Data window on the world

By PETER GRIFFIN

New Zealanders travelling overseas will be able to pick up e-mail and surf the web on mobile computers and phones by the end of October.

Vodafone will start a data roaming service to Australia next month through Vodafone Australia's national network, and will extend it to Europe in October.

The move will overcome a barrier that has existed since long beyond the introduction of GPRS, the packet-based standard for transmitting data.

Vodafone's director of business, Russell Stanners, said pricing for data roaming had yet to be set, but the higher cost of maintaining the service, which includes sending Vodafone people to Australia from time to time, would mean higher call rates.

"Will it be the same rate as a local call? Probably not, but it will be a consistent rate whether you're in Australia or New Zealand."

Vodafone customers will in theory be able to log into corporate networks through PC-based GPRS cards and mobile phones connected to handheld computers.

Stanners said the one variable that could throw a spanner in the works of data roaming was corporate firewall and security configurations.

Telecom is yet to iron out data roaming issues for its CDMA customers who can voice roam on networks in countries such as Australia, Korea and the United States, but cannot take advantage of CDMA's data features abroad.

Vodafone is also keen to begin selling a mobile/handheld combination dubbed the "Wallaby" or "XDA".

The Wallaby runs on Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition, which bundles e-mails and SMS messages into Pocket Inbox and includes all the Windows-like functions of standard Pocket PC software.

British Telecom's newly re-branded mobile arm mm02, is already selling the Wallaby, which is made by HTC - the same company that made the Compaq iPaq.

Stanners demonstrated video streaming at 27Kbps (kilobits per second) over the Wallaby using a service being offered by Private Broadcasting Systems. Vodafone's GPRS customers can connect to PBS' servers wirelessly and receive real time video feeds of live events - much like a live webcast.

Stanners was not fazed by Telecom's move to upgrade its network to CDMA1XRTT, giving faster data speeds than Vodafone.

"We think we've a wider suite of applications," he said. "It's like the OS2/Microsoft Windows story. OS2 was great, but Microsoft has all the solutions.

"PXT took us less than two months to implement in New Zealand. You can't do that unless you're part of a global group."

Vodafone was making progress towards involving members of the public and businesses in its Auckland trial of W-CDMA technology, being done in conjunction with Walker Wireless.

Five base stations had been installed in the central business district, and trial participants would receive their IP Wireless modems by the end of September.