f you want to see what our wireless future holds, just flip the lid of the Nokia 9000i Communicator and peer into its screen.
From the outside, the Nokia looks like an ordinary cellular phone, albeit one that's a bit oversized. But press a button on the side and the phone unfolds to reveal a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a small display, and lots of special function keys with intriguing labels like ''Tel,'' ''Fax,'' ''Calendar,'' and ''Internet.''
Weighing exactly 14 ounces, the Nokia is an integrated wireless telephone, address book, calendar, and Internet terminal. You can look up a name in the address book, click a button, and ring that person's phone. You can go browsing on the Web, find an earth-shattering document, and fax it to your attorney. And you can do it all while sitting in the middle of Boston Common.
The 9000i comes loaded with applications and features. The e-mail client supports both the POP and IMAP formats, making it ideal for the corporate environment. The Web browser supports SSL encryption, so you can buy things over the Internet without fearing for the security of your credit card number. But best of all, you can synchronize the phone book and calendar with your desktop computer using the cable and software provided. This is a feature every cellular telephone should copy.
I'm also impressed by the readability of the Nokia's 5-inch screen: It's far superior to every other palmtop on the market. Unlike the 3Com Palm Pilot, the Nokia screen isn't touch-sensitive, but the lack of a stylus doesn't seem to detract much from the machine's overall utility. Indeed, it's one less thing to lose.
But the 9000i comes up short when compared to other wireless telephones. The sound quality is mediocre, the antenna doesn't retract, and the battery lasts only a few hours. Although this phone packs a lot of power, my preference is still to carry around a full-powered laptop computer and then a lightweight digital phone, such as the Ericsson 788, which has voice quality as good as a traditional wireline telephone.
Both the 9000i and the 788 are GSM telephones, which means they are based on the digital telephone technology that's popular in Europe but has been slow to catch on here. OmniPoint, the only GSM provider in Boston, sells the 9000i for $995.
GSM telephones keep the subscriber's phone number, account information, and address book in a tiny chip card that plugs into the back of the phone. This makes it easy for GSM subscribers to upgrade to new phones or swap with friends. Ultimately, this should lower the ownership cost of GSM phones compared with conventional cellular phones, especially for large organizations.
Last month I asked readers to tell me about their experience with the new digital telephone companies.
Raphael Ndebele wrote to complain about failed and dropped calls on Omnipoint's digital system. ''While dialing or receiving calls from the same place ... sometimes I get through and at times I don't. Also, while in the middle of a call, the call goes off air, without me moving,'' he wrote.
I must admit that I've had this problem with Omnipoint, and with every other wireless telephone I've ever used. And the dropouts are inexplicable. Usually the phone says it's receiving a full-strength signal. Then all of a sudden, it hangs up on me.
Warren Weitzman wrote that Sprint's ''dual-band service is excellent.'' And Weitzman corrected an error in my previous column: Sprint's 67-cent-per-minute charge applies only when you are roaming on analog systems outside your home area; inside your home area, the charge is 55 cents.
Weitzman also tried a few phones from Nextel. These have a special ''direct connect'' feature that lets you push a button on one phone and call the other, as if you had walkie-talkies. Weitzman said the direct connect is handy for contractors, but he concluded that the company's service overall was expensive and ''very unreliable.'' I had a similar experience when I tried a pair of Nextel phones a year ago.
A lot of people think I get to keep all of the toys that I test for this column, but in fact they all go back to the manufacturer unless I want to shell out my own cold cash.
And because I'm a writer on a budget, I've decided to stick with Sprint's PCS service. The main reason is price. Although Sprint's service is very spotty, you just can't find a better bargain than the company's $99/1000 minute monthly plan, with free roaming anywhere in the United States. For that price, I'm willing to put up with dropped calls and inferior sound quality.
A bigger problem I've had with Sprint is constant foul-ups on my bill. Since getting my phones in March, I have been double-billed for service, I've gotten phantom charges, and Sprint has billed me for telephone accessories and then waited a month before shipping them. A friend of mine in California has had similar problems.
Sprint says these problems are typical of any start-up. My feeling is that Sprint PCS better get its billing together fast, before state and federal authorities start taking a closer look.
Technology writer Simson L. Garfinkel can be reached at plugged-in@
simson.net.
Dow:
