Companies Form Alliance to Support ReFLEX-Enabled PDA Development

Several of the wireless industries largest paging carriers and manufacturers have formed an alliance to develop and market personal digital assistants (PDAs) embedded with Motorola's ReFLEX two-way messaging technology. The primary goal of the group, called the Personal Communicator Wireless Alliance, is to work with PDA manufacturers to create a variety of handheld devices that provide two-way messaging for customers.

In addition to working with PDA manufacturers, members of the alliance have committed to the use of open architectures based on Internet standards. According to the alliance, this will allow ReFLEX–enabled PDAs to communicate with each other across multiple networks.

Companies involved in the Personal Communicator Wireless Alliance include Motorola (Schaumburg, IL), Glenayre (Charlotte, NC), AirTouch Paging (Dallas), Arch Communications Group (Westbourough, MA), Conxus (Greenville, SC), Metrocall (Alexandria, VA), MobileComm (Fort Lee, NJ), PageMart Wireless (Dallas), PageNet (Dallas), SkyTel (Jackson, MS), and TSR Wireless (Fort Lee, NJ). Each carrier in the alliance has nationwide narrowband PCS (N-PCS) licenses and has either completed construction, is constructing, or plans to construct systems using ReFLEX technology.