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Cellular telephone equipment
consists of the cellular phone itself and a variety of voice and data accessories. Before
purchasing cellular equipment, managers should insure that the phone and accessories
satisfy all their applications' requirements. De pending on these applications, users may
choose from accessories such as replaceable battery packs, portable chargers, headsets,
encryption hardware, fax/data jacks, cellular modems, and credit card authorization unit
interfaces. All of these items may h elp users become more productive with their cellular
equipment.
Features such as displaying power, roam, and
no service, operating in a hands free mode, dialing alternatives, and tone generation are
available to cellular users. Of these features, managers must ensure that all critical
applications requirements are m et with the technology deployed. For example, if the use
of voice mail is critical, users need tone generation to issue commands. With hands free
operation, users can use the technology safely while driving or operating machinery.
Voice applications do not require end-user
software because the handset operating systems are "burned" into the firmware of
the unit. The software requirements for cellular communication are mostly associated with
cellular data. The Open Systems Interc onnect (OSI) is a model for defining how different
computers can communicate with one and other. The model consists of seven layers with each
layer accomplishing a specific task (Laudon & Laudon, 1994; Spohn, 1993). The software
required for wireless da ta applications mostly consist of wireless middleware that links
the upper layers of the OSI model (application, presentation) with the lower layers (data
link, physical) and allows two computers to communicate. |