Wireless - flexible working's natural bedfellow

Wireless these days takes many forms. Anthony Plewes asks which technologies are best for certain scenarios.

The growth of wireless technology over the last couple of years has had a significant impact on flexible working. Research carried out earlier this year by AT&T and the Economist Intelligence Unit found the two main drivers for remote working were better access to networks from remote locations and better communications facilities.

The two most important recent developments in wireless technology for flexible working are the mass-market arrival of wireless LAN and the emergence of packet-based data-centric mobile networks such as GPRS.

Email is still the most common application provided for mobile workers. Research carried out by NOP on behalf of Nokia published in September found that email is the most widely used application, with 29 per cent of mobile workers using a mobile device to access email on the move.

Companies are also looking to mobilise their key applications. Larger companies are most likely to take this course of action says the NOP research, and 23 per cent of larger companies plan to invest in mobile information systems over the next 18 months. Access to line-of-business applications is crucial to help support workers in the field. Historically, field service staff have been able to access their tailored applications but the new generation of mobile information workers will want access to different applications.

“Typically companies start with email and then move to intranet applications followed by business solutions such as CRM,” says David Hooper, enterprise sales and marketing manager, Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft. And it is becoming easier for enterprises to deploy mobile applications. “In the past it has been complex to integrate for customers. Microsoft’s Exchange 2003, for example, now offers mobility out of the box."

Some industries are investigating using picture messaging to support mobile workers. Estate agents in particular have emerged as early adopters to send images of potential properties to their clients. MMS is also starting to be used in the public sector. Orange, for example, is working with the Fife Fire Service to send pictures of accident victims to the hospital to help them to make a decision about what medical attention is needed.

Wireless LAN hotspots have already become a vital part of the flexible worker’s armoury. David Horwood, MD of IT consultancy ihotdesk, where all the staff work flexibly, is a big fan. “We are very keen on hotspots,” he says. “We have introduced a Starbucks allowance to encourage staff to go there.”

He says that his employees rely on connectivity through hotspots when they are out on the road visiting clients. Employees have access to line-of-business applications, including service management, salesforce.com, a web-based CRM package and an accounting system that is accessed through Microsoft Terminal Services and a VPN.

Because hotspots are location specific they are not as pervasive as mobile networks but they are becoming more common as operators pursue aggressive roll out schedules. BT, for example, has over 1,100 access points in operation in the UK already, in major locations such as airports, motorway service stations and hotel chains. It is targeting 4,000 UK hot spots by September 2004. T-Mobile is also forging ahead and expects to have 5,000 hot spots globally by the end of 2003. Market researcher Teleanalytics predicts that the number of hotspots worldwide will increase from 15,000 to more than 300,000 by 2006, and Gartner expects frequent public WLAN users worldwide to number 31 million by 2007.

However, in their enthusiasm to make money from the public WLAN hotspot market, there are question marks over pricing. “The price of hotspots is too high,” complains Horwood. “We have five people on the £30 per month package. If the price was more around £12 per month we would give access to everyone in the company.”

Pricing for the different types of wireless access is often confusing for end users but Rob Brautigam, a consultant with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, says that the many pricing models are inevitable. “Complex and often confusing pricing look likely to be an enduring feature of the competition to win a share of mobile data revenues,” says Brautigam. “Wi-Fi only adds spice to the pot.”

Technology could come to the rescue. Swisscom and Microsoft, for example, are working on a billing system that will choose the best network for performance and price as users move from one network to another.

Another option for simplicity is to use aggregators such as GRIC Communications or iPass, which offer a single point of contact and single bill for remote workers.

“We have developed a product to allow mobile workers to access internet and email using a single client across various networks, including DSL, Wi-Fi, dial-up and Ethernet,” says Robin Singh, GRIC GM for EMEA. GRIC does not yet offer GPRS access and Singh says that he feels enterprises are yet to be convinced about the speed and reliability of GPRS connections.

GPRS and the emerging 3G networks don’t compete head-on with Wi-Fi hotspots. GPRS is currently best used for email, accessed through PDAs, smartphones or dedicated platforms such as BlackBerry. Mobile operators have been offering these services to corporates for some time now and now smaller businesses are also able to get in on the act. For example, T-Mobile in June launched its Instant Email service, which uses either a BlackBerry device or smart devices supporting Infowave’s Symmetry Express solution. The service can be added to T-Mobile’s standard price plans for £10 per month.

“While in the main Wi-Fi complements the service offered through mobile phone networks, there is clearly an overlap,” says CGEY’s Brautigam. “Wi-Fi offers users a ‘pull’ only service but at much higher bandwidths than that currently offered by 2.5/3G but the ‘find me anywhere’ potential that these networks provide, cannot be supported by Wi-Fi.”

Operators need to offer mobile workers a complete package including both Wi-Fi and GPRS access.

“Mobile workers expect a one-stop solution,” says Brautigam. “The challenge for the networks industry is to turn these apparently diverse propositions into a single, seamless, flexible, proposition with all the advantages of both – and the key to this will be partnerships. Operators such as The Cloud have already embraced this thinking and it remains to be seen how long it takes the mobile operators to get on board.”

Some larger operators are also starting to address this demand by themselves. BT in the UK has recently launched its Mobile Office product set that integrates a range of access options including GPRS, Wi-Fi and fixed broadband. The equipment for users to access various mobile networks is already available, such as Sony Ericsson’s GPRS/Wireless LAN PC-Card, and Swisscom Eurospot is planning a tri-mode GRPS/3G Wi-Fi card for launch after Christmas.

It seems 'wireless' will always be associated with 'flexible'.