art of the world. 49.1.1 North America At the same time that Sprint has opened the first 3G nationwide service spanning a continent, Cingular and Verizon have local 3G data services available in some areas. However, they are difficult to obtain in the consumer market because demo systems and good staff training are not readily available in stores. This may change rapidly. The most disturbing question arises from the confused and conflicting views of the market value of data services. Are they primarily for businesses or for the consumer? Is the hot application personal digital assistants (PDAs) and laptops with e-mail or cus- tom business applications or Internet access or cell phones with built-in cameras? Or both business and consumer services? Or neither? Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. CDMA Now and in the Future Conclusion Let us take a look at business services first. There is no question that it is valuable for businesspeople, especially salespeople and executives who travel, always to be in touch. In 1998, a typical executive in any industry spent perhaps one-third of his or her time on e-mail. Sales force automation, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems, are of real value to business. Enabling these through wireless data will put the mobile work force in an always-on state. If this connectivity helps increase sales or reduces inventory-management errors so that customers get the right thing more often and get it sooner, then the use of wireless services will help the business and might be worth the cost. However, three questions remain to be answered: How important is this in the current economy? How soon will it happen? Will businesses use the cellular network to do it? For the last 5 to 7 years, companies have succeeded by implementing more effective technology than their competitors and getting 