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Sprint PCS Looks for Mobile Inspiration

With high-speed wireless Internet access coming to the U.S., company is studying successes in Japan.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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U.S. wireless carrier Sprint PCS Group is looking to Japan and South Korea for inspiration and content for its upcoming high-speed mobile Internet service.

"The fact that we are here shows the U.S. wireless market is open for your business," Paul Reddick, vice president of business development at the carrier, told a hall full of Java developers last week. He was speaking at Sun Microsystems's JavaOne conference in Japan.

It was the first time Sun had taken its developer conference outside of the U.S. and the strong mobile Java theme running through the conference and exhibition was testament to the success of Java on mobile telephone handsets in Japan.

In that market, no company has been more successful than NTT DoCoMo. Since launching its I-Appli service in late January, which allows users to download small Java applets to their handsets, NTT DoCoMo has sold 9.4 million Java-compatible handsets.

"Hats off to DoCoMo. We plan to emulate that," said Reddick of both the Japanese carrier's success with Java and its I-mode mobile Internet platform. Reddick credited the ability to bill for premium content as being key to the success of I-mode.

Under DoCoMo's system, it collects the money from consumers via their monthly bills. This means it is economical and easy for both content providers and users, who pay small amounts of money, typically between around $1 and $2.50 per month in the case of I-mode. DoCoMo also wins because it charges a flat commission of 9 percent for handling the billing.

Less Success

Wireless Internet services have typically been less successful in North America and in Europe than in Asia, especially Japan, but Reddick said he thinks their failure to take off to date doesn't mean consumers won't eventually adopt them. "The notion that U.S. kids won't play games [on a mobile phone] is a myth," he said. "We are seeing it now on the circuit-switched network."

Sprint PCS is currently rolling towards an upgrade to its Code Division Multiple Access network scheduled for the summer of 2002. At that time, it plans to switch on a CDMA2000 1x system that will allow packet data transmission at speeds of up to 144 kilobits per second. A further upgrade to 288 kbps is planned for the end of the year, said Reddick, and the carrier's future plans call for speeds of up to 2.4 megabits per second in 2003.

The company's Java plans revolve around Sun's Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), a version of Java for mobile and portable devices, and the Mobile Information Device Profile, a set of JavaTM APIs that pair with the Connected Limited Device Configuration and make the runtime environment for mobile devices.

The basic foundation is common across all carriers running Java on mobile phones, which means that applets written in Asia will run on Sprint PCS handsets and those of other carriers. An exception is the proprietary class libraries that each carrier has developed to cover control of functions not specified in MIDP. Reddick said that Sprint PCS will, like other carriers, have its own extensions. These will be published, although applets that utilize them will be unable to run on the handsets of other carriers without modification.

"There is an opportunity for you in Japan and Korea to export your business and applications," Reddick told his JavaOne audience. "Write MIDP. Write CLDC."

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