A man-sized cardboard figure of the renowned character Polle from the burrough of Snave appearing in their popular TV commercials is receiving the visitors at the reception desk of the Sonofon cell telephony carrier company. But in the rooms of Alf Præstgaard, project manager, who is network developer with Sonofon, equipment is on display, obviously from a world that is completely different to that of Polle's uncool environment:
On the table are two pieces of electronic hardware rendering the fingers of techno-nerds itching. One of the devices is a Web Pad, a pressure sensitive screen and a computer integrated into one, the size of a paperback. The other piece is a PDA, a Personal Digital Assistant – also referred to as a pocket computer. It is the size of most ordinary electronic calendars – but it does a lot more. Both devices feature pressure sensitive screens and can be operated with one finger – or a tiny stylus attached along the side of each device.

Two Types of Technologies
- The PDA and the Web Pad are fundamentally capable of the same features but they use of two vastly different technologies and serve two different purposes, explains Alf Præstgaard and elaborates:
- A Web Pad is a type of mobile screen to bring along all over your house and garden. But not farther away than that. It works with a remote radio connection to a sender and receiver station mounted on the wall in the house, and connected to an external parabolic aerial. It features the so-called FWA, a wireless broadband connection with a sending and reception rate of 1.024 Megabit.
The tiny Web Pad is so handy that you can bring it along to bed and read your paper, or search for recipes on the Web while in the kitchen, play games in the nursery, and so on. 50 Aalborg families are testing the Web Pad.

Web-Clipping
But – in reality the two tiny devices are not the interesting part of this. It is what they can do that is interesting. For in a joint venture the Aalborg TVR and the Sonofon have developed the PMBS – short for the Personal Mobile Broadband Services. This in turn means that the test persons have Internet access, a mailservice and a calendar – and can register for a personal news service. Here they tick their interests, and they will receive the news from the Aalborg TVR – including the ANR, TV Denmark Aalborg and the Nordjyske Stiftstidende Newspaper cannels – with the news items tailored to their interest.
- We have also decided to deploy a system that will filter out commercials, background colours, flash and other redundant ”enois” from the Internet. The display of the PDA is in a high aspect format where a normal computer screen is in a wide aspect format. This means that you will be able to view half a home page on the screen and then scroll down to see the rest. A homepage can also be a big and time-consuming lump to transfer via the GPRS. If all the redundant information is stripped away, the user will still be able to check e.g. the train departure times of the DSB from Aalborg – and even in a more userfriendly format. This system is called Web clipping, informs Alf Præstgaard.

The Test Families are Interviewed
Siemens, supplies the Web Pads and PDAs for the testruns, and the technology is still so new that it barely made it for the project start.
The 100 test persons and families have got four months to try out the portable information technology. On March 15th the devices are to be returned. At that time a comprehensive query form is to be completed. Here they are requested to answer how and when they used the devices – and what products and services they envision as a future demand.
Alf Præstgaard is not making it a secret that he is anxious to see the evaluating forms. For the test persons know full well that all the mobile services, they could make use of over the last three months will be quite expensive in the future. It will be a pay per product policy –either via a subscription, or via micro payment.
- It is my impression that the private users are still not prepared to pay for more mobile services than the ones they are using now. After all, this is also about needs. But if industrial customers see the big idea, no doubt this could become very interesting…
If Alf Præstgaard is asked, which success criteria Sonofon and Aalborg TVR have set up for the project, the answer will be:
- Success is to get clear and unambiguous test results. No matter what results.