Ericsson speeds up wireless web browsing

Ericsson speeds up wireless web browsing Ericsson's new WebOnAir solution significantly increases the efficiency of wireless downloading of web pages to a laptop PC, Personal Digital Assistantor a mobile phone with a web browser. For users, it makes wireless downloading of web pages up to four times faster. The solution is another step for Ericsson in bridging wireline and wireless Internet access to further grow the market for wireless IP services. The first operator to install WebOnAir is German Mannesmann. They have already launched their first service based on the Ericsson solution. The Ericsson solution, called WebOnAir Filter Proxy, filters out non-essential HTML code, adapts image quality and compresses information before it is transmitted to the wireless user. By slimming down the amount of bandwidth needed to carry IP-based services, the solution is another enabler for a mass market for IP services over wireless networks. Today, over 70 percent of the data on an average Web page is graphical, which requires significant bandwidth to send over wireless networks. If downloading web pages takes too long an average business user, especially remote access users over a wireless connection, simply will refrain from accessing remotely. For users, WebOnAir makes wireless web browsing significantly more attractive, further supporting remote usage and wireless Internet accessibility. It is a practical and simple solution, adding convenient benefits when using wireless Internet services. With WebOnAir, average downloading becomes two to four times faster. Depending on the graphical character of the information, the time to download a simple web page with WebOnAir is reduced from 60 seconds to 20 or faster. The biggest user benefit though, is for accessing larger documents or typical graphics- intense home pages that currently take, for example, 3 minutes to download to a wireless device. That same information can be accessed in 1 minute or less with WebOnAir - downloading times that make web services attractive for wireless users. Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecoms world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over. Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Johan Wiklund, Ericsson Corporate Communications Phone: +46 70 560 0134; E-mail: johan.wiklund@lme.ericsson.se Magnus Andersson, Product Manager, Ericsson Wireless Internet Business Unit New and Special Business Opportunities Phone: +49 240 757 5610; E-mail: Manke.Andersson@ericsson.com Background Information WebOnAir reduces the HTML code (the most common authoring language to create World Wide Web pages), for instance, white spaces, comments, META tags etc. It also compresses and decompresses HTML files, allows users to set the quality of images, color conversion to grayscale etc. WebOnAir is network independent, so apart from this initial sale to a GSM operator, it is also available for operators of TDMA, CDMA and other wireless networks. The new solution makes downloading faster, regardless of underlying bearer infrastructure - adding further user-friendliness to networks enhanced with speed-increasing solutions like GPRS or HSCSD. Ericsson's WebOnAir solution is a complement to WAP technology (Wireless Applications Protocol) and its Wireless Mark-up Language (WML). WebOnAir is especially designed for graphic intense wireless www browsing on larger screens, like a laptop PC or a Personal Digital Assistant. But it also gives the same speed increase when downloading to a smaller screen mobile phone with a browser. WAP is designed for a wider range of applications for smaller screens, with the same focal point on economical use of recourses available in today's wireless networks. So, for retrieving information from the Internet, WebOnAir is a complement to upcoming WAP services - further improving user-friendliness with faster downloading. For network operators or service providers WebOnAir comprises of two components: a client program that resides on the user device and a server gateway between the Internet and wireless networks. For users, WebOnAir can be offered as downloadable software, which provides a full range of available functionality, or it can be connected directly to the wireless device providing a more selective range of features. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/05/18/19990518BIT00030/bit0001.pdf http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/05/18/19990518BIT00030/bit0002.doc