Features

Why Transcomm is competing with its biggest wireless customer, RIM

Mobitex is still the leading wireless data network in the UK, but isn't visible to the normal consumer. With the release of the "Raspberry" - a BlackBerry-like device that runs on Mobitex instead of the GSM network, could this change?

Transcomm's Mobitex network runs at 900 MHz in America - the frequency used by GSM phones everywhere else - and so the original RIM BlackBerry couldn't be imported to Europe. And the problem with adapting the original BlackBerry for Mobitex in Europe was pretty simple: over here, Mobitex runs at 400 MHz.

Adapting the device wasn't a serious option originally. There are dozens of cheap radio-frequency components designed to work at 900 MHz; but until recently, if you wanted a 400 MHz device, it would cost you. That, says Andrew Fitton CEO of Transcomm in the UK, has changed with the development of the Tetra emergency services network, running at 400 MHz; and so Transcomm has discovered that it can produce a viable pocket device at reasonable prices.

Originally, rumours suggested that Transcomm would bully RIM into producing a European version of the Mobitex BlackBerry. That was the plan ...

"RIM will never do it," said Fitton sadly. "When Bell South ran the Mobitex service, before we took it over, they tried to persuade RIM to produce a European version, and even introduced RIM to BT with the hope of getting BT to use the Mobitex network for it. What actually happened was that BT and RIM walked off into the sunset together to develop the GSM/GPRS based BlackBerry that they launched last year; they wanted a universal standard device."

However, for one reason or another, the universal standard BlackBerry hasn't been the runaway bestseller that it was in the US. You can speculate on reasons.

1) it doesn't do very much: The European BlackBerry is, when all is said and done, a useful corporate tool, and almost useless for individuals. Its biggest fans are those who are connected to their office Web Services via providers (like our sponsor, Information Builders) - but that's not an option for the typical Dixons shop browser, who wants a PDA to keep track of phone numbers, dates, and AvantGo material.

2) it uses GPRS: While GSM is, undoubtedly, a far more universal standard than Mobitex, GPRS is a very raw innovation on top of it. It's only in recent weeks that it became possible to be sure that the same GPRS standard was working on Orange, Vodafone and Cellnet. It still isn't possible to take a Cellnet GPRS device into a Cellnet associate area in the rest of Europe and expect it to roam across borders; and it certainly won't roam into Vodafone-associated networks anywhere.

3) it doesn't do voice: The fashion is for GPRS devices like Treo and XGA which Cellnet also offers, and which it actually subsidises. These are both phone and PDA as well as BlackBerry-pickers; they can do just about anything a European BlackBerry does, but are full-featured games machines, multimedia comms links, and ordinary voice phones, too. And they do remote email at least as well as BlackBerry.

4) it's not "cute": The RIM BlackBerry was an icon in America. In a world where there wasn't an alternative (almost no GSM networks existed there when it was launched) and where even cellphones were (and are) nowhere near as widespread as they are in the GSM world, a mobile two-way email toy was unique, and everybody had to have one. In Europe, it's just another option, with fewer features.

5) the users aren't excited: Cellnet claims to have "every lawyer in the square mile" equipped with one. Yes; but are they using them? producing them in City bars? generating techno-jealousy? Not according to City gossip, no. It is even suggested they were given away ...

"We have significant doubts about GPRS anyway," says Fitton. No surprise! - but he has a point when he says: "As the network gets busy, the reliability may prove iffy; and GSM networks are pretty near capacity already. The current slowdown in telecoms means GSM operators are reluctant to invest more."

For some time, Transcomm has been working on what we might call the "Raspberry" - a device which is not a Blackberry, but provides 2-way email. The Korean firm which makes the American Blackberry has, finally decided there is money in a Mobitex-only device for Europe, and has been prototyping it.

Trials are nearly over, and Fitton says he's encouraged by the response. "It's not really a rival to BlackBerry, and we're pretty sure we can't call it Blueberry or Raspberry - we think BT went and trademarked all the berry names! - but we do think it has a niche in two-way comms for mission-critical vertical markets. And it has significant advantages for people who are away for a long time; not least, its battery life."

The processor in the TWM-3 is an ARM chip as in most phones and PDAs; but the power saving mostly occurs because of the "advanced sleep mode" which Mobitex devices use; switching the radio device off entirely for 40 seconds and only checking for the existence of a network inbetween sleeps. Fitton reckons it will give several days between battery charges.

Capacity of the Mobitex network is pretty good; and it is scalable. Fitton says he can support 100,000 simultaneous users, with a max of 2,500 users per base station. "We can upgrade the network with a software change, due this year, to take a quarter of a million users; but for high-density population areas, we'd have to add more base stations. That's part of the plan; we have a base station rollout programme ready to announce."

It will be interesting to compare it in use; the new device isn't the same as the American Blackberry, having more features. These include a touch-screen and "graffiti-like" data entry as well as the "thumboard" keypad. "Frankly, I don't think most people will want to use the thumboard," opines Fitton, "but it's cheaper to include it in the box than produce two stock-keeping units, so it goes out with that as standard."

The Newswireless Net hopes to have a review in a week or so.