Fast facts

Wireless laser provides high-speed connections.

Lucent Technologies has developed a new wireless technology using light beams — OpticAir — which can transmit data 65 times faster than radio waves.

New league for Lucent.

Because of the Internet and the possibilities it offers, data traffic is growing exponentially. Many companies are competing with each other to provide everything: voice, video and data through the same connection. Lucent recently acquired Ascend Communications Inc. and is hoping this will help it become the leading supplier of voice, video and now data.

Hot in the market: Fixed wireless.

Fixed wireless, the fast-growing sector linking users to high-speed telecom networks wirelessly, is the darling of Wall Street deal-makers, and is expected to grow from $103 million in 1998 to $8.5 billion by 2007.

SV1 releases electromagnetic shield for phones.

No-Danger (www.nodanger.net) is a protective mesh shield developed in Japan that is attached over the earpiece of a mobile phone to block 99 percent of the potentially harmful electromagnetic waves (up to 2,000 MHz) from entering the brain via the ear canal. No-Danger is constructed of materials previously used exclusively for military purposes in Japan.

Study reports great expectations for wireless data.

According to a study by Dataquest, more than 36 million new subscribers to wireless data services are expected by 2003.

Finland: the world’s most wireless nation.

With a population of 5 million people, Finland leads the world in the number of wireless phone users with a penetration rate of 60 percent.

Cutting the cord has become a growing trend.

There are more than 74.4 million wireless subscribers in the United States, and more customers are beginning to use their wireless phones exclusively.

Europe leading way to the wireless future.

In Europe, wireless phones are used not only for communications, but to pay for a parking space, soda from a vending machine and even a car wash.

Smart traffic counters use wireless to improve transportation flow.

Rubber hoses with sensors that count vehicles on the road may soon be replaced by more effective and less expensive “smart” call boxes that count passing vehicles, record their speed and alert local highway information centers with its cellular phone system.

Electronic wiretaps on wireless devices soar.

An annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reveals the number of electronic wiretaps on wireless phones and other wireless devices has more than tripled in the past year.

Japanese company introduces first mobile videophone.

The Kyocera Corporation has developed the VisualPhone VP-210, a wireless phone equipped with a built-in camera and two-inch LCD screen.