When will the mobile phone stop being a tool for incidental communication, and start being your number-one source for time sensitive data? When it’s economically feasible. If the necessary technology isn’t already in place, it’s being developed at a breakneck speed. Because of the high demand for existing wireless service, it’s assured that customers will indulge as much as the companies allow them to.

By 2008, predicts worldwide consulting firm Ernst & Young, wireless will overtake wire line as the dominant method of worldwide telecommunication. Finland, home to the wireless pioneer Nokia, already has more wireless handsets then wire line, and wireless call minutes already surpass wire line minutes. In fact, most of Europe is ahead of the US when it comes to taking advantage of wireless technology.

For example, French citizens can get a Coke from a vending machine and have it tacked on to your phone bill. The vending machine has a “phone” number that you call from your mobile phone to release the beverage. In wireless penetration, the UK has recently overtaken the US rate of 24 percent. More importantly, the spread of wireless in the UK is twice as fast as in the US, and is expected to increase in penetration by 12 percent over the next 12 months.

The Alternative: Less Labor, No Standards

Wireless technology is an attractive alternative to wire line. It’s quicker and easier to lay out a satellite-based cellular network then to dig up ground and lay down wires. For this reason, the trend towards wireless will be as important to the developing countries as to the high tech countries. In the US and Europe, the wireless industry also hopes to bypass the problematic “last mile” that is hampering the spread of broadband data to people’s homes. Current wire line carriers are having trouble meeting the data demand — it is estimated that the data needs of 750,000 multi-tenant buildings in the US are being ignored. Improvements in digital technology promise to deliver data at a rate of 2 Mbps in the near future.