The truck-mounted wireless PCs will soon be configured with Citrix clients to avoid bogging down the connection with e-mail or file downloads. "That will give a lot of relief to bandwidth congestion, even for reading e-mail from the truck," Womer says. And the truck-based devices, which also run their own Oracle database applications, are only handling text-based data, not GUIs. Once a service call is complete, an Atmos technician inputs the data into the customer information application, which then passes it to Atmos' electronic-billing system.

Getting the wireless devices up and running wasn't easy. "There's getting connected in the first place, then the speed at which you maintain that connection," Womer says. "And cellular can be flaky--you always have to be aware of potential disturbances," such as a nearby transformer that can interfere with the mobile connection, he says.

Aside from the usual hiccups associated with any cellular connection, there were configuration issues. First, Atmos had to decipher modem-configuration problems, especially with the signal strength. Womer and his colleagues found that the higher the modem speed, the longer it took the modem to negotiate compression rates. "The modem was so busy negotiating compression that it wasn't transmitting any data," Womer says.

The solution was to lock the modems into a lower transmission rate, which made the devices more reliable. All of Atmos' cell modems today are set at 4,800 bits per second, using little or no compression. "Not having compression doesn't hurt since it's mostly text transmissions," Womer says.

Then there were the interference glitches, with everything from connections dropped when a truck was parked near a power transformer to bumpy roads knocking out a connection. "We had to make sure we had noise filters built into the power supply to avoid electrical interference within the trucks," Womer says.

Today, Atmos' Unix-based order and scheduling application automatically dispatches field technicians via pagers or cell phones, and they then log onto the Windows 95 mobile computers mounted in their trucks for information on a customer call. "If a customer smells gas or thinks there's a leak, it gets flagged as an emergency, and the application checks on which technician is available and alerts him or her," Womer says.

Many field technicians also soon will have their office networking converted from frame relay to VPN (virtual private network) connections. "When they get to the office, they can plug into the network from anywhere," Womer says. The VPN should save Atmos on its WAN costs, too.