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Founded by Intel, the
Mobile Data Initiative is an industry group formed by some of the
world's leading mobile telecommunications and information technology
companies. It aims to drive mobile data adoption forward through
infrastructure improvement, ease of use and standards compatibility.
The Mobile Data Initiative's ultimate
goal is to make wireless data transmissions with a mobile PC and
a cellular phone as seamless and as common as making a simple phone
call.
With this in mind, Mobile Data Initiative
sponsors regularly scheduled interoperability workshops where manufacturers
from all facets of the wireless communications community meet and
test product compatibility. In these workshops, participants can
run "end to end" analyses of software, firmware and hardware
in a closed loop system – from sender to a receiver and back,
along a variety of telecommunications equipment platforms and divergent
networks, using systems from multiple attending vendors. This controlled
field testing allows vendors to address compatibility problems across
many platforms, and helps ensure that when the wireless product
reaches the consumer it will perform seamlessly.
The initial focus of the Mobile Data
Initiative was on the GSM 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies in Europe.
In August 1997, the organization was extended to North America to
include the PCS technologies in the 1900 MHz frequency range.
The Mobile Data Initiative's vision
is that people away from the office, even abroad, will be able to
perform all their computing tasks anywhere and anytime, with just
a mobile computer and a cellular phone. It will become easier and
faster than ever before to exchange text messages, data files, e-mail
and faxes, and to access corporate networks, intranets and the Internet
over wireless data networks.
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