TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE WIRELESS FUTURE

Today’s banking and trading institutions realize they must move and move quickly to capitalize on new business opportunities in wireless banking and trading. Resistance to the implementation of wireless banking can lead to major losses at the business and market share levels. Wireless service soon will be a necessity for the end-user. Although many technological barriers need to be overcome, it is imperative to embrace the change. Wireless banking and trading is only an extension of the product offerings for the financial institutions. It is not an extension of web technology, as often perceived. Online banking and online trading works from standard TCP/IP connection to the Internet using a PC, while wireless applications present a much greater challenge. Today, wireless banking lacks leadership in enforcing one standard. There are several network standards, PDA standards, browsing standards, protocol standards…etc. In the wireless world, airwaves are the only vehicle to send and receive data. Depending on the physical location- inside or outside of a building, near or far from a tower, in a small town versus a metropolitan area- quality is highly variable.