Computer networks are rapidly becoming the backbone of large- and medium-sized organizations. Increasingly, organizations are depending on their networks for day-to-day operations. To maintain the health of their networks, companies spend large amounts of money acquiring expensive network management software solutions.

Six months ago I convinced my father, a committed technophobe, to connect to the Internet; he wasn't impressed. Last month he bought a WAP phone; he still wasn't impressed. What is impressive is his new-found knowledge of HTTP error messages that could shame many a developer. He's now conversant with errors 400 through 404, a connoisseur of 'Internal Server Errors' - and merrily feasts on 'Content Type Unacceptable.'

wML 1.1 is my chosen standard and ColdFusion 4.5.1 is my preferred development platform. I'm sure there are pros and cons for other versions and standard figures. Here I'll discuss my reasons for using WML and ColdFusion.

TDD may be just another three-letter acronym, but it's one with plenty of meaning. Just ask the TDD Coalition, an organization of companies sworn to support it. TDD stands for time division duplexing, and refers to a method of establishing a wireless bidirectional communications link using a single channel. According to the TDD Coalition, this capability is so important and leads to so many efficiency benefits in broadband wireless system design that its use has the potential to make or break the broadband wireless industry.

Your customer information database can be designed using a two-way alerting system so that customers can get just the information they want, just when they need it.

This list is the culmination of one of Ron's lifetime ambitions. His obsession with the word lists began in school, where he participated in 60 words for the '60's, but, alas, dropped out. He created the group that produced 70 words for the '70's, although he was babbling incoherently when it was finally released (in 1983).

Wireless has long been known to be absolutely vital during emergency situations - to all parties involved. There's no doubt that what happened in New York and Washington, DC will continue to confirm this fact. It goes without saying that during such emergencies, the need for functional communications systems can take on a staggering level of importance.

Throughout the year 2000, I actually enjoyed the stacks of e-business and other new media publications that showed up in my mailbox, even if some of them were 600-pages thick. Yes, they could be burdensome at times, but I always enjoyed (and still do, though not as often) stories about an innovative, dare I say 'cool' sounding dot-com or wireless venture being undertaken by enterprising entrepreneurs.

If you're planning a wireless initiative, but are confused by the alphabet soup of acronyms such as WML, PQA, RIM, EPOC, CDMA, GPRS, and countless others, this article will help clear things up with a discussion of five key points to understand now, as well as what to look for in the future.

Trying to find the right wireless e-mail service is confusing. With so many options and features, how do you make the right choice? Messaging, broadly defined, includes SMS, instant messaging, paging, e-mail, voice mail, and faxes. They are essentially communications between people on many different mediums. E-mail is the undisputed 'king' of Internet applications.

As mobile-communications markets mature, the nature of competition between mobile operators is changing from a focus on attracting new customers at any cost, to competing for the same customers. This calls for an investment in customer education and support. Operators in many Western mobile phone markets are changing their business focus as a result of fundamental changes in the mobile communications landscape - a slowing in new customer growth and increased local market competition.

Does the much-heralded 'End of Distance' necessarily mean the end of geography? Many leading wireless analysts think not. In many ways, geography is coming to mean more, not less. Stagnation in one part of the wireless world can well be matched by remarkable growth in another. Cultural factors play a role, as do the usual interactions of politics, economics, and technology.

Despite some of the lowest pricing in the world, only about 25% of Canadians own mobile phones. Perhaps it's this very fact that has been driving Canada's rise to its present position as what many would argue is North America's wireless leader - measured by the availability of applications, accessibility of wireless infrastructure, and affordability of wireless communications.

Anticipation is a key factor in figuring out what will happen in the wireless industry over the next couple of years. As entertainment migrates to the handset, it's predicted that revenues from games on mobile phones will reach $6 billion by 2005. How? Many questions remain, but there are some strong players joining in to find the answers.

From improving dispatch to avoiding traffic to locating on-road services to improving customer service, wireless solutions are enabling even small trucking companies to compete efficiently. While the media is rife with articles about how wireless technology will impact consumers, little is said of the tremendous impact of wireless on various industries.

Cryptography is a wonderful thing. Long keys and well-designed algorithms mean that even the most determined government is unlikely to be able to break your encrypted messages. However, every encryption system has one weak point: Where and how do you store your keys? Most encryption software will store your keys on your hard disk (if your device has one) or somewhere safe in memory, carefully encrypted so no one can read it.

WAP was first launched commercially in the UK during late 1999, by Orange. Since then, all the other UK MNOs have followed suit with their support, and despite the widespread panning WAP has taken in the press, there are now in the realm of 1-million WAP subscribers in the UK - not too bad for a consumer technology less than two years old.

In trying to define multiple portals, the question is: How 'multi' is a multiplatform? Is it mobile information (WAP), Voice (IVR), WEB, SMS, and D-iTV? If so, then there are very few about. The areas of concentration today are the first few; the true multiplatform portal has yet to evolve. The second question is: Do we need multiple portals?

In an industry that's always been known for being conservative, a bold move to adopt state-of-the-art technology has resulted in one company projecting an overall 17-21% increase in annual revenue as a result of its m-business initiative. Conventional wisdom holds that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. This analogy extends, more or less, to the insurance industry and its use of technology.

What do former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, Toronto Blue Jays' first baseman Carlos Delgado, and radio personality Howard Stern have in common? They're all addicted to their PDAs. The ever-growing need to manage more and more information in less and less time, both workwise and socially, could have you depending on yours, too.

The newest type of road rage is one that doesn't involve cars. It's the aggravating World Wide Wait now moving onto the wireless devices of road warriors traveling the information superhighway. Within three years, about 1.3-billion people worldwide are expected to access the Internet via wireless technology. Wireless carriers must deliver faster download times to ensure a healthy future.

The early days of NTT DoCoMo's pioneering third-generation mobile phone service are proving to be a trial in more than one sense of the word. The 3G WCDMA (wideband CDMA) service, called FOMA, was supposed to offer a dramatic leap in technology and 'stress-free communications,' as the Japanese operator claimed in an advertisement placed earlier this year.

Remember back when there was a real ­ and fun! ­ battle for supremacy between Microsoft and Apple? Guess what: just such a conflict is shaping up for supremacy on the wireless handset where at least two major players are girding up for a fight to own this turf.

European restaurants have used handhelds for credit-card processing for years, and some have even taken orders wirelessly. Now, with costs dropping, the systems are starting to take off in the U.S. Though not without glitches, they're being adopted by more and more restaurant owners eager for an extra helping of better service and increased profits.

The president tells us we are fighting a new kind of war. We have witnessed the first battle ­ fought on our turf. The battle of September 11 was fought in part not just with communication, but with wireless communication ­ the new manifestation of an age-old weapon. Here are the stories of six U.S. citizens and their personal, wireless victories over the events of that day.

The WAP protocol has laid the groundwork for a new generation of wireless-enabled enterprise applications. Basically anyone who accesses a host computer from a terminal can now use a handheld device to obtain anytime, anywhere information access and data entry. Things will only get better as next-generation wireless technologies provide higher bandwidths and significant performance achievements. But before you work on developing an application, you need to first determine what makes sense for your company.

Mobile Internet sites are not as easy to use as their computer-targeted Web-site cousins, due to smaller screens, more difficult text input, and a wide variety of user situations. Despite these factors, industry experts agree that mobile access to Web sites needs to be more usable than computer access. Although there are many resources from browser manufacturers, carriers, and industry organizations available to achieve this (see design reources at the end of the article), severe design mistakes continue to be made.

Growing up in the once sparsely populated city of San Jose, California, I recall trips to the mall with family and friends. Granted, I wasn't as mall-crazed as many of today's teens, but it was fun to visit toy stores to check out the latest remote-controlled cars and such. What I didn't forsee was the impact of cell phones on young people's lives, whether at the mall or elsewhere. Today, having a cool cell phone is as important to teens as anything I just 'had to have' back then.

Outside of North America, mobile entertainment is commonplace among a vast throng of the young and mobile...but why do Europe and Japan lead the way? Is it just lagging technology or a combination of cultural and geographical marketplace disparities? Are the hardware and network limitations or barriers insurmountable? WBT's David Geer investigates, and speaks to sundry U.S. software developers who are jumping on the m-entertainment bandwagon right now even though its arrival still seems to them to be 18­24 months away.

An alternative to inefficient paper-based systems enables field employees to use PDAs to check on marketing displays and track product inventory at retail stores. The major ROI for vendors is more accurate service and up-to-the-minute marketing information on any location, at any time. Walk into any home-improvement center, such as Lowe's or Home Depot, and you'll see an impressive number of product displays and promotions urging you to buy the latest power tool, appliance, light fixture, or gadget.

The mobile gaming industry is relatively embryonic. It's at an early stage of evolution where fundamental strategies for success are coarsely defined. Its clear dissimilarity from other rising markets is that it's a marriage of two extremely successful industries. Established digital games companies are increasingly recognizing the potential of mobile, and are making efforts to muscle in on the action.

DoCoMo, which started the world's first W-CDMA service in October, has pursued a strategy of taking minority investments in overseas carriers to build a family of mobile phone companies throughout the world using the same 3G mobile phone technology. So far, it has not been a resounding financial success.

As a developer of mobile applications, it's easy to see that the new Mobile Services can be beneficial in helping to create much better adoption of wireless applications. However, I feel that two huge barriers will have to be removed in order to make this a success. Americans still see the mobile phone as a personal device to keep in touch using vocal communications. They are so used to seeing a presentation format like the Web - full of graphics with an easy-to-use user interface. Like many others, I have been a developer since the 'Green Screen' days. It was very easy for me to adapt to the limited text-based content currently available on mobile devices. However, for the average users it has not been well received.

Throughout last year the single most talked about technology was WAP. This exciting new set of standards promised to free us from our desks by enabling us to access content on the Internet through our mobile phones wherever we were and whenever we wanted. The subsequent failure to deliver on this promise to the consumer with any degree of success has been well documented over the past year as, accompanied by what seemed at times to be a complete meltdown in the global telecoms economy, WAP suffered a series of often well-justified attacks and became simply and succinctly known as 'crap.'

The Mobile Services initiative (M-Services) was announced by the GSM Association this past summer. As leading GSM operators begin to individually announce and launch M-Services with the rollout of GPRS, and M-Services-enabled handsets come onto the market, what does it mean to you and your subscribers?

Wireless operators face a daunting challenge as they build networks to deploy and profit from mobile data services. As their colleagues in the wireline world proved all too well, bigger, faster pipes are not the answer. This article explores the architecture requirements for infrastructure that will enable operators to cost-effectively roll out, monitor, meter, and bill for data services, and independently scale their networks according to subscriber demand.

E911 is Enhanced 911, the service that would ensure that 911 calls made from a cell phone are tagged, routed, and handled in such a way that help arrives at the appropriate destination. If my cell account is from Ohio and I'm in Maine, witnessing an accident, I need to know that calling 911 will send an ambulance crew to my current location. We're close to E911 implementation and I believe everyone involved is working hard, but there are many reasons why it's just not that easy to put it into play.

While there have been signs of corporate IT backlash resulting from the shortcomings of early implementations of the wireless Internet, there are also signs that it is becoming a useful tool for communicating with 'mobile workforces,' and will be a competitive necessity for businesses in the near future.

Last year, I was telling Wireless Business & Technology (volume 1, issue 1) readers that poor usability was keeping a great technology (WAP) from taking off. At the same time, things were changing, so I encouraged developers to keep treading that WAP path. One year later, it's time to look at the WAP landscape again, draw some conclusions, and show you a new product that will blow your mind.

It's not a question of whether wireless advertising is coming to the U.S. market, but whether consumers will be too unhappy with privacy issues to see the value…