Armed with a portable PC and a mobile phone, I have been maintaining a brisk electronic correspondence from the beaches of Singapore's Sentosa iland resort, exchanging e-mail while bouncing along in a limousine taxi to Kuala Lumpur, surfing the web between laps at my local swimming pool and filing articles while sunbathing at the Grand Hyatt in Yogyakarta.

These perilous feats of toil al fresco are possible thanks to a lightweight cable that connect my mobile phone to a credit-card sized PCMCIA card in my PC, turning my phone into a wireless modem. Getting this simple combination of equipment to work wasn't simple. First, I had to pay about S$400 (US$2240) for the PCMCIA card and cable from the same company that made my mobile phone. Then Ihad to install the company's complicated software in my PC. Third, I needed to apply to my cellular operator to use wireless data, a privilege that adds roughly S$20 to my monthly cellular bill before I've sent a single message. Lastly, I had to figure out how to tell my PC's Windows 95 operating system to use the mobile phone to dial and log-in to my internet service provider - a process so difficult I eventually gave up and called my cellular operator for help.

Now, for a long as my PC's battery will hold out, I can get on-line wherever my phone works. That widens my cubicle to include all of Singapore, Hong Kond and pretty much anywhere else the global system for mobile communications (GSM) standard is in use at 900 megahertz, i.e. every populated part of the planet but Japan, South Korea and the Americas, where operators use incompatible cellular standards or frequencies. Connecting wirelessly is certainly convenient, not to mention liberating. But given the expense and complexity of setting it up,it's little wonder less than five per cent of mobile phone user use their mobile phones for exchanging data.That may change this year, as the cellular industry finally removes some of the biggest drawbacks to wireless data connections. Hongkong Telecom, for example, expects the number of its customers using wireless data to jump to 10 per cent in the next two years from roughly three per cent today. It's so confident of a rush of new data users (and so eager to prod customers along) that this month it announced it would stop charging HK$400 ($52) a month extra to use the service. Now using wireless data is included in what the company changes for its high-end, "1010" service.

One problem with using wireless data is that it always has been pretty graceless - fumbling with a PC and cable on a cafe table doesn't exactly broadcast coolness. There are alternatives. There are PCMCIA cards with antennas that plyg directly into your portable PC. And the latest mobile phones feature an infrared connection to a PCthat obviates the need for a physical link altogether. But the PCMCIA cards require that you either maintain a separate cellular subscription or swap the SIM card computer chip from your phone to your modem when you use it, Making an infrared connection requires that you keep the little red IR panels on your phone and PC eye-to-eye, something that can be difficult to do on a small table or while jostling in a taxi.

Before that, though, operators will be improving on another major drawback to wireless data transmission - speed. So far, GSM phones only transmit data at 9,600 bits per second, which is mind-numbingly slow compared with the 56,000 bps possible with the latest dial-up modems. But by April, both Hongkong Telecom and Singapore Telecom are hoping to start offering services for a new generation of GSM phones that will permit phones to beam data at no less than 14,400 bps, and, with a bit of finagling by the network, at speeds of up to 57,600 bps.

By arrangement with The Wall StreetJournal