Network providers bolster wireless at CTIA

Network equipment providers and carriers are planning to boost interoperability between national wireless networks and enterprise wireless networks at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's CTIA Wireless 2003 show this week.

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Nortel Networks and IBM, as well as carriers AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will lead the charge as the show kicks off in New Orleans .

Nortel will demonstrate technology that "incorporates data into existing networks," with a focus on bridging its public networks with corporate wireless LANs, according to Mark Morell, director of wireless strategic marketing at Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel.

"We'll focus on demonstrating integration between WLANs and public networks," Morell said. "We're helping carriers evolve their current networks to better integrate data along with voice."

This is precisely what the carriers want. Both Verizon and AT&T will focus on the enterprise customer and the extension of their collective networks to deliver more data services, officials said.

"We'll broaden our offerings to make them not as domestic-specific," said Ritch Blasi, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless, in Redmond, Wash. "We're going to show GSM [Global System for Mobile Communications] and things that haven't been part of our business before. We're going to have new services and new devices."

Verizon will focus on the enterprise as well. "You'll hear one mantra from the entire Verizon team: enterprise, enterprise, enterprise," said Jeffrey Nelson, executive director for corporate communications at Verizon, in Bedminster, N.J. Nelson said Verizon also will detail new capabilities within devices.

Wireless LAN interoperability is becoming increasingly important as companies try to achieve a seamless handoff between internal and public services, according to Keith Waryas, a wireless analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC. Wayras added that UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) will be demonstrated in the United States for the first time. UMTS is considered the next generation of networks for those operating on the older GSM, as do Cingular and AT&T, for example.

Dejima, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of voice- and text-driven controls for computers and gadgets, on Monday will announce its Direct Mobile Access, a carrier-grade product suite designed to enable single-step access to consumer information and services through text or speech.