One company that means to accelerate the use of this technology in India is Formulasys Inc, a $55 million global wireless application service provider. It plans to do this through its Indian subsidiary, Formulasys India, which opened its office in Pune, earlier this month.

The mandate for its Indian operations is two-fold -- to help establish wireless technology across industries within the country and help the company build its delivery capabilities for its global operations.

Formulasys India will carry out this mandate through a 'double barrel approach'. Most IT companies are strong on technology and technology implementation, but weak on business strategising, says Mr. Rajeev Karajgikar, president and chief executive of Formulasys India.

Formulasys has worked out a formula to overcome this problem. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Boom Consultants, will play a crucial role.  Boom, made up of management honchos from Stanford, Harvard and the like, is considered to be the 'McKinsey of wireless'. Formulasys will follow subsequently, carrying out the technology implementation.

"Our objective is not to offer quick 'me too' strategies, but cutting edge approaches that impact the business profile of our client companies," says Mr. Ravi Desai, chief executive, Boom Consultants.

Thus, while Boom analyses the pulls and pushes of an organisation and offers a 'viable, profitable, sustainable and a growth-oriented', wireless strategy, Formulasys puts in place the systems and technology to implement it.

The formula has been put to work globally, with the Formulasys group notching up a client list that includes IBM, Dell, American Express, United Airlines and Cox Communications.

Ambitious plans are afoot for Formulasys India, which hopes to grow to 225-person operation by the end of this calendar year, while Formulasys Inc, together with Boom, expects to touch 800 persons from its current strength of 275 during the same period.

The India operations will have a crucial role in this growth. "We have more projects than we can handle. Our India operations will help us build on our project management and delivery capability," says a Formulasys official.

In the Indian context, supply chain management in the manufacturing sector and online brokerage, online banking and insurance in the financial sector will be the areas of initial focus for Formulasys' wireless strategies, while sectors like retail, airlines and exports would follow next.

"With supply chain management costs accounting for between 10 to 25 per cent of a project cost, a wireless strategy for supply chain management in India offers enormous potential," says Mr. Desai.

Similarly, India offers a large enough consumer market for online brokerage, online banking on a wireless mode. "There are tons of opportunities," says Mr. Desai.

Its first strategy consultation and implementation would be with a 'large business house' in financial services which will use wireless mode for brokerage, banking, investment banking and insurance says Mr. Desai, while declining to name the organisation.

Wireless experts may argue that screen sizes (of wireless devices) are small, bandwidth limited, and that wireless applications have not yet gained the traction that was expected. But it is true that Internet content and advanced value added services on wireless devices is a reality, and is here to stay. This technology can play a significant role especially in a country like India, where last mile connectivity is a major stumbling block.

So get set to pack your PCs and rip the wires, you can still stay connected.