Motorola Inc’s Mobile Data Division is to work with the US cellular telecommunications industry to develop an open protocol packet data system and says it will open key over-the-air protocols developed for use on its Ardis radio network joint venture with IBM Corp that it had previously been held to be proprietary. The Schaumberg, Illinois company says that its commitment to an open protocol on Ardis and to extend it to the cellular industry is intended to remove many of the remaining hurdles to continued growth in portable computing and personal communications. It hopes to work with cellular carriers on industry standards and says it will also continue to work with computer companies to bring wireless technology to portable computers. As well as the protocol currently being used on the US Ardis network and the Canadian Bell-Ardis, Motorola will open the 9,600-19,200 bit per second RD-LAP protocol in operation on networks run by the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom in Germany, and Hutchison Mobile Data Ltd in the UK and being installed on Ardis later this year. It is also to offer software applications interfaces such as its Wave Guide software to facilitate growth of applications. The specs will be offered on a royalty-free licence.
