Cutting Edge: Third Generation Cellular

Jan. 26 -- Take a look at your cell phone; then close your eyes.

Imagine: movies, games, chat rooms and services that tell you where the nearest decent Indian restaurant is — not on that thing, with its useless little keyboard and four-line text-only screen, a device that hasn’t changed significantly since the first mobile phones were introduced in 1983.

But with the next generation of wireless phone networks — known as 2.5G, coming at the end of this year — everything will change. By the time third-generation, or 3G, networks are in place in about 2004, wireless communications will mean much more than just phone calls, experts say.

“You can have a clear [video] picture of the person you’re talking to,” said Greg Rhode, who was assistant secretary for communications and information at the Clinton Commerce Department.

“Imagine you’re going to the movies and want to see what movies are showing. Hit a button, and you can actually see the video on your phone ... [then] use that same phone to go to a soda machine and buy a soda,” he said. Buying a soda with your phone is already possible in Finland, where users can dial a number, make their soft drink choice, and a text message relays the information to the machine and bills your cellular account.

Glimpse of the Future

To glimpse the future of cell phones, in fact, one should look to Finland and other countries in Europe and Asia, where a clearer, more advanced picture of the technology is emerging.

The U.S. is years behind the rest of the world in wireless technology. Millions of Japanese already shop, play games and socialize on “I-mode” phones with big color screens. In the United Kingdom, 560 million text messages were sent across the airwaves during the month of August 2000, according to the Mobile Data Association. And the Finns have been shopping on their phones since early 2000. In comparison, Americans will only be sending 68 million text messages per month by 2003, according to International Data Corporation. The U.S. has about four times the population of the U.K.