Feb-March 2003

"Push" technology is inching its way steadily into the mobile communications market. Standard GSM and GPRS data networks are "pull" systems, in which mobile users have to send a request to a server in order to download data or emails to their handheld devices; but proprietary systems are now springing up to add push capability that sends data to them automatically.

So far, such systems have been confined mainly to bespoke data applications, where they have quickly become well established, but now the push feature is appearing on the edge of the mainstream.

Microsoft, eager to promote its new Smartphone system against the massed ranks of the rival Symbian-based devices, is behind an initiative called the Wireless Redirector Program, and Commtag, its European partner, has now launched a Duality always-on mail solution to advance the concept. This works with PDAs running Windows CE as well as Smartphone, and incorporates automatic file compression on both mail and attachments to reduce GPRS data charges.

Push capability is also expected to unfold among mobiles using rival operating systems.