Valley rides wave of wireless future

WASILLA -- Ten or 15 years ago, Internet browsing meant sifting through text-only pages on computers connected via thick cables and the only wireless connections were infrared beams shining between transmitters and receptors on carefully positioned terminals. Despite the low quantity of data being transmitted, it often took several minutes to load even those text-based pages.

Now, Mary Ann Pease sits calmly at a table in a Wasilla restaurant, raises a tiny antenna attached to a card in her laptop, and in seconds is browsing the Internet, checking her e-mail, and even conducting corporate business at data transfer speeds that would cause her laptop's blocky ancestors to die from silical hyperventilation. Pease calls up the Google search engine and types in a quick request for information. The answer comes back instantaneously -- 0.24 seconds -- and she's got the answer she's looking for.

"This is the wave of the future," said Pease, who is vice president of ACS. "It's going to turn the Valley into a virtual office for all its mobile professionals."

Pease is enjoying this opportunity thanks to her company, Alaska Communication Systems, and its new wireless broadband system, called the EV-DO system. Wireless coverage provided by this system extends from Homer to Houston, allowing customers as far away as Homer to access the Internet wirelessly using the same system as Anchorage and Valley customers. Business professionals, correspondence workers and Web surfers can now access the Internet at any point in this area, whether sitting in a coffee shop or cruising down the highway.

Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of this network, however, is its speed -- 2.4 megabits per second, roughly 3 times as fast as an average DSL connection.

Other wireless service areas recently opened in the areas surrounding Juneau, Fairbanks and Delta Junction. Traditional ACS wireless phone service already covers most of the populated areas of the state.

The service acts as a more widespread, more sophisticated variant of more traditional Wi-Fi systems that allow customers to set up a small broadcasting hub in their apartment or business, thus granting wireless access around the room or building. The data transfer for the EV-DO service is carried out by towers similar to those transmitting and receiving cellular phone signals, and thus can achieve a much greater scope.

The EV-DO footprint was launched on May 24 of this year, but customers only started connecting to the system on Tuesday, when it first went on the market.

"Our business community is really excited about this wireless service," said Jodi Forsland, ACS spokeswoman, who added that the applications of the new technology -- real estate agents snapping photos of property and mailing them to clients on the spot, contractors and mechanics taking pictures of malfunctioning equipment and sending them to online suppliers, even anglers exchanging pictures of the salmon they just caught -- are endless.

In addition to the broadband service for laptops, many of ACS's cellular phones also feature built-in digital cameras, phone and address books, e-mail access, and rudimentary Web-browsing capabilities known as "mini-browsing." This mobile browsing service, already popular in Europe, is just starting to make waves in the United States, Forsland said.

"Like everything else in technology, this just keeps getting better," she said, holding an LG-6000 picture phone, one of ACS's most popular devices.

The picture phone technology is relatively known in the rest of the U.S., but new to Alaska. "This is what everyone in the Lower 48 has been experiencing," Forsland said, "but we've only seen the commercials up here."

The wireless broadband system, however, is almost a genuine prototype. Thus far, only two large Lower 48 cities -- San Diego and Washington, D.C. -- have installed this areawide broadband service. Anchorage and the Valley bring the count to three urban areas with the system active. Pease said this cutting-edge technology was a decision on the part of ACS officials that took into account the increasing growth that Alaska is experiencing and the ballooning demand for Internet and wireless systems across

the nation.

"The most exciting thing is, here we are sitting in Wasilla, and the only other places where you can find this technology are San Diego and Washington," Pease said. She accentuated her point by snapping pictures of the area with the camera embedded in her cell phone, e-mailing the pictures to herself, then checking her mail and calling up the photos on her laptop -- all in under a minute, and all without leaving the table.

Pease said systems of this sort will undoubtedly start to spread across the United States, eventually revolutionizing the way Internet access is handled nationwide.

This new technological leap was accompanied by the grand re-opening of ACS's new location in Wasilla, in the Financial Building at the junction of the Palmer-Wasilla and Parks highways. Though the location has been open for business for several months, the new wireless system necessitated a special celebration, which was held Wednesday. ACS staffers and visitors alike celebrated the day with free food, prizes and promotional offers.

This new office will allow, among other things, the distribution of local cell phone numbers to Valley customers. Previously, Valley subscribers had to register for an Anchorage number to receive ACS service in the Palmer-Wasilla area, resulting in high roaming fees.

The EV-DO service typically costs $99 per month, but the new Wasilla office is running a grand opening special -- $79 per month for unlimited wireless broadband access.

For more information about the new wireless system, call ACS 376-0370 or visit the ACS Web site atwww.acsalaska.com.

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.