Econz gets head start in the 3G market

By PAUL BRISLEN

Auckland software developer Econz has a head start in the new 3G cellular market, with its software already being used by Qualcomm to sell EV-DO to the world's carriers.

EV-DO, the extension to the CDMA network, promises a maximum speed of up to 2Mbps (megabits per second) and a usable average of around 500 Kbps (kilobits per second) or 10 times the speed of dial-up internet.

Telecom has announced it will set up an EV-DO network in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and a number of key holiday spots by Christmas.

Econz chief executive Michael Hartley said the company had been working with Qualcomm, the key hardware developer behind the CDMA standard, for the past year.

"We worked on the America's Cup, sending data from the boats to shore. Once the regatta was over we wondered what to do next, so approached Qualcomm."

Hartley said Qualcomm was astounded at what the company was able to do using only the standard CDMA network. Econz's "orange roughy" gear enabled real-time tracking of the America's Cup yachts during the regatta and was beamed live to services such as US-sports broadcaster ESPN and Virtual Spectator.

"Qualcomm asked us to put together a demo of our E-Services software to show off the capabilities of EV-DO."

Econz did just that and the E-Services solution has been used by Qualcomm all over the world.

"We've been to trade shows in the US and spoken with some of the largest carriers there and Qualcomm have been active in a number of countries like Japan and Brazil."

Hartley said he hoped to announce the signing of some "staggering deals" by the end of the year.

Telecom already offers Econz's E-Services software, rebranded under the Service Plus banner, and the enhanced version for EV-DO showed off the power of the new network.

"It's really aimed at the sales automation market so we ran a couple of demos based on the existing service but with three or four heavy downloads embedded in the service."

Hartley said one of the demonstrations involved a photocopier repair where schematics for a particular model were sent via EV-DO to a technician's handheld device.

The other was a training video for a mobile car repair business.

Hartley was pleased to see Telecom chose the EV-DO platform, not least because it gave him another market for his product but also because it allowed the use of "push to talk" services in New Zealand.

"Basically you get a cellphone with walkie-talkie capability built in."

The service has proven to be a huge success in the US, particularly in construction and transport.

"Instead of trying to find someone on a building site or having to make a cellphone call to each truck, the manager can make a broadcast call to all in his group and speak to all of them at once regardless of where they are."

Hartley said push to talk's biggest drawback was the need for larger bandwidth networks, but EV-DO solved that problem immediately.