With many companies scrambling to make their presence known in the wireless world of portable commerce, CellGate comes to the front of the pack with the development of their new CBF-2000 model, a Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) device that is unlike others in the industry. In March, CellGate signed a deal with Tellus Technology for 100,000 units, creating the largest wireless data order ever, for use with their patented cellular service. With such an apparent demand for the product, why did this aspect of wireless technology (specifically designed for Point-of Sale processing commerce) take so long to be developed?

"When you introduce any new technology to the marketplace, the first thing you are going to have are early adopters," explained CellGate's EVP of Sales and Marketing, Terry Stoupa. "These early adopters want to be there at the beginning, to get in on the ground floor. They were here, too. But initially, in the early days of CDPD, the early adopters created workable products/services for specialized ëniche' markets, but did not fully exploit the technology to the extent that they could be scaled up to more mainstream products."

"Our device answers the question, ëWhy hasn't CDPD been able to scale up as the fortunetellers have expected?'" said Stoupa. "Until now, buying a terminal has been only one step in the process. You also have had to have a network agreement with a major carrier, and an application that resides in the terminal supported by the processor. Then customer service has to be able to support that application. It's been expensive and complicatedóthat's one of the main reasons it hasn't scaled up."

In contrast, Cellgate's CBF-2000 cellular digital modem ushers in a new era of low cost, high performance transaction processing services for existing dial-up point-of-sale terminals. One way this is able to happen is because all the hardware you'll need is included as part of CellGate's cellular service. The CBF-2000 is an integrated CDPD modem with proprietary firmware from AT&T that works with any dial terminal or application. Installation is as simple as unplugging the existing terminal phone line from the wall and plugging the phone line into the CBF-2000's RJ11 port.

Simply put, CellGate's program is an easy sell because it doesn't interfere with the way the merchant does business in any way. "There is no new equipment to buy and no new processes," Stoupa said. "When you start looking at changing the economic or support infrastructures of companies, you start looking at resistance in the industry and the marketplace."

"The reason our device is unique is that it's not just a modem," Stoupa said. "There is a significant amount of intelligence in the firmware. That technology essentially spoofs, or emulates, the dial tone. Thus, the terminal and the applications in the terminal think they are doing the same things they were originally designed to do: dial out to a terminal, credit cards, debit, split dial, check authorizationówhatever." Transactions can be processed with the speed and convenience of digital cellular, and at less cost than the business phone line that was replaced, according to Stoupa. "It's an opportunity to take this technology and provide a seamless, easy, end-to-end solution, with no downloads and no training of the merchant and no new equipment. And the punch line is the cost." Stoupa said.

Stoupa said that CellGate's target market is the wire replacement of anyone who is utilizing a standard business telephone line, the average cost of which is $36 a month. "We're taking a look at providing our service to merchants at 70-80% of local business line cost. And with a transaction that is much faster and much more secure than with what they are currently getting."

"If the potential over the next couple of years comes to fruition, then some very exciting new products and services will likely occur," Stoupa said. "It's a natural for the retail and portable ATM industry. Large merchants may some day have CDPD routers, or more enterprise data ówithout the hassles of banks and modems and polling procedures, as they do today. And we've been assured that even if the telecom industry were to change this technology would not be left unsupported. It may be like Windows 95 operating while Windows 3.1 was still active, but this newer technology will just migrate to the next. There will be no problems for others, we just have to be on top of the technology."

And with AT&T Wireless sitting on their board of directors as an equity investor, it is highly unlikely CellGate will be missing out on anything.

CellGate Technologies can be reached at (561) 999-9077, or on the Web at www.cellgate.com. They also promise a noteworthy presence at the ETA conference in Baltimore in August.