1, give the company about 20 content providers on its wireless deck.
The applications are available for $ per month as part of its Nextel's Online basic service offering. The Basic Plus Web browsing flat-rate service plan, which allows customers to access information from any Wireless Application Protocol-enabled Web site, is offered at $ per month.
Far from the entertainment offer by NTT, usefulness is the common theme of the new sites, which include Ameritrade, Travelocity and Google (see box).
"What we'd like to establish and create are applications that can make business more efficient," said a Nextel spokeswoman. "The people that are going to find this useful are already mobile all of the time and don't have a desktop."
Along with wireless Internet and digital cellular, Nextel's phones are equipped with digital two-way radio service and two-way instant messaging.
Essentially tripling the number of content providers on its wireless Internet offering is an important step for Nextel, said Eric Rasmussen, senior analyst with TeleChoice.
"It's important to have a fairly robust set of content out there, and this addition will move [Nextel] to that."
Indeed, providing applications that can directly assist customers in their daily activities seems to be the foremost criteria of wireless Internet providers. As much as 90% of the wired Web's content will never make it to wireless because of the immediate nature of the medium, among other reasons, Rasmussen estimated.
During the past few months, for example, Sprint PCS has steadily added content providers to its Internet offering, bringing at least 10 to its deck since the beginning of May. Recognizing that most people don't casually surf the Internet on a mobile device, most of Sprint's new content is focused or business-oriented.
"First and foremost, we look for content that is high-utility," said a Sprint PCS spokeswoman. "It's not simply putting content from the Internet on the wireless Web. It's looking at that content that makes sense mobile. It's content you'd never go home and look up on your PC."
These types of additions, said the spokeswoman, are beginning to transform the wireless Internet into more than a novelty to some people. "[Wireless Internet] has gone from `This is kind of cool,' to `I need this. This has become a part of my everyday routine.'"
