BY RICH TEHRANI
Group Publisher

Why Nokia May Rule The IP Telephony World

About three years ago, I caught my friend using a Nokia phone with advanced digital features that made my aging analog Motorola cell phone look ancient. I was fascinated by all the advanced features and sleek design of this Nokia telephone. Voice mail indication, call waiting, and a built-in directory were must-have features for me. I did eventually switch to AT&T service with a Nokia 6160 telephone. I love my new phone and apparently I am not alone -- these phones are popping up everywhere. In fact, I have recently heard that Nokia has taken over the leadership position in cellular phones from entrenched leader Motorola.

Nokia is an innovator. TMC Labs recently completed a review of Nokia's latest cell phone, the 9000il Communicator with a Web browser interface. These guys are pioneers.

Recently, Nokia acquired Vienna Systems, a small but very well-respected manufacturer of Internet telephony gateways. and even more recently, they acquired InTalk, a manufacturer of wireless LAN products.

I am a firm believer that the future of telephony is wireless. Sure, wireless service right now is perhaps a few steps better than atrocious -- we need significant upgrades to the nation's wireless infrastructure. But this will come in time and given enough patience. We are getting DSL and cable modems -- and our national appetite for bandwidth will extend into the wireless realm. Eventually, we will have all the data, voice, and video bandwidth we can handle.

So this begs the question, who will rule the wireless IP telephony world? What standards will we need to make IP telephony a reality? If history is any guide, we know that whoever controls the endpoints of the network can gain control of the entire network. Witness Microsoft. The access device to the telephony and data network is critical. Whoever owns this could own the whole game -- applications, services, and standards.

A case could be made that JAVA will be the ubiquitous language of IP telephony devices. This maybe so but until it happens, there is always room for someone else to set standards and become the dominant player in the market.

This exactly the reason that Microsoft and Qualcomm decided to partner and create Wireless Knowledge. Qualcomm has further announced a future cellular phone supporting Windows CE. 3Com is also scrambling to augment the PalmPilot with wireless networking and telephony capability.

The wireless interface will eventually allow the addition of applications. Perhaps they will be JAVA applets and the device won't matter, but who knows? Just as Microsoft was able to leverage desktop OS dominance into computer dominance, the owner of the wireless access device controls the infrastructure -- an infrastructure that will be the future of telephony.

Nokia is quietly making strategic acquisitions in IP telephony and wireless data networking. The company has a great deal of momentum behind it and seems to have a clear vision of where it is going. Finally, and perhaps the best thing for Nokia is that it seems to be extremely underestimated at the moment. No one really dwells on these recent acquisitions and perhaps they want to keep it that way. As the wireless market will inevitably grow, keep an eye on Nokia -- acquisitions, new products, and developments. It is only a matter of time before they leverage their installed base of intelligent cell phones into the next computing paradigm.

Rich Tehrani welcomes comments at rtehrani@tmcnet.com.