Become a Wireless Survivor

My wife informed me the other day that she wants to be one of the contestants on the next edition of the popular Survivor television show, scheduled to air this fall. Contestants are allowed to bring a single "luxury" item along with them during their 42 days spent in some exotic locale, and guess what my wife wants to bring along? A wireless-enabled Pocket PC!

Initially I thought she was joking, but then I started to think about it. The goal of Survivor is to "Outplay, Outwit, and Outlast" your opponents. With a wireless-enabled Pocket PC she'd be able to browse survivalist Web sites and come up with solutions to the many challenges that her tribe will be facing. She'd become the tribal hero who figured out how to start that critical first evening's fire and came up with a recipe for roasted chipmunk. But she needs to check to see if there's wireless coverage in the remote part of Asia or Africa she'll be visiting.

The great thing about standards: there are so many to pick from

Being a mobile professional who uses a wireless-enabled Pocket PC to stay in touch is a bit like being a contestant on Survivor. You don't know where you'll be traveling to from one week to the next; you don't know what wireless coverage will be available when you get there; and you have to constantly battle the hodge-podge of conflicting wireless standards found in many parts of the world.

The table on the preceding page depicts some of the ways to wirelessly connect your Pocket PC to the Internet. Some manufacturers outside the U.S. are even beginning to produce Pocket PCs with directly integrated wireless capability (such as the emerging Casio E-707, Trium Mondo, and SAGEM WA3050). However, because of the tremendous flux in wireless standards existing throughout the world, it may be more sensible to bolt on your wireless connectivity to your Pocket PC rather than lock yourself into a single standard with one of these directly integrated solutions.

The harsh reality is that the coverage of these various solutions does not include many of the remote areas where people who enjoy being outdoors typically find themselves. The traditional wireless communication channels (e.g., GSM, CDMA, and CDPD) are designed to work reliably only in heavily populated metropolitan areas (where economies of scale provide the incentive to deploy expensive network infrastructure). The odds that Survivor 3 will be conducted in any of the eleven cities currently supported by Metricom's Ricochet 128 kbps network are remote indeed!

Look to the heavens: Mobile Satellite Services

Because current networks are limited to metropolitan areas (and because RJ-11 telephone jacks are scarce in the wilderness) Survivor contestants (or serious Pocket PC wilderness warriors) should be looking into some Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) system. These satellite systems have their network infrastructure orbiting the earth and are accessible from almost any spot on the planet. But it turns out that the satellite communication landscape is littered with companies that have "burned up on re-entry." Just in the past few years, companies such as Iridium, Orbcomm and ICO have all filed for bankruptcy protection. Which satellite technology do you select?

The most interesting communication satellites for Pocket PC users are LEO (Low Earth Orbit) systems that orbit a few hundred miles above the Earth. Their lower orbit reduces transmission delays and lets manufacturers build very compact and power-efficient LEO terminals (a.k.a. "satellite phones"). Satellite handsets (phones) do require a clear line of sight to a satellite. Although a satellite may be in position overhead, in most cases the satellite phone can't communicate with it if you're inside a building. If you're a Survivor crawling through a cave or deep in a canyon, a satellite handset might not be the answer.

Connecting your Pocket PC to a satellite handset