Weather Channel, Air2Web offer wireless Doppler

ATLANTA -- The Weather Channel has selected wireless platform provider Air2Web to build and support its new Doppler Radar application for Java-enabled wireless phones.

The imagery and data provided is described as an even more robust version of the radar content that can be found on weather.com, a leading source of weather on the Web and the Web site of The Weather Channel. The new interactive application is now available to Sprint wireless customers with Vision-enabled PCS Phones. The Weather Channel has plans to provide the service through other major U.S. carriers over the next several months.

Users can enter a city name or Zip code for 80,000 locations worldwide into their Java-enabled phone and then receive real-time radar images for the specific location and surrounding areas. Another interactive feature allows consumers to pan up and down and left and right. Users also have the ability to zoom in for a 75 mile view of their target location to find out current weather conditions or zoom out to 1,200 miles, to anticipate conditions approaching within the next few minutes or hours.

Hourly forecasts

Additionally, consumers can view hour-by-hour forecasts, complete with graphical imagery, as well as extended forecasts. Users can also obtain severe weather reports on their Java phones, and users can choose to view temperatures in either Metric or English unit systems. 

"The Weather Channel's new Doppler Radar application is one of the most interesting uses of wireless technology out on the market today," said Sanjoy Malik, president and CEO of Air2Web. "They have truly raised the bar when it comes to utilizing technology in order to better serve customers."

The launch of this new service adds to the content that The Weather Channel has provided to consumers through the top five wireless carriers and other well-known mobile service providers since 1998. 

"The Weather Channel understands how important it is to partner with best of breed companies, like Air2Web, to ensure that our customers receive technologically savvy products and services from a well-known brand like ours," said Joe Fiveash, senior vice president of product and business development for weather.com. "As we continue to expand our product offerings, we will turn to Air2Web for both product development and execution."

The Weather Channel is owned by Landmark Communications, Inc., a Norfolk, Virginia.-based privately held media company with global interests.

14 million users

weather.com, the Web site of The Weather Channel (TWC), is the world's largest source of weather on the Web. Averaging 350 million page views and 14 million unique users per month, weather.com reaches an extended network of users through multiple geographies, platforms and strategic partnerships. 

Consistently, weather.com ranks among the top 20 of all Web sites, the top five news and information sites and the number three cable television-related Web sites (Nielsen//NetRatings). weather.com is also the leading provider of broadband and wireless weather products via high-speed Internet services, phones, pagers, Palm Pilots, and other personal digital assistants. 

Partnerships include America Online, Yahoo!, USAToday.com, AT&T WorldNet, ABCNews.com, Digital City, Road Runner, Verizon Wireless, Cingular, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Nextel, AvantGo and Palm Computing. The Weather Channel continues to expand its international reach online with the launch of language-specific sites for the United Kingdom (weather.co.uk), Germany (wetter123.com), France (meteo123.com), Latin America (weather.com/espanol) and Brazil (canaldotempo.com). 

Air2Web is a privately held company based in Atlanta and reports having 70 deployments in production with blue-chip clients providing wireless enabled financial applications, critical field force applications, customer relationship management, m-commerce, e-mail and subscription-based content services. These deployments account for over 240,000 mobile subscribers generating 8.4 million application accesses per month. 

In addition, our wireless applications span 30 countries and 27 languages, underscoring Air2Web's leadership in functionality, scalability and global capabilities. Customers include companies such as Delta Employees Credit Union, BellSouth, Digital Insight, Hoover's, ADC Telecommunications, Lexmark International, Magnet Bank, eBay, Best Western International, UPS, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Crowne Plaza hotels, the Weather Channel, CBS SportsLine, and other leading finance, travel & hospitality, media and entertainment, health care, retail, and transportation companies.