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How far away is 3G and what do you think needs to happen to get it going?
To some degree it's a semantics issue...people in Hong Kong and others are going to the next generation. But this vision of streaming video going to the handset--I don't know we're going to see that in the foreseeable future, even in this decade, because the bandwidth is not here.
Is there any future for WAP in its current incarnation?
Absolutely. There's a big misunderstanding. WAP is really like the IETF; it's a forum and protocol definition. It got branded by the industry as the experience. It's not; it's the underlying technology. What happened is we made the mistake of lumping those two things together.
Openwave has been among the most aggressive companies in signing up developers to work with its software standard. And your wireless Net browsing software has been adopted by most of the largest mobile phone carriers in the world. Do you believe you're now the closest thing to a standard Net software that exists for the wireless world?
I think the answer is yes but what we're trying to do and express in our name change is the belief that the open standards approach is the right way to approach a market...We'll get our fair share along the way.
How will the technology develop, that is, you make mobile phone browsers and gateways to servers for wireless browsing. How do you think the innovation is going to manifest itself for regular users?
In the first half of 2002, you'll see support for customers of integrated messaging technology that makes it easier to extend current messaging onto your phone. One example, the way our Internet messaging works, you could be on the phone, having an IM chat with someone at work, walk into your home, turn on the PC and keep the chat going.
You've remained profitable since fiscal second quarter of last year. In that time, the telcos have been whacked hard and the sales in the sector have taken a fall. Are you sticking with your current sales and earnings projections?
We're staying with 43 cents per share earnings. We told Wall Street that 10 percent to 20 percent growth will be on the low end of the quarter. Not to say it's not a struggle day in and day out, week in, week out. We're one of very few companies maintaining our guidance.
How has the slowdown affected the pace of acceptance of wireless internet usage?
The ability to sell technology for technology's sake has entirely changed. You can't sell to the CTO anymore; you have to sell to the CEO.
You're a former Cisco exec. Do you think your former company will ever regain its luster?
I think Cisco has been and will continue to be a world-class company. We all need to be mindful, looking at companies with the eyes of the late 1990s. I' m not sure any of us will get back to that level of exuberance.
Seems that a fair number of Cisco execs are becoming former Cisco execs. Is there a brain drain in the making?
In all companies, there are ebbs and flows. Clearly, this change in the market environment causes people to think about what they'll do and do next. I think it's just the normal change of companies.
One of your extracurricular activities is your role as chairman for NetAid. This is part of a drive to use Net technology to help wipe out global poverty?
The idea is to engage them in programs that have a long-term view of wiping out global poverty. It's hard to quantify but one measure is the number of people involved in advocacy. The other program is online volunteering and we have a lot more volunteers than programs.
Have your fellow CEOs in Silicon Valley gotten the spirit yet or do you still need to do some more evangelizing?
I think we need to do more evangelizing. We're launching a program called the global schoolhouse to get kids in developing nations into schools, and one of our new programs is to get corporations more involved. We're going to organizations who have global constituencies, and generally they're looking for programs to get their employees engaged on a global base.
So how are you doing?
How are we doing? Well, like any dot-com, we've realigned--but we're doing well with funding. And we've got a lot of people focused on making this into a go. We've got bright, talented people and think we can get some engagement going. 
