Tech Watch: Wireless Insights

TECH WATCH

Expert Q&A
Wireless Insights

A Cingular Wireless executive shares his insights on the wireless options available to real estate professionals.

BY MIKE ANTONIAK

Cingular Wireless LLC last month announced that it’ll acquire AT&T Wireless, forming the largest wireless carrier in the United States when the deal goes through as expected later this year. The merged company will have a subscriber base of 46 million customers in 49 states and cover 97 of the top 100 U.S. markets. As the biggest player, the company will undoubtedly shape the delivery of wireless services in the future. For insights on how current wireless options can best serve the needs of real estate practitioners, I posed the following questions to Jim Ryan, vice president of Data Product Management and Business Marketing at Cingular Wireless in Atlanta.

Q: Over the past few years, mobile communications has grown to include a range of voice and data solutions. How can today’s solutions benefit mobile real estate practitioners?

Ryan: Being responsive with good information is a key factor to their success. The new generation of integrated wireless voice and data products can help practitioners streamline communications, which ultimately can lead to better and timelier service.

Imagine this real-world scenario: You receive notification about a new listing on your cell phone or other mobile device. You drive by the property, which looks tailor-made for your client. You take a few digital snapshots and attach them in an e-mail to your client. Your client calls back immediately, wanting to see the property. After you check your respective calendars, you call the listing salesperson to make an appointment. You shoot a note (e-mail or text message) back to your client confirming the showing and copy the listing salesperson.

Where can you do all of this? Just about anywhere. How many gadgets do you need to do it? One—that can go everywhere you go.

You also can leverage your wireless and landline phones to make it easier for clients and colleagues to find you. Inexpensive, easy-to-use call-forwarding products and services, such as Cingular’s FastForward cradle device, allow you to instantly route calls made to your wireless phone to a landline phone. Use your wireless numbers as your principal business number, and still have clients and colleagues reach you at your office or home phone.

Q: So, what features should practitioners look for in a cellular phone?

Ryan: To really take advantage of advanced wireless technology, real estate professionals should consider a handset or handheld with these features:

Hands-free: Explore wireless options that keep your hands on the wheel while driving. A few handsets, such as the Motorola V400, come with built-in speakerphones. We offer a service called VoiceConnect that allows customers to dial numbers and get information via voice commands. You also can purchase a wireless headset as an accessory for many mobile phones.
Text messaging: Most wireless phones allow you to send and receive short text messages. It’s useful for communicating with others when they can’t talk on the phone.
E-mail: Devices that support POP3 mail allow you to access most business and personal e-mail accounts. If you plan to use your wireless phone or handheld to send a lot of e-mail, look for a model with a full keyboard, for easier text entry.
Digital camera: This is probably one of the best features available today for real estate professionals. It allows you to snap and send digital pictures and short video clips from your wireless phone.
Multi-media messaging (MMS): If you have a camera phone, this service is a plus. MMS allows you to attach text, voice, or audio to a digital image and send it to a PC e-mail box or to another mobile device. Clients without MMS-capable phones can still receive a message notification on their phone and will be directed to a Web site where they can retrieve the message.
PDA tools: These include features such as an address book, calendar, and to-do lists. Many phones have such capabilities, but if you really rely on your PDA, you should pick up one of the new voice PDAs such as the BlackBerry 7280 or palmOne Treo 600 (which are PDAs with calling capabilities).

Q: What about smartphones? Like the Nokia 6610, smartphones include next-generation capabilities, such as java applications, color displays, and polyphonic ring tones. Some include built-in cameras and MMS, or they have PDA operating systems like Palm and PocketPC. What are the advantages of these?

Ryan: Smartphones are relatively new and as with most tech products, future models will have greater functionality and support more applications. However, today’s smartphones and voice handhelds already offer the essential functions required by mobile real estate professionals. They deliver all the functionality of a cell phone, with features such as voicemail, caller ID, and speed dial, combined with essential communications tools such as text messaging, e-mail, and Web access. Many devices also offer productivity tools, such as calendars, to-do lists, and address books. Add in digital camera and multimedia messaging capabilities, and you have an extremely powerful tool.

Q: How important is Wi-Fi? Are we approaching the point of real anywhere-anytime Web access, which warrants compatibility with Wi-Fi or some other standard in all mobile equipment?

Ryan: Wi-Fi offers great data speeds for wireless Internet access and file downloading, but it still poses serious proximity issues. In general, if you aren’t within 100 feet of a Wi-Fi access point, you won’t get a connection. So, if you spend a lot of time in your car touring residential areas, it’s unlikely that you’ll get a consistent Wi-Fi connection.

The clear advantage of a cellular data solution (any data-enabled wireless solution), such as the GSM/GPRS platform, is that you can connect anywhere within your coverage area. The industry is looking at solutions that combine different wireless technologies to provide best available network access. However, it’ll be some time before such products, and the underlying systems to support them, are widely available.

The good news is that you can get great wireless data products today that offer good connectivity at reasonable prices, so there’s no downside to making the jump to wireless data now.

Q: As mobile real estate professionals become more reliant on wireless technology, they also need to be aware of security issues. What level of protection can they realistically expect from service providers?

Ryan: We’re continually implementing secure solutions for our voice and data customers. We have ways to authenticate wireless applications so our customers know they’re using applications that are developed by trusted third parties. We also employ numerous anti-spam applications in our network that filter out most spam messages. Additionally, we’re working on enhancements for our users to have more direct control over the messages they receive.

Q: Inevitably, the talk about wireless solutions and hardware, leads to an examination of service plans. What general advice can you offer subscribers on selecting the best service plan?

Ryan: Evaluate your wireless use in terms of when and where you use your phone the most—peak time or off-peak, local or long distance, and then choose a plan that fits you best. The good news here is that there are a host of plans.

For data services, data is generally priced on a per kilobyte basis and doesn’t impact a customer’s airtime minutes. Our pricing ranges from $7 per month for 1MB of data (enough for roughly 250 e-mails) to $75 per month for unlimited data. Assess how much data services—such as text messaging, e-mail access, or Web browsing—you intend to use and choose a data plan that best meets your needs.

A good strategy is to start out with a moderate plan and upgrade if your data use increases.

Editor’s Note: Nextel Communications, a wireless communication services company, is a REALTOR® VIP Program partner. As a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, you will receive special discounts and promotions on wireless services and products from Nextel. To learn more about the program, click here.

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