Wireless operators start to see through the MISP

Too many free ISPs? Impossible to tell one from another? Think again. BT Cellnet and Vodafone AirTouch have launched Internet access services from notebooks, PCs and mobile phones, ushering in a new era - the era of the Mobile ISP (MISP).

This new breed of ISP will offer something markedly different to current providers. They promise services such as shopping and news over mobile phones and other wireless devices - all based around enhanced GSM networks. The key to making these services viable is GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) - a technology which allows voice and data to be transmitted at speeds at least as fast as today's fixed line ISDN.

All this comes against a backdrop of seemingly endless ranks of free ISPs, where the difference between them can be hard to spot. They all claim to be the best: some say they were the first to market (X-stream or Freeserve, depending on definitions); others offer periods with free dial-up (screaming.net or X-stream, again); a few provide free support or domain name registration (ITG's freenetname); and some claim faster connections (Freewire). But now the concept of the MISP has been thrown into the equation, and they're all being forced to rethink their strategies.

BT Cellnet was first to hit the trail by re-launching Genie Internet (http://www.genie.co.uk ), as a portal service that will be available to users of all networks even before GPRS is a reality (http://www.silicon.com/a32736 ). The company has also just taken delivery of its first batch of GPRS handsets from Motorola, so users can expect services to become even more sophisticated once they come on stream.

Looking further into the future, Peter Erskine, MD of BT Cellnet, predicts that four years from now more people will access the Web from mobile devices than from desktop PCs. What's more, he predicts Genie will attract 600,000 users by the end of the year. This is a bold forecast, given how many established players are fighting to be a top five ISP.

Days after BT Cellnet's launch, Vodafone AirTouch unveiled similar plans. It announced Vodafone Interactive (VI), which will offer similar information and personalised services based on a newly-established free ISP business - vodafone.net.

There is no mention of GPRS in Vodafone's literature, but a spokeswoman told Silicon.com that VI will eventually exploit faster technologies. She stressed: "Vodafone Interactive services are available here and now, and with our high-street shops, we have one of the best distribution networks."

Even though Vodafone has declined to forecast its user numbers, there is such industry momentum behind the MISP concept, it seems hard to see how it - or any its rivals - could fail.

Versatile WAP-enabled phones will become available, and high-speed GPRS, and its successor, broadband 3G, will set the tone for ever more complex services.

However, once the content race begins, it will pose significant problems for the BT Cellnets and Vodafones of this world.

Don Pearce, principal consultant at Netcom Consultants, said: "A lot of the operators will have to become ISPs or form alliances with them. But it's a different model to existing ISPs. There will be higher speeds - often way above 33.6 or 56K - with many thousands of concurrent users."

Handling all that data concurrently with voice calls will severely test the expertise of ISPs and mobile providers. "Currently real-time is anathema to ISPs, and providing this back-end for [mobile phone companies] will be a shock for many of them," Pearce added.

With ISPs and wireless network providers coming from opposite ends of the technological spectrum, only those that successfully merge the two cultures will survive. But for the fittest among them, the ecommerce rewards will more than compensate.