
13 Mobile operating systems
14 Location-based services
18 Living the mobile lifestyle
22 Mobile tech saves lives
24 Wireless LANs are coming
28 Bell funds innovative R&D
29 New devices are coming
30 Big brands leverage wireles
34 Wireless for the fun of it
38 Enabling field reps
41 GSM vs. CDMA
42 Better customer relat
44 Enterprise implementat
48 Cutting-edge Sympatico
To navigate this CD ROM click the article you want to read(you can return to this page by pressing home on your keyboard)
Message from the President
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6 Marketing to the one
Text messaging is Spam-free, inexpensive and effective
10 Automating the enterpriseTraditional business processes meet efficient mobile technology
13 Start with the operating system
Practical advice on selecting a handheld computer
14 Knowing where to begin
Location-based services track shipments and coffee shops
18 Living the mobile lifestyle
Youth love cellphones. Heres why
22 Saving seconds, saving lives
New systems are helping emergency workers get there faster
24 Fast networks, no wires
Mobile public networks are hot, hot, hot
28 Investing in innovation
Start-ups and universities get seed money from Bell
29 Device diversity
More devices are hitting the shelves everyday. Heres a few
2
14
W O R KL I F EW I R E L E S S
W O R KL I F EW I R E L E S S
18
coninued on next page
contents
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4 BUSINESS ON THE GO
PUBLISHERS
Laura M. Lapierre
Greg MacDonald
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFPeter Wolchak
ASSOCIATE EDITORChristine Sadek
COPY EDITORLisa Manfield
ART DIRECTORShelley Walker
ELECTRONIC PRODUCTIONPeter Pasivirta
PHOTOGRAPHYSteve Uhraney (Toronto)Ron Sangha (Vancouver)
Richard Desmarais (Ottawa)
ILLUSTRATIONS
Min Jae Hong (New York)Jack Slattery (Texas)
Gavin Orpen (Vancouver)Greg White (Vancouver)
Bell Mobility Inc.5099 Creekbank Road, 6EMississauga, Ontario L4W 5N2
905.282.2000Fax: 905.282.3513
2003 Business on the Gois published by Bell Mobility IAll rights reserved. Points of vi
expressed do not necessarilyrepresent those of Bell Mobility.
30 Brands, no boundaries
Major brand names are moving
into wireless
34 Wireless for the fun of it
Hey, its not all about work.
Think games, messaging and dating
38 Far and awayThe value of keeping field reps out
in the field
41 The CDMA/GSM split
A field guide to two competing
mobile standards
42 The customer experience
Bell innovates: interactive voice response plus
simplified billing
44 From here to there
A nine-step guide to implementing an
enterprise wireless solution
48 The Sympatico
story
Sure, its about net access.
And TV, music and games
contents
3813
30
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BUSINESS ON THE GO 5
m e s s a g e f r o m t h e p r e s i d e n t
w
The mobile
opportunity
When I began my career the business world was a
very different place. The Internet essentially
didn't exist, no one had e-mail and technology
was a mysterious back-room entity you sometimes
heard about.In fact, only 18 years ago mobile phones cost
up to $5,000, talk time set you back more than $1
per minute and the phones were the size of stereo
components.
Today it's a completely different picture.
Technologyespecially mobile technology
surrounds us. We live and work aided by high-
speed networks and multi-function devices.
Cellphones, for example, are small and inexpen-
sive. Forty per cent of Canadians own a cellphone
and that number is rising. That is a huge cultural
and business shift in a relatively short period of
time, and I draw two conclusions from that revolu-
tion: one, the revolution is not over; and two,
these changes represent huge opportunities, for
the individual and for the companies that embrace
change.
D a t a i s t h e m e s s a g e
When most people think of mobile technology it is
still voice that pops to mind. That makes sense:
cellular voice applications continue to be a huge
success story. But voice has paved the way for the
next revolution: mobile data, the ability to access
information and applications that until recently
were locked within office building walls.
We're just starting to see mobile data func-
tionality take off. Ontario's Hamilton Police, forexample, today have 115 patrol cars linked to the
databases and systems at police headquarters.
Ruggedized notebooks equipped with Sierra
Wireless AirCards connect to Bell Mobility's 1X
network, giving officers access to mug shot data-
bases, e-mail, policies and procedures, and soon to
scanned historical records.
This system helps officers spend more time on
the streets of their communities, making those
communities safer.
Or look at TD Bank, which is rolling out mobile
point of sales terminals. This means the next time
you order a pizza you'll be able to conduct a credit
or debit transaction from your own front porch.
You will soon see these portable sales terminals
popping up everywhere.
Mobile data, particularly e-mail, will soon be
as commonplace among consumers as cellular
voice is today.
S e i z e t h e o p p o r t u n i t yAnd that means there are huge opportunities up
for grabs.
Remember, those who got in on the early days
of cellular voice were the ones who delivered
competitive advantages to their companies.
Wireless data represents a major new opportu-
nity for people who understand how mobile
works, where it fits and how it can drive competi-
tive advantage and differentiation for their
companies.
M i c h a e l A . N e u m a n
P r e s i d e n t ,B e l l M o b i l i t y
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w6 BUSINESS ON THE GO
THE POWEROF CHOICETe x t m e s s a g i n g i s p e r m i s s i o n -
b a s e d , d i r e c t t o t h e c o n s u m e r
a n d f r i e n d l y a s h e c k . A n d
b r a n d s a r e n o t i c i n g
When Canadian pop music fans sent text messages to vote for
their favourite performers on CTVs Canadian Idol, they were
making wireless messaging history. Unlike followers of the
American Idol series, who could only vote by text if they
subscribed to a specific wireless service provider, Canadian Idol
viewers were able to vote from any text-messaging-capable
handset from any carrier.And vote they did.
The numbers show Canadians are eagerly adapting to this
worldwide phenomenon, says Peter Barnes, President and CEO
of the Ottawa-based Canadian Wireless Telecommunications
Association (CWTA). Its a fast, instant and affordable way to
communicate with friends.
The voting service, powered by Airborne Entertainment, a
wireless entertainment company based in Montreal, involved
nine wireless carriers across Canada and was the first such inter-
operable entertainment-based campaign in North America. The
system used common short codesdigital short cuts managed by
the CWTA that every major wireless service provider can process.
The codes are a series of five or six digits that customers dial intotheir wireless devices to vote, sign up for contests, register for
games or receive promotional information. Coordinated by the
CWTA, the common short code initiative has enabled the
Canadian wireless industry to offer customers ubiquitous text
messaging experiences, and has given companies options for
large-scale mobile marketing. In the case of Canadian Idol,
viewers were invited to enter common short codes (such as
IDOL01) into their handsets in order to vote for their hero of
choice. They could also use other codes to sign up for regular text
updates and play trivia games.
This initiative for the wireless industry is a big leap
B y L i s a M a n f i e l d
PHOTO:RON
SANGHA
b u s i n e s s o n t h e g o
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forward, says Nancie Wight, Executive Producer and V
President of Programming at Airborne Entertainment. Wev
up the infrastructure (for Canadian Idol) so that when the w
less votes come through, Airborne collects those votes, ident
the carriers and does all the reporting back to CTV. Theres b
tremendous leadership on Bells part to put this project togeth
Millions of North Americans are now interacting with inn
tive brands, entering contests, messaging to colleagues
enhancing their workflow processes using non-voice wire
messaging applications. According to the CWTA, growth contin
in all sectors of the wireless communications industry, with m
than 15 million Canadians using wireless products and serviand sending more than 800,000 wireless messages each day.
Underlying all those messages is the SMS (Short Mes
Service) protocol.
The vo i ce o f t he peop l e
Reality TV shows like Canadian Idol are doing a lot to drive
growth. Canadian Idol is great because people see it on TV
find out how to use text messaging, says Giulia Arena, AssocDirector of Messaging at Bell Mobility. Were in the proces
trying to create awareness about text messaging. There are pe
who use it and love it, and theres a whole other piece of
market that still doesnt even know it exists.
Wight agrees theres a long to way to go in the educa
process. In Canada were a bit behind. Europe is far m
advanced both in interpersonal messaging and (wirel
marketing. There youll see, for example, on a Coke can: S
code to this number and win! If you tried that here, pe
wouldnt know what you were talking about. The great th
b u s i n e s s o n t h e g o
E - M A I L O N T H E M O V E
While most visible in the consumer sphere, non-voice
wireless messaging is also being used in many business
applicationsto improve workflow processes, enhance
work team communications and supplement customer
service practices.
Virginia Aulin can attest to that business need. As
Vice-President of Public Affairs and Government
Relations for TimberWest Forest, she travels frequently
and requires the ability to stay in constant communica-
tion with colleagues. Thats why, in January, she adopteda BlackBerry wireless handheld. My CEO and I were at
lengthy meetings in D.C. and noticed everyone had
BlackBerrys and that they were so much more conven-
ient than checking e-mail on laptops, she says. So he
phoned our director of IT and told him he wanted every-
one on the executive management team to have a
BlackBerry by the time we got back to Vancouver. Since
then, we use our BlackBerrys religiously.
Aulin primarily uses her handheld for its e-mail func-
tionality, and says the company has definitely seen a
return on its investment as a result. As a team we are bet-ter connected and can use our time more effectively. It
means theres no wasted time in airports or when Im wait-
ing for a meetingI use that time to respond to e-mails.
T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E
Businesses are using text messaging for:
E-mail: SMS messages can alert workers when new e-
mail arrives and communicate basic information such as
the Sender and Subject fields.
Vehicle/fleet tracking: Coupled with Global
Positioning Systems technology, text messaging can relay
location information to customers or a tracking facility.
Group messaging: Messages can be broadcast
simultaneously to a group.
Customer service: Customers can be sent basic
information, such as account status or balances, or sim-
ple answers to questions.
Dispatch systems: Addresses and phone numbers
can fit within the SMS text limit, making the technology
useful for delivery or courier firms.
8 BUSINESS ON THE GO
GIULIA
ARENA,
BELL
MOBILITY
VIRGINIA
AULIN,
TIMBERWEST
DARREN
STONE,
VERRUS
NANCIE
WIGHT,
AIRBORNE
PETER
BARNES
CWTA
PETER
BARNES,
CWTA
30,000
Monthly(thousands)
Mobile Originated Text Messages
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
30,000Jan 02 Mar 02 May 02 Jan 02
Monthly Daily
Sept 02 Nov 02 Jan 03 Mar 03 May 03
1,0
900
700
800
600
500
400
300
200
100
Source:
7/29/2019 Botg Print Vers
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about Canadian Idol and this common short code initiative is theres
now a way to open those doors.
Arena says companies could still market their brands by going
with basic short codes, if for example they wanted to target only one
service providers customers. However, she expects most new
marketing initiatives will take advantage of the more flexible inter-
operable common codes.Say a third party wants to work with all the carriersit would
go to the CWTA to get one common short code, Arena says. Most
brands want to work with everyone because that is where the market
is, so the CWTA process helps them and really helps us all build the
text messaging market.
N o S p a m h e r e
Short code marketing is based on a by-request model, in that cell
owners have to sign-up for individual campaigns. This avoids the en-
masse Spam associated with e-mail marketing. Another advantage of
mobile short codes is the call to action is immediate: people carry
cellphones so when they see a campaign they like they can sign up
immediately. In the older Web-based advertising model, interestedconsumers had to remember a URL and remember to try it out when
they got back to their computers. And often, they didnt do either.
Text messaging has made huge inroads into the entertainment
and sports areas because, according to Arena, both are interactive
and produce short bits of information in real time. Text messaging
is limited in its character set so it works well with those applica-
tions, she says. Voting is something very actionable and in the
moment. With sports, generally theres a real-time aspect and you
want to know whats happening via quick pieces of information.
For three years, Vancouver-based wireless solutions firm Verrus
has developed wireless solutions for professional sports venues.
Through agreements with the Seattle Mariners and the Carolina
Hurricanes, the veteran wireless company began building a market
for wireless entertainment and commerce, and survived the techdownturn on the strength of its compelling applications. Basically,
if youre at the game you can predict what is going to happen using
the WAP browser on your phone, says Darren Stone, Vice-President
of R&D at Verrus. Its a text-based interface that also lets you
answer trivia questions. So its great for the sports fan who just
wants to get more into the action.
Airborne has also gotten in on the game, and delivers real-time
sports alerts for Verizon in the U.S. If youre a sports fan you can
sign up and have text messages come to your phone every time
theres a goal, Wight says. That business just hasnt slowed down;
every quarter its growing.
Verrus has recently taken its sports initiative one step further
and has rolled-out a wireless in-seat ordering service, giving sportsfans the ability to order a hamburger and beer to their seat with a
cellphone, Stone says.
It basically turns the whole park into club seating.
But the companys first foray into mobile commerce was in
another area altogether: parking lots. Verrus developed a wireless
pay parking system which is now available in lots throughout
Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary and Whistler, B.C. Rather than fumbling
for change to pay for parking, customers dial a toll-free number from
their wireless phones, indicate the lot number and the amount of
time they wish to park, and have the charges billed to their credit
BUSINESS ON THE GO 9
card. It takes a minute to sign up the first time, Stone says. E
subsequent time its about a 20-second phone call. The really
thing is Verrus sends you a text message when your parking is abou
expire. You respond saying youd like to extend it, and you dont h
to go back to your car.
Mobile commerce driven by wireless capabilities is what Ston
most excited about. Thats where we think theres really exci
stuff going on. The adoption has been fantastic; weve seen a 15cent growth rate per month consistently over the last couple of y
in terms of mobile transactions. If you use it once, youre alm
certain to use it again and again; thats what our numbers tell us.
We have a user base of many thousands of people in B.C.
Washington, with hundreds more registering for the first time e
week, Stone continues. We also do surveys to find out who
market is and weve found that in a typical North American city, c
to 90 per cent of people who park their cars in an urban centre h
cellphones on them. That might actually be a larger per centag
people than those who have correct change.
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10 BUSINESS ON THE GO
b u s i n e s s o n t h e g o
t
MakingtimeO f f i c e a u t o m a t i o n s y s t e m s d r i v e
p r o d u c t i v i t y f o r m o b i l e r e p s
The scene: a doctors waiting room, daytime. A crowd of people sit in
uncomfortable chairs, reading months-old magazines, waiting for their
appointments. Within the crowd are two men, wearing suits. Theyre
pharmaceutical reps.
One of them is concentrating on a compact BlackBerry. He has just
checked his e-mail and learned that the anti-cholesterol drug his
company has been developing was approved by Health Canada this
morning. He can begin his sales pitch to the doctor as soon as she
finishes her current appointment.
The other rep is sitting idle. His handheld needs to be plugged
directly into a computer to pick up e-mail, so its sitting in his briefcase.
As his work day ticks away, hes looking at his fingers, wondering if he
should trim his nails.
Who would you rather have working for your company?
Typically, employees such as pharmaceutical reps spend the day
going from doctor to hospital to doctor, says Kiran Lam, Associate
Director of Wireless Business Applications at Bell Mobility. And at each
stop they make, they could be waiting 45 minutes or an hour just to see
their client. Companies which send employees out into the field have
always accepted that some productive time would be lost. They had no
choice. Reps had to wait in waiting rooms, had to drive from client toclient and had to travel back to the office to file orders. Those hours
were like anchors tied directly to the companys profits.
But that time no longer needs to be downtime, Lam says.
D a t a a n y w h e r e
The new factor is higher-speed mobile networks. Bell Mobility and other
wireless service providers selected a technology called 1X, while others
opted for the General Packet Radio Service standard.
1X allows cruising speeds of up to 86 kilobits per second, which is
comparable to dial-up. That allows you to do about 90 per cent of what
you can do in the office out in the field, Lam says.
B y A n d y P e d e r s e n
ILLUSTRATION:MIN
JAEHONG
/THREEIN
A
BOX
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BUSINESS ON THE GO 11
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b u s i n e s s o n t h e g o
And while the network is fast and
wireless it is also robust enough to be
used by the police force in Hamilton,
Ont. More than 100 of their cruisers
are now equipped with ruggedized
laptops and Sierra Wireless AirCards,
which link the computers to the 1X
network.
The goal is to keep officers where theyre most needed: on
the street.
With the new system, the savings are not so much indollars as they are savings in officers time, explains Deputy
Chief Tom Marlor. The real efficiency is keeping the officer on
his or her beat, to be available for priority calls.
Marlors force patrols an area that spans more than 400
square miles, which means officers often find themselves more
than a half-hours drive from the station. To file a report or
access database information, officers could easily spend an
hour just commuting to and from the station.
Before our new implementation, when an officer wanted
information from a file he or she had to go to the station, give
a record number to someone in the records office who would
go to a file cabinet, pull the record, photocopy it, give it to the
officer, and then refile the paper, Marlor explains. On top ofthat there would sometimes be mis-files. So you have all these
staff hours wasted. But the new system, which gives officers
direct access from the car, eliminates all that.
U p a n d r u n n i n g
Its a system that holds potential for almost any business or
organization that sends people into the field. And implemen-
tation can be a very simple process.
When Suncor Energy Products decided to outfit its station
inspectors with BlackBerrys so they could submit reports to
head office in real time, designing and launching the system
took only weeks. Suncor operates almost 300 gas stations across
Ontario under its retail brand name, Sunoco, and Territory
Managers tour each station, working with an inspection list
that can run to more than 300 questions for the larger sites.
Because Bell Mobilitys network covers almost every one
of our stations we didnt have to worry about store-and-
forward processes and how to make the application work off-
line, says Geoff Le Quelenec, a Web and wireless developer for
Sunoco. Bell Mobility was able to say You have signal almost
everywhere and that was it.
The main goal for Suncor, Le Quelenec says, was timeli-
ness. We wanted the speed of a wireless solution.
And with the new system, instead of getting inspection
results in weeks, information is available in real time. When the
Territory Managers complete the inspection screen on the
BlackBerry, a one-tap operation transmits the results wirelessly
to Suncor Energy Products head office. The data is immediately
available to the system and an improved report-generating
process posts the results on the companys intranet portal.
Sunoco and the Hamilton Police are very pleased with
their 1X implementation, but Lam says the network is only
being used at a fraction of its potential. The more people
learn about it, the more demand there will be.
The really explosive growth, he predicts, will come next
year when the majority of cellphones issued by Bell Mobilityand other wireless service providers will be Java-enabled.
Adding the programming language means phones wont actu-
ally be phones so much as personal digital assistants, allowing
their owners to browse the Web or check and send e-mail.
What does this mean for businesses? First, instead of
checking e-mail on a $2,000 laptop computer, many could use
a much less expensive cellphone. Going further, as cellphones
and handheld computers become more advanced, businesses
will ask themselves if they really need to rent office space for
an employee just because he or she needs computer access.
This all has a very strong ROI model, Lam says.
Businesses will have less need for office space. Their orders
will be processed in real time. And since their field workers will
be able to communicate in real time, theyll be able to handle a
lot more jobs in a day.
Were in for exciting times ahead. This storys just going
to keep on getting better.
1X allows cruising speeds of up to 86 kilobits per second, which is
comparable to dial-up. That allows you to do about 90 per cent of
what you can do in the office out in the field.
Kiran Lam,
Associate Director of Wireless Business Applications,Bell Mobility
12 BUSINESS ON THE GO
The product iv i ty p lay at Suncor
T h e c o m p a n y
Suncor Energy operates a refining and marketing busi-
ness in Ontario with distribution under the Sunoco brand.
T h e n e e d
A wireless site-inspection system to track quality-control.
T h e s o l u t i o n
A PDA-based inspection solution powered by Bell
Mobility's 1X network.
T h e r e s u l t s
Suncor executives get performance results in minutes,
not weeks. Gas station operators can now act on
inspection assessments immediately. Managers achieve
improved results more quickly.
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PHOTOC
REDITL
But the key to selecting the ideal device for you actu-
ally starts with the hidden
realm of operating
systems. Understanding
the strengths of each
OS will help determine
the best device for the
job at hand.
Three operating systems
currently hold sway over the
market: Microsofts Pocket PC,
the Palm OS, and Research In
Motions BlackBerry software.
Heres a snapshot look at each.
Th e v e t e r a n
The Palm OS is the leading mobile
data platform, with about 70 per
cent market penetration. Palm
has the largest installed base of
users today, and supports liter-
ally tens of thousands of appli-
cations, according to Kiran
Lam, Associate Director of
Wireless Business Applications
at Bell Mobility. He notes this
has made Palms OS the jack-
of-all-trades of wireless
data. If you dream it there will be an applica-
tion for it available for the Palm.
Lam points out current Palm users are likely
to stick with Palm when shopping for a wireless-
enabled device, particularly if they have a lot ofinformation loaded into their existing device.
The Palm 7135 is selling like gangbusters
right now, he observes. Theres a huge pent-
up demand.
T h e r i s i n g s t a r
Microsofts Pocket PC OS, now renamed
Windows Mobile 2003, is number two in
terms of installed base but its market share
is growing rapidly, Lam says. Information
technology professionals are turning to Pocket
PC as they look to add mobile data devices to existing
Microsoft-based corporate networks.
They like the consistency between Pocket PC and the Microsoft plat-forms, Lam explains, adding Pocket PC devices are optimized for Microsoft
Exchange and include a pocket Internet browser and stripped down versions
of Word and Excel. With a Pocket PC you actually open your files using a
native application, so its a more elegant fit.
T h e e - m a i l s p e c i a l i s t
While Palm and Pocket PC support multiple applications, Research In
Motions key strength is that its OS is purpose-built to do one thing, and do
it well. That one thing is e-mail. As an e-mail appliance, its probably the
best on the market today, Lam says, citing long battery life,
ruggedness and an excellent keyboard design among RIMs
advantages.
RIMs OS scores big for security,
too. IT professionals love RIM for e-
mail because it uses triple-DES
encryption, Lam points out. Its
probably the safest way available to
transmit e-mail wirelessly.
T h e f u t u r e
One of the biggest developments for
hand-held-type devices could take
place outside the big-three OS ring.
Looking ahead, Java-enabled phones
will open new marketsparticularly
in those segments that have not yet
adopted wireless data services. The
nature of the platform means its
going to be more entry-level: the
interface is not a full keyboard and
the display is much smaller, Bell
Mobilitys Lam explains.
But Java-enabled phones will be
affordable and will have an all-in-one
form factor. And you should see some
of the games you can download on
Java nowthey are incredible, and
they wouldve been only a dream
three years ago.
Hand-held computers are cool.
They play music, display photos
and many double as cellphones.
And, of course, they also keep
track of appointments, store
business contacts and keep
you on top of e-mail.
Looking
at mobiledata?
Look atthe OSfirst
B y T r e v o r M a r s h a l l
BUSINESS ON THE GO 13
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b u s i n e s s o n t h e g o
t
LOCATION
LOCATIONLOCATIONN e w l o c a t i o n - b a s e d s e r v i c e s w i l l
t e l l y o u w h e r e y o u a r e , w h e r e t o
g o , a n d h o w t o g e t t h e r e
These things happen to the best of us.
Visiting another city you find yourself
short on cash. You wander around lost for
what seems like hours, searching for a
bank machine, only to find out later
there was one right around the corner.
This is a common problem and one of
the more popular business cases for wire-
less location-based services (LBS). With
this type of service, wireless customerscan send a find me request through a
Web-enabled phone. The request matches
up with a third-party database and users
can look up a list of ATMs, restaurants,
gas stations or whatever.
Its not an entirely new idea. Think of
all the times you called 411 or looked up
a restaurant in the Yellow Pages.
LBS is in fact the evolution of these
services, according to Adrian Vella,
Associate Director of Location-Based
Services Evolution and Applications at
Bell Mobility.
Bell Mobilitys MyFinder, a mobileconsumer LBS offering, is the first service
of its kind in Canada. We wanted to take
a service that consumers currently use
and were familiar with and make it even
better, Vella says.
Say I want to meet with some
friends for dinner tonight. I can run a
search around a specific intersection and
then get directions there from my office.
So I use MyFinder to find me and provide
directions from where I am to where I
want to go. I can then also send this
information to my friends as a text
message.
There are different phases to this
technology, Vella adds. The first phase,
available now in Ontario, Qubec and
Western Canada, is based on cell site
technology. This uses the carriers
existing cellular network sites, foundthroughout the service areas, to locate a
customers phone. Delivering this does
not require phone upgrades, Vella says,
so anyone with a digital, Web-enabled
device is all set. Bell Mobility charges a
small fee per Find Me request.
The services that we launch will
always be opt-in, where the customers
will first have to give consent to be
located, he added.
Now that youve been located, says
Andrew Seybold, a principal analyst
with the Andrew Seybold Group and
the Los Gatos, Calif.-based founder ofOutlook4Mobility, a trend analysis group
of companies focused on the wireless
market, youve solved the biggest
issue...since it already knows where you
are, it can match your location with a
database and get the answer youre
looking for.
The second phase of this technology
will incorporate GPS (global positioning
system) technology which will ramp up
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the accuracy of the mobile location process.
With cell-site (technology), you are typically going to
find things within a five-minute drive from where you are. What
that means in downtown Toronto is anywhere between a quarter
of a kilometre and about a kilometre. When you start
getting into rural areas,
however, the search area
that we use increases
because our cell sites aremore spaced out. In
some cases, it might find
things up to 10km (away
from where you are).
But with GPS, you will be
able to pinpoint loca-
tions within about 10
metres, he says. That
will enable services such
as roadside assistance to
locate stranded motorists easily using the GPS in their phones.
According to e-commerce consulting firm The Kelsey
Group, based in Princeton, N.J., the worldwide LBS market will
exceed US$11 billion in revenue by 2005, by which time about
one billion Internet-enabled handsets will be in use. And,
according to IDC Canada, about 60 per cent of Canadian compa-
nies are currently using at least one wireless solution. Vella
says LBS technology for wireless holds wide appeal for both
businesses and consumers.
For example, dispatch companies can now use this tech-
nology to locate unitstrucks, couriers, whateverwhich are
out and about. LBS allows them to much more efficiently
dispatch calls.
T h e p r i v a c y p l a y
So what about privacy? Many people, according to Seybold,
immediately wonder if this type of technology is Big Brother at
work. But all of this is going to be permission based...andpeople are going to use it in varying degrees.
Vella agrees. Privacy is of utmost importanceits always
at the forefront. And weve really focused on designing the
services to give our customers full control of when you can be
found, whether you want to or dont want to be found, and
who can locate you. So its all in the hands of the user.
The opt-in nature of MyFinder was one of the things that
appealed to Christina Castellani. What you have to do is you
have to say find me. And it can only find you if you tell it to
do thatyou are making that decision. It doesnt constantly
track your position 24 hours a day.
Castellani, who works as a student trainer specialising in
health and safety with the London, Ont.-based Student Teaching
Project, says she often travels to Toronto and other cities because
of her job. I find if I have that service, I can quickly find the
closest bank, the closest nightclubthings like that. And its
just an interesting thing to have, in this day and age.
Also, I dont own a car. And when I am using (the service)
I can get walking directions, which usually cut down a lot onthe time of getting somewhere. It actually gives you directions
through buildings and stuffI found that really cool.
It is a very helpful feature to have when you are lost, she
adds, because it can
often tell you which
intersection is closest.
I find I feel safer and
more confident when
travelling than I did
before.
According to Vella
of Bell Mobility, the
services offered, which
includes some content
from Global Dining and
Yellow Pages, are just
the tip of the ice-
berg. The focus this
year will be on monitoring applications and ensuring they offer
the right content. We are always adding value, but not bom-
barding the application with so much content that it becomes
too complicated.
Say I want to go out to dinner tonight. I can run aMyFinder search around a specific intersection andthen get directions there from my office. So I use the
search to find me and plot directions from where Iam to where I want to go.
Adrian Vella, Associate Director of Location-Based Services Evolutionand Applications at Bell Mobility
T h e L B S m a r k e t
The worldwide LBS market will exceed US$11 billion
by 2005 Also by 2005, about one billion Internet-enabledhandsets will be in use
Source: The Kelsey Group
O n t h e c o n s u m e r s i d e
Strategy Analytics estimates consumer location applica-tions will generate more than US$8 billion in global serv-ice revenues in 2008, with Asia Pacific remaining thedominant region.
Tower
Centre ofCell site
Uncertaintyradius
GPSSatellites
MobilePhone
EVOLU
TIONPhase 1
Phase 2
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i
ITS ALIFESTYLETHING
T h e p e r s o n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p
b e t w e e n y o u t h a n d t h e i r p h o n e s
If youre past 30, or maybe even a bit younger, its possible the
excitement surrounding mobility leaves you a little confused.
Typing text messages on a super-tiny keyboard seems hardly
worth the effort, and you have a problem grasping the value of
being accessible 24/7. You never had to do that before.
Camera phones? Polyphonic ringtones? Phones that let you
listen to MP3s and play games? Puh-leeeeease! Dont people have
enough to do with their time?Yet younger people are heavily into all of these, and its about
more than just the phone. Kids are different and they take to cell-
phones in a different way.
My parents are very technologically inept, says Nicole
Fawcette, a 20-year-old University of Toronto student who considers
herself a heavy mobile phone user. Its just a lifestyle thing.
That lifestyle thing is currently translating into some hard
numbers. According to John Hillis, Director of Youth Marketing for
Bell Mobility, about 43 per cent of the general population carries
cellphones, but for youth its closer to 55 per cent. Cellphones are
simply a way of life, he says.
So what is it that differentiates the 13- to 29-year-old set, and
explains their general interest in technology, specifically mobile
phones?
The number one reason most often cited is that kids are
more technologically savvy. Young people have grown up
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communicating with all kinds of
technology, Hillis says. In fact,
more and more kids are growing
up landline-lessmany wont
even consider anything but
cellphones.
This is a group that is so
cellular, says Max Valiquette,
President of Youthography, a full-service youth marketing consul-tancy. It is a form of technology that integrates so easily into
their lives and provides them with a lot of benefits that adults
dont typically seek.
Number one is the fact young people dont tend to divide
their world into buckets. Where adults split their lives into work
and home, and primarily (although this is changing) identify
their phones as business tools, kids see cellphones as communica-
tion tools, and even as lifestyles tools.
Business we shut down, but relationships we dont shut
down, Valiquette says.
This partly explains why Fawcette leaves her phone, which is
also her alarm clock, on 24 hours a day. A potential middle-of-
the-night caller is not a problem: she can turn the ringer off or,
using caller ID, she can send the person straight to voice mail.
L i v i n g m o b i l e
Kids work and home lives roll together, and thats how they use
their cellphones. Mobile phones offer a lifestyle that is full of all
those great energized words that define youth. Freedom.
Independence. Control.
Its your own, you customize it the way you want to, you
dont worry about anyone else deleting your messages, you dont
worry about not being able to reach somebody. Its very, very, very
much a kid thing, Valiquette says.
Reade Barber, Senior Associate Director of Services
Development for Bell Mobility, points out that youth also have
more time on their hands. Indeed, Fawcette admits she uses her
phones Web access to check movie listings and e-mail when she iswaiting for the bus and really bored.
What a difference from my over-the-hill viewpoint as a
working mother of three. That wireless-Web-enabled, enchant
ringtone, complete-with-calendar (and task-list) mobile phon
my handbag is truly a gem. And yet, Im hard-pressed to find
time to play with itnot to mention learn the functions.
Which brings us to the next point. Young people have a
ingness to adopt and a willingness to experiment, Barber s
Not only do they have the time, but they also put effort
learning new technologies.
Understanding who young people are goes a long way towexplaining what they love about their cellphones. [Youth] a
tremendously empowered generation who are used to ta
control of their lives, Valiquette says.
They are used to experiencing empowerment with technol
media and entertainment, and the cellphone lets them do it
Kids download what, when and how they want to, and every
brings new options, whether it be streaming video, location-b
services, or multimedia messaging.
Cellphones give kids that unique mix of connectedness, i
pendence, freedom and control they find so important. Y
parents dont control this, you do, Valiquette says.
Ironically, 17-year-old Montrealer Michelle Roseman says
cellphone makes her feel more independent, because it helps
stay in touch with her parents, who are then less worried. Ar
kids supposed to feel more independent when theyre out of rea
But caller ID and voice mail allow Roseman to decide wh
talk to and when, and her parents give her more distance know
they can stay in touch.
W h a t s m i n e
No surprise then that personalization, which is also controlle
the individual, has become a big market hit. Bell Mobility of
users more than 1,400 downloadable ringtones. Some kids th
on modifying their phones faceplates; others like to change
screen image.
Images and ringtones, Hillis
says, continue to skyrocket.
Since youth also want to beentertained, they are one of the
key drivers of entertainment serv-
This is a group that is so cellular. It is a form of technology that
integrates into their lives and provides them with a lot of benefits.
Max Valiquette,
President, Youthography
Young people have a willingness to adopt
and a willingness to experiment.
Reade Barber,
Senior Associate Director of Services Development for Bell Mobility
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BUSINESS ON THE GO 21
ices, Barber says. A slew of services geared specifically towards
youth include Java games, games playable from a phones
Internet browser, and sites that allow kids to create their own
images and upload them from the home PC to the phone.
According to Hillis, revenue from those younger than 24 is 20
per cent higher than from people older than 24. Also, as the
current 55 per cent penetration is expected to grow to 60 per cent
by the end of the yearwhich translates to about 300,000 new
entrantsnow is the time to win new customers, Hillis says.What happens later? Does this extremely tech-savvy generation
age like the one before it, or retain its youthfulness? And the gener-
ation following close on its heelsis it possible to be any savvier?
Valiquette says boomers have put a new value on youth,
dramatically changing things from the way they were 20 years
ago. Adults value youth more now than they ever have before,
he says. And because parents like being young, youth culture
has more influence.
And yet, as we get older what we tend to do is to start to
make divisions in our lives, particularly as a stress management
tool. Young people dont do that, he says.
Which means that as these kids become working adults and
parents, and are forced to split work and home, they may haveto rethink where technology fits into their lives.
I dont want to be afraid of using new things, says
Fawcette, looking forward 30 years. I think that growing up
with TV and CD players and computers and things like that will
help me be a little more receptive to emerging technologies.
Youth are more tech focused. I dont think theyll ever lose
that, says Barber.
And yet, Fawcette already notes a generational difference in
the way she and those younger than her react to innovation. At
20 she has already caught herself questioning new technologies.
The first time I saw a camera in a phone I thoughtwho needs
that? The next generation will be even more tech savvy.
One change, Hillis says, is right now people see their phone
as their phone, but as we see more integrated devices and richercontent people will see their phone for more than simply voice
calls. It will do more, and be a bigger part of their lives.
Which is so appealing to youth. Anything that makes your
life easier without having to drag around a lot of stuff is a good
thing, Fawcette says. This applies both to the wireless qualities
she and her peers valuestyle, pricing, functionality as well
as futuristic developments on the horizon.
I think it will become more interactive. Its not just for
voice anymore, she says. Its almost like taking around a mini
computer.
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C
LIVES
WILL BE SAVEDM o b i l e t e c h n o l o g y i si n c r e a s i n g t h e e f f e c t i v e n e s s
o f e m e r g e n c y p e r s o n n e l
Crushing painyoure having a heart attack. Clutching your chest
with one hand, you manage to get the cellphone out of your pocket
with your other. But as you punch in 911 and hit Send you fumblethe phone, dropping it out of reach. If you made the call on a
landline, the connection alone would have carried enough infor-
mation for an emergency response team to find you. But because
you used a wireless phone, you are out of luck. The emergency
operators have no location data on you.
Or, at least, they dont yet.
Wireless service providers across Canada, the U.S. and else-
where have been working for some time on adding location infor-
mation to mobile systems through an initiative called enhanced
911, or E911. The ultimate goal is to pinpoint, with as much accu-
racy as possible, a users location when a 911 call is made on a
mobile phone. This is a complex issue, however, and involves wire-
less service providers working with telcos, emergency networksand governments to standardize protocols and technologies.
Three basic pieces have to be in place before a workable solu-
tion is possible, says Andrew Seybold, a principal analyst with the
Seybold Group and the founder of Outlook4Mobility, a Los Gatos,
Calif.-based trend analysis group focused on the wireless market.
The device has to be capable, the network has to be capable and
the PSAP (public service answering pointor 911 network) has to
have the right equipment. Currently, on various networks, either
the networks not ready or the PSAPs are not ready.
In Canada, the situation differs somewhat, says Warren
Chaisatien, Senior Analyst for Telecommunications Research with
IDC Canada. For one thing, the American Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) has mandated that the wireless carriers employ
a certain type of service delivery across the board. Thats a much
more active role than that of the Canadian Radio-television and
B y G a i l B a l f o u r
ILLUSTRATION:SHELLEYWALKER/PHOTO:STEVEUHRANE
Y
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had previously take
Canada, although the CRTC recently became more involved
fact, in August 2003 the CRTC released a directive that wireservice providers must provide E911 services wherever netw
access services are available. Previously, unless it accepted
status and all of the obligations of a competitive local excha
carrier, a wireless carrier had no regulatory obligation to tran
emergency calls. But while the CRTC has mandated E911
place, there are still no set rules about the technology infrast
ture or timelines like there are in the U.S., Chaisatien says.
wireless service providers here are all working on this i
together...and because (the service delivery type) has not b
mandated, the ball is in their court.
Javan Erfanian, Senior Associate Director of Wire
Technology Planning at Bell Mobility, agrees its important
the carriers work together. The public safety community wprefer a Canadian solutionwe would like to have all the pa
involved as opposed to having a fragmented solution.
G e t t i n g t h e r eThere are two phases to the E911 initiative. Phase 1, current
process, involves wireless carriers providing the PSAP with
callback number of the wireless phone from which a 911 call
made. With that number, the PSAP can get general informa
about that persons location, based on the cell site from w
the call originated. Providing a general area from which the
was made helps with more accurate routing to the correct po
ambulance or fire stations, Erfanian says.
Phase 1 will always be the default service of E911. Pha
will provide more accurate location information to
pinpoint the caller, if needed for emergency response.
leading Phase 2 technology involves the use of GPS (global p
WARREN
CHAISATIEN,
IDC CANADA
WARREN
CHAISATIEN,
IDC CANADA
JAVAN
ERFANIAN,
BELL MOBILITY
JAVAN
ERFANIAN,
BELL MOBILITY
ANDREW
SEYBOLD,
SEYBOLD GROUP
DAN
PUKLICZ,
BELL MOBILITY
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BUSINESS ON THE GO 23
tioning system) in the handset,
assisted by the network.
As Phase 1 is being rolled out in
Canada, the network among the
parties is underway to evaluate,
coordinate and trial E911 Phase 2.
Cooperation and coordination of
the parties is essential to ensure
development of a reliable and effi-
cient end-to-end Phase 2 solution,
with the goal of enhancing safety
response to 911 callers, Erfanian
says.
C a l l i n g a l l c a r s
Another public safety initiative
taking place in the wireless world
comes from the radio division of Bell
Mobility. This is different from other
dispatch radio networks in several
ways. First, it uses digitaltrunking technology, which
means radio channels are not
assigned permanently to users but
are shared and assigned as needed.
Second, the technology deployed by
Bell is designed around the specific
and demanding needs of police.
Radio in the past used to
have you assigned to a specific
frequency of 154.100 Mhz, for
example, and you had to stay
there all the time. And if you
wanted to talk to somebody, thatwould be the only channel you
could use, says Dan Puklicz,
Program Director of Marketing for Bell Mobilitys Radio divi-
sion. The problem with that was, because you were the only one
on that channel, 90 per cent of the time it was unused. So it was
not very effective or efficient use of the radio spectrum, unless
others were assigned the same channel, in which case you would
lose privacy.
Trunking takes several channels and puts them under the
management of a controller. When a user pushes the button to
transmit, the controller distributes the request to an available
channel and only to those meant to hear the call. Of course,
the efficiency of the spectrum goes up significantly, while
keeping the incidence of blocked calls down, Puklicz says.Bell Radios new network, called FleetNet, will operate Ontario
wide and serve public safety needs. If a police officer pushes the
button to talk on his radio, he needs to be granted a channel to
communicate within half a second, Puklicz says. Users must have a
public safety designation and be involved in the protection of life
FleetNet is not available to the general public. Federal, provincial
and municipal customers, such as the Department of Corrections,
the Ontario Provincial Police, Ontarios Ministries of Health and Long
Term Care, Natural Resources, Transportation, as well as Guelph
police and fire are some of the customers of this service.
Voice applications arent the only wireless technology that
police and other public safety users are deploying, he says. For
example, Ontarios provincial police is just one customer imple-
menting mobile data terminals to retrieve datato look up infor-
mation on vehicles and drivers with the swipe of a drivers licence.
Matt Hodgson, Business Manager at Hamilton, Ont.-based
Echelon Response & Training, says his companywhich deals
with emergency chemical spillsalso relies heavily on wireless
technology for emergency response situations.
Rather than us getting dispatched and not knowing whats
going on, the (incoming) call is routed directly to the person who
is going to show up. They talk directly to us, we get the details,then we have a better idea of what we are facing when we get
there. Among the technologies he currently uses for his job are
wireless phones, radios, fax machines and pagers, which are all
connected to a 24-hour network.
Most of the time, Hodgson says, GPS technology wouldnt be
needed for his work, but he is looking forward to deploying Tablet
PCs. You can actually draw diagrams on them. We would like to
have our server from the office be able to access it from the field.
If we cant explain something over the phone, we would then be
able to draw it and send it to the office.
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i
Wireless LANscoming to a train o
coffee shop near youWith a growing market for wireless LANs
homes and corporations, mobile servi
providers are working out when and whe
public hotspots make business sen
Ill admit my bias up front: Ive installed a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) at home and it has pro
to be one of the best technology decisions Ive made. My wired network served me well in my home o
but going wireless allowed me to do all the same work but from just about anywhere in the house.
Put like that it doesnt seem like a big deal, but in practice it makes a world of difference. For exam
I dont have air conditioning, so with a WLAN I can grab my laptop and abandon the office in favou
cooler areas. And whatever their own reasons, many others agree with me because WLANs are poppin
in homes and businesses across Canada. Its no wonder when one considers that WLAN technology wo
the hardware is relatively inexpensive, the network is easy to set up and manage, and the airtime is fre
But the same qualities that make a private system so attractive make it difficult to develop a profit
business case for public WLAN access points, called hotspots. One recent count put the number of puhotspots in Canada at 300 to 400, but there are many unanswered questions: Who will use them?
often? And what are people willing to pay for access? Technical questions abound too, covering everyt
from average and peak traffic levels to session management and security.
B e l l A c c e s s Z o n e p i l o t
To begin to answer these and other questions, Bell Canada is conducting a pilot project called
AccessZone. Running since December 2002, this deployment now includes more than 20 stationary hot
locations plus mobile hotspots on VIA Rail passenger trains operating between Montreal and Toronto. Acce
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b u s i n e s s o n t h e g o
free during the trial: the only requirement
is a device, a laptop or PDA, with 802.11b
wireless networking capability.
Almis Ledas, Bell Mobilitys Vice-
President of Corporate Development, says
AccessZone is primarily a technical trial.
Users are experimenting just because its out there: were seeing
a lot of that, he explains. We have experimenters, and we have
some people who are trying to remain connected or productive in
some manner, who are taking advantage of [hotspots].
As comfort levels grow, Ledas expects people will change their
routines in order to take advantage of hotspot availability. We can
imagine some of these, but the real impact will be those modifica-
tions we cant imagine today, he says. A similar process took place
in the real estate industry a number of years ago as cellphones
were introduced. Real estate companies ended up shutting down
their regional offices because they discovered the only reason
agents came into those office was to pick up phone messages.
Th e a i r c o n d i t i o n i n g s c e n a r i o
From a business perspective, one of the big questions that needs
an answer is how much will people be willing to pay to use a
public hotspot? Brian Sharwood, Principal with the SeaBoard
Group, predicts installing hotspots will simply become a common
cost of doing business. When people install hotspots themselves,they realize its not a significant additional cost. Most businesses
have Internet access as a fixed cost anyway, and the base station
cost is a one-time outlay, he says. Itll be a cost of business.
Sharwood points to a coffee-shop scenario. It will cost (the
owner) about $150 (for the hotspot). How many extra
coffeesdoes he or she need to sell? For $150, the attitude is, I
couldve bought some extra plates or glasses, or a hotspot
the hotspot is going to last five yearslonger than the gla
are going to last.
Jean Barrette, General Manager of Bells Wireless Acceler
Fund, has a similar take on hotspot evolution. The Accelerator F
led the VIA Rail trial and coordinated the various project partne
There is a significant probability that with unlicensed s
trum, and with free hotspots popping up left and right, and
no differentiation between a hotspot you have to pay for and
you dont have to pay for, that we will see an air conditionscenario playing out, Barette says.
There is a clear demand on both the home and SOHO mar
but the public hotspot market is in its infancy. One outcome
be shown with an analogy. Initially no restaurants had air co
tioning. Then one person put it in his restaurant, and may h
bumped up his prices a little bit because of this new featu
Barrette explains. But at some point every restaurant had
conditioning and it just became a cost of doing business: the
now no real revenue attached to it. So if you do not different
clearly the AC scenario may very well play out.
In Canadians Cut Their Wires, a SeaBoard Group white p
published in mid-2003, the telecom consultancy notes unlice
WLAN deployment has been a consumer-led revolution in w
the first steps have been taken, not by large enterprises, buresidential users. While companies have been grappling
issues like security, firewalls and performance, people have b
plugging in base stations and cutting cables.
Still, there are compelling reasons for Bell to deploy hotsp
I think there will be a wave of benefit that were not currebanking on, which is the seamless merging of wireless netwo
The beauty of the VIA trial is that it demonstrates the synchronous
interoperability of different networks. And if you can do it on a train, you ca
do it in fixed locations, so it may be possible to supplement a 1X network
with 802.11 hotspots to make the network appear even faster and more
robust than it already is.
Almis Ledas
Bell Mobility, Vice-President of Corporate Development
>> >
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BUSINESS ON THE GO 27
such as Bell Mobilitys PCS and 1X data networks, with
hotspots, Ledas says. When we have interoperable networks,
the notion of a separate hotspot will go away: it will just look
like more and better coverage that will improve the public
wireless service.
I n t e g r a t i n g o n t h e t r a i nIts this integration that makes the VIA Rail trial exciting from a
technical perspective. A hotspot mounted inside a business-class
passenger car connects to 1X and satellite antennae on the cars
roof. These antennae in turn connect the car to satellite and
high-speed terrestrial data networks. Bells Wireless Accelerator
Fund brought together the various stakeholders, including VIA
Rail, PointShot Wireless (which supplied the WLAN equipment),
Bell Mobility, Bell ExpressVu and Bell Canada.
The VIA trial was launched in July 2003 and allows VIA 1
passengers on trains between Toronto and Montreal can use
the mobile hotspot just as they would a wireless LAN in their
office or home. The system switches between 1X and satellite
as required, to maintain a strong data link, while an on-boardcache ensures e-mail messages sent from the train are not lost
if the train loses its link, and are sent when coverage is
reestablished. VIA is also looking at how its employees can use
the onboard hotspot to improve how they perform their duties.
One possibility is issuing tickets on the train using wireless
Point of Sale terminals.
At SeaBoard, Sharwood says the market advantage for VIA
is clear. If you put an employee on an 8:00 a.m. train to
Montreal for an afternoon meeting, wouldnt you prefer if he
was fully connected while on the way there? The alternative,
he says, is putting him on a 9:30 flight from Toronto, where
he has to leave at 8:00 anyway, and he basically does nothing
except go through security and sit on a plane.
Ledas says,The beauty of the VIA trial is it demonstrates theseamless interoperability of different networks. And if you can do
it on a train, you can do it in fixed locations, so it may be possible
to supplement a 1X network with 802.11 hotspots to make the
network appear even faster and more robust than it already is.
Its pretty cool, Barrette adds. We have satellite from
Bell ExpressVu, we have our 1X network, we have Bell
Canadas wireline data network in the back end and we have
the Bell AccessZone marketing approach, all working very
well to provide a seamless experience. As far as Im concerned,
this is a Bell play: Who else in Canada can do this? I dont
think anyone else can. In fact, Id ask who else in North
America can do this?
O N E L A R G E L AT T W I T HC H O C O L A T E S H A V I N G SA N D H O T S P O T S
Hotspots are still relatively new
in Canada and all stakeholders
are experimenting with what
works and what doesnt. And
while the model is being worked
out, consider these coffee-shop
scenarios:
A business manager cooling
her jets in an airport coffee shop will attach great value to
being able to check e-mail and access corporate files as she
waits for her boarding call, and since her company is like-
ly picking up the tab, paying for access is not an issue.
Put that same manager in the line-up at the coffee
shop near her office and the value goes down: grabbing a
coffee is all about getting away from her desk and work for
a few minutes.
If that downtown coffee shop is near a university cam-
pus, students may patronize it over other area bean-
roasters because the shop has a hotspot. They may not be
willing to pay for access, but having a hotspot means sell-
ing more coffee to the campus crowd.
Why are people putting hotspots in coffee shops? I
think because they can, says Bell Mobilitys Almis Ledas.
The cost of putting these in is so low that once theyve
been put in coffee shops they might stay there.
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PHOTO
(TOP):STEVEUHRANEY
B y P o o n a m K h a n n a
So goes the thinking at Bell.
Bell funds the Wireless Accelerator program
and the Bell University Laboratories (BUL)
program, which help drive research and develop-
ment in Canada by matching companies and
universities doing interesting R&D to internal
departments at Bell.
W i r e l e s s a c c e l e r a t o r f u n dThe Wireless Accelerator Fund develops new prod-
ucts and services that will be sold to Bells wireless
subscribers or that will be used within Bell to
drive productivity, save capital or costs. To do
this, the Accelerator works with companies in
Canada to transform innovation into reality.The premise of the Accelerator Fund is that
there are companies out there with great ideas that n
a strong partner such as Bell for an idea to beco
reality, says Jean Barrette, General Manager of
Wireless Accelerator program in Montreal. Were lik
super integratorintegrating a group of systems to w
together, which is no trivial task.
The program provides funding, technical supp
access to networks and expertise for companies do
research in the wireless arena, and as a side benefit the work also links the part
with the Bell name. This was one of the most valuable aspects of the program
Shawn Griffin, President and CEO of PointShot Wireless in Ottawa. His comp
created a wireless connectivity solution that delivers connectivity to VIA 1 pas
gers leveraging Bell ExpressVu satellites and Bell Mobilitys 1X data network.
The funding was important, but working with Bell opened doors, Griffin s
If Bell is your customer, it gives you a voice inside Bell. Thats a huge advanta
Its the single, most important thing about the Wireless Acceleratorto hav
champion inside Bell, he says.
Having Bell as a customer was also an advantage when selling to others
says. Its a powerful asset for a small company.
Over at March Networks, Michael Foster is preparing the companys mo
digital video recorder (DVR) for production, and he says the product would nowhere it is without the Wireless Accelerator program.
G R E A T M I N D S T H I N K A L I K E S O G O E S
T H E O L D A D AG E . B U T S O M E T I M E S A
B E T T E R A P P R O A C H I S T O B R I N G
TO G E T H E R D I V E R S E M I N D S TO T H I N K
A B O U T N E W P R O B L E M S A N D I D E A S .
DnewtheDriving
JEAN
BARRETTE,
BELL
MICHAEL
FOSTER,
MARCH NETWORKS
SHAWN
GRIFFIN,
POINTSHOT WIRELESS
VINO
VINODRAI,
BELL
VINO
VINODRAI,
BELL
Bell funds start-upsand university R&D
28 BUSINESS ON THE GO
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BUSINESS ON THE GO 29
E P O C A R E D R I V I N G M E D I C A L D ATAT O D O C T O R S I N R E A L T I M E
Dr. Sharon Straus of Torontos Mt. Sinai Hospital wanted
to find a way for doctors to gain access to newly emerg-
ing clinical evidence. A study done 10 years ago found
that in order to keep up with recent literature, doctors
would need to read 17 articles a day, 365 days a year
which is hardly a realistic goal.
So instead, she wanted doctors to call up the infor-
mation as needed at the patients bedside. She had heard
that Bell University Laboratories (BUL), a Bell program
that funds R&D in universities, was looking for projectsin healthcare. The result was collaboration between two
disciplines that dont normally interactBUL introduced
knowledge management researchers to those working in
medicine. The result was EPOCare, an interface for hand-
held devices which draws on information from existing
medical Web sites.
BUL has been incredibly supportive of our project
in particular it has allowed us to create collaborations
with colleagues from various disciplines, Straus says.
The new DVR will allow images from moving vehicles to be
sent and viewed in real time, according to Foster, the Product
Manager of Mobile Solutions. Police forces and bus companies
in the U.S. have shown an interest in the product, Foster says.
Along with funds, the Accelerator brought with it technical
expertise and relationships with suppliers that helped the
product progress through its development phase.
U n i v e r s i t i e s
Universities are also benefiting from Bells R&D initiatives
through funding to long-term and short-term research. Bell
University Laboratories assesses research proposals, looking
for projects that could also benefit Bell. It also sometimes
initiates the projects, says Vino Vinodrai, Director of Industry
Relations and Research at BUL. When theres a problem Bell
wants solved it approaches researchers to put together a
proposal beneficial to both sides.
Through a BUL program at the University of Ottawa,
researchers are looking into security for wireless devices. RSA
certificates require keys with 1,000 bit key lengths. Elliptic
Curve Cryptography (ECC) and Hyper ECC can provide certifi-cates that are as secure but have much smaller key lengths
100 or 70 bit, according to Tet Yeap, an Associate Professor at
the university. The key lengths can be smaller, because instead
of manipulating numbers, the certificates manipulate complex
algorithms, which means less memory, less battery and less
powerful processors are needed.
At the University of Toronto, BUL is collaborating on a
vocal village, a conferencing program that allows Voice over IP
conferences to be spatialized, so that even in a discussion
among several people it will sound to each listener as if voices
are coming from different directions. This makes it easier to
identify whos speaking, says Mark Chignell, a professor of
mechanical and industrial engineering at U of T.
O f f t h e s h e l fThere are more specialized mobile devices
for businesses than ever before
B y K . K . C a m p b e
Canadian businesses are finding a lot to like in the mobility offeremodern communication devices. Getting a call no longer ties you tocord coming out of your desk phone. Cell owners can talk and wAnd mobile data devices and services help lower costs, increase ductivity and improve customer satisfaction for your business.
I n s y n c
Nothing ever has to be out-of-date again. Devices can update e-calendars and other critical pieces of info with no effort. Even thcradle updates can be old news. Bell Mobilitys InfoXpress serkeeps e-mail updated in Palms and Pocket PCs.
M a k i n g s a l e s
It sure is nice to let the chef have a night off and order a pizza. But why ber when you have to run to the bank machine for cash to pay the del
guy? Restaurants, pizza places and even taxis are starting to have affordmobile Point of Sale terminals.
The MIST Freedom II is an example of a handheld, wireless, pof-sale terminal. It performs secure credit and debit card transactfrom almost any location, increasing the number of business opponities and overall convenience for merchants and their customers.
To u g h p l a c e s . To u g h d e v i c e s
When you start making phones and devices for the workplace, have to be built differently. Tougher. Durable. Ruggedized. Theremany designs out there.
Intermecs 700 Color handheld is for use in harsh environments. Itwithstand 1.5 metre drops to concrete and is sealed against rain and dThe ergonomic case design is sculpted and balanced for user comfolong-term use; radio and scanner options are integrated, not add-which means they are tested to the same ruggedness standards and dcompromise the environmental or functional characteristics of the un
G l o b a l f i n d i n g s
Anyone who has been lost after making a wrong turn in a wilderness instinctively knows the value of Global Positioning Systems (GBecause business has a very bottom-line use for this tech and can afit at current cost there are many working implementations out there
The AirLink Pinpoint CDMA is a rugged wireless modem wiGPS receiver that provides a cost-effective platform for mobile apcations. It can be configured to report its position by time and/or tance. The GPS time is available for precise time-stamping of im
tant events. The serial port provides network connectivity for a lapPOS terminal, PDA or mobile data terminal. The unit is suited to amlance, specialized transport, field service, construction equipment transit arrival systems.
S m i l e . C l i c k . D i a l
The jury is still out but camera phones may be the wireless phokiller application. They take e-mail and throw in a digital camera, sodont have to wait to load digital pictures onto your PC at home. Wthe quality wont match a single-purpose digital camera, snaps casent instantly by phone. Recipients can receive on a PC or their photo-enabled handset.
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a
Known name,new frontiersBig brands already have customers, conte
and solid reputations. Now theyre lookin
to wireless for the next ste
AOL Canada, Sony, MSN.ca, Sega. You know the names and youve probably used their services. And
these and other big-name brands are lining up mobile partnerships aimed at dropping more dollars
their bottom lines.
The goal for these brands is to grab market share in the increasingly competitive content busin
which includes news, entertainment, sports and messaging services.
The battle for these dollars is heating up for a number of reasons. To boost their own bottom l
mobile operators such as Bell Mobility will continue to pursue relationships with financially stable com
nies capable of delivering attractive and profitable content. In turn, those companies want relations
with wireless service providers capable of delivering customers as they become more numerous and a
technology becomes more accessible. Outside the mobile venue, other carriers and partners will
likely heat up the chase for the same dollars as, for example, satellite broadcasters and cable-
casters try to outgun each other. Meanwhile, as customers become increasingly savvy
about the range and costs of the various choices available, they will attach their
loyalty to a short list of providers, as they already have with services such as
banking and investing. And as providers and partners continue figuring out the
rules of the game they face increasing pressure to cut costs while boosting profits
to increase return on investment.
The importance of these partnerships has increased as the concept of value
chains has evolved, according to Ken Truffen, Director of Business
Development, Wireless Data at Bell Mobility. With the dot-com bubble
breaking, a lot of services that used to be offered free of charge are no longer
offered for free by the partners. So there is now a value chain so that thecontent provider earns revenue.
The value chaina set of specialized business activities focused on the
relationship between customers and an organizationadds value to the rela-
tionship, in this case a partner of a mobile service provider such as Bell Mobility.
Traditionally, value chain activities included customer service, research and
development, design, production, marketing and distribution, the strategy
through which the organization delivers its products or services to customers.
In the new model, companies like Bell Mobility become part of the distribution compo-
nent after thorough laboratory testing, double-checking the content or services adaptability
to all telephones, helping with de-bugging where necessary and other preparatory activities.
B y A l E m
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D e e p e r r e l a t i o n s h i ps
At AOL Canada, boosting ROI has resulted in a series of present
and future strategies, according to Arturo Duran, Vice-President
of Interactive Marketing. The company provides AOL Instant
Messenger and ICQ Instant Messenger on the Bell Mobility
network on a revenue-sharing basis in both the WAP (WirelessApplication Protocol) and SMS (Short Message Service) formats.
That enables AOL to provide added convenience to customers
and leverage its existing customer databases for a new revenue
stream that would not be available in the absence of the wireless
channel, Duran says.
We have all these people already using the instant messengers.
AOL also provides news and sports alerts to customers, again
increasing usage of its network and bringing potentially greater
revenues.
AOL Canada does not currently provide games through mobile
telephones but is reviewing that as an option. Were talking
about messages now. Were not talking about content. Content
has not yet arrived 100 per cent to the phones, Duran says.
Future plans, however, do include advertising and ev
marketing targeted at members who have given permission
AOL to send time-sensitive alerts such as discount shop
specials or even rock concerts. In a hypothetical scenario, a B
Springsteen fan will receive an early alert of The Boss Vanco
date. Using AOLs First Look promotional program which provpreferred booking services, the fan could book a ticket thro
TicketMaster by entering codes on the cellphone.
In this scenario AOL would receive revenue from both ad
tising and the ticket sale. Duran says these strategies are sti
the testing and design stage since the company has to bu
database of customers willing to receive specific types of alert
E x p a n d i n g t o m o b i l e
At MSN.ca, improving ROI means not having to reinvent the wh
explains Mark Relph, Manager of .net and Development, Enterp
Mobility at Microsoft Canada. A lot of organizations view mob
as this separate application that needs to be treated as if
fenced off, when in reality it certainly isnt, he argues.
ROI to me in the mobile sense is the ability of an applica
or an initiative thats already underway to expand into moscenarios without having to make it a separate project.
That means keeping to a minimum the re-writing of in
structure, back-end systems and other components when mo
from the Web portal format to the mobile format. If you hav
re-write and re-create the wheel with something youve don
one formthe PC and the full-blown browserand you cant
that and quickly translate it to the smaller screen-size mo
device, then I think youre heading off on the wrong foot.
MSN.ca this means that the mobile portal, including services
as the Hotmail e-mail system, use essentially the same infrast
ture and back-end systems as the Web portal version.
Were actually getting our ROI by being able to re-purp
into all these different form factors.At Tira Wireless, boosting ROI follows a model similar to
more traditional activities associated with a book publis
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explains Director of Marketing Wayne Seifried. Tira feeds games
over the Bell Mobility network as well as other service providers
in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.
Seifried styles the contractual relationship between Tira and
providers as resembling the relationship between book publisher
(Tira) and book chain (in this case Bell Mobility). Just as a chainwill discuss upcoming releases with a specific publisher, Tira and
Bell Mobility review upcoming game releases that are expected to
appeal to customers.
For its games, Tira divides the revenue it receives from Bell
Mobility with the software developer, likened to the book author,
and brand-owner, as many of its games are linked to specific names.
Using the author-publisher metaphor to underscore the ROI
process, Seifried says it often starts with the raw manuscript, in
this case the game. Tira then works out publishing considerations
such as improving the graphics. Increasing the ROI here sometimes
can even mean finding the right brand in the first place, Seifried
explains, recalling the inception of an NHL-themed game. The
person who created the content is a software developer (who) came
to us, he says. Tira then negotiated the brandingthe use of theNHL name in order to increase audience interest.
In this case, the mobile service provider pays Tira on a pay-
per-use (or pay-per-download) basis.
Returning to the publisher-author scenario, Seifried says
payment is split between the software developer (the author),
and the brand owner. So as a publisher, we actually write two
cheques: one to the developer and another one to the brand
owner, he explains. The publisher pays all of the contributors
that created the application.
While it hasnt turned into an epic battle for market share yet,
this kind of deal making could grow to resemble the more familiar
deal making that goes on between networks and television
program producers. The wireless service providers want the mostaudience-grabbing material available while the program producers
want the best possible relationships with the service providers.
C a l c u l a t i ng R O I
Return on investment, ROI, is
often considered a better
profitability evaluation tool
than net income or incomebefore taxes since it takes
into account the specific
level of investment associat-
ed with generating specific
income.
Traditionally, it meant income or profit divided by invest-
ment required to obtain that income or profit, and referred
to goods manufactured, sold and paid for in straightforward
transactions.
As Bell Mobility continues building partnerships, the
ROI principle of profit divided by investment required
remains essentially similar but profit sources now includestrategic contractual arrangements instead of simple tradi-
tional payment for services or goods supplied. It means dif-
ferent things to different people, explains Ken Truffen,
Director, Business Development, Wireless Data at Bell
Mobility. With Java in our phones, with Sony, THQ (and
other) major brands, you can download games. The return
on investment there would be different than somebody
offering an SMS (Short Message Service) application. Its a
case of revenue sharing between carrier and games
provider, for example.
The specifics around text messaging may not work inthe same way. Every carrier is different and every carrier
pays their partners differently. Theres really no standard, at
least not yet.
The way Bell Mobility does a deal would be very dif-
ferent than Telus or Verizon or Rogers. In many cases we
do a revenue share with partners. In many cases we pay
them a monthly fee, he says.
At AOL Canada, ROI includes a new source of profits
created by leveraging existing customer lists, according to
Arturo Duran, Vice-President of Interactive Marketing. It
means a new revenue stream that we had no way to mon-
etize before because now we have a partner, he says,
referring to the agreement for dividing revenues for mes-
saging services with Bell Mobility.
Thats (part of) ROI for AOL.
In some cases Bell Mobility partners such as banks will
see part of their ROI as increased customer loyalty and
service, so they may not charge fees. We wouldnt neces-
sarily pay them for that service. Its a service that benefits
the bank, Truffen explains.
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v
THE POWER OFDISTRACTIOND a t i n g , g a m i n g , t a l k i n g ,
m e s s a g i n g a n d m o r e d a t i n g .
C e l l p h o n e s d e l i v e r
Venkatesa Virahsammy is typical of your switched-on
cellphone user: young, intelligent and with a certain
degree of ambition, his phone isnt some fashion
accessory or just a tool for keeping in touch with
friends and family.
It is a part of his life, connecting him at all times to
important information, organizing his daily schedule
and providing an escape from mindless routine.
Everything I do, I do on my cellphone, says the
19-year old commerce student at Montreals ChamplainCollege. And when you add it up, everything on
Virahsammys phone demonstrates the opportunity for
North Americas mobile service provide