The plans to develop a wireless package for providing voice, data and messaging services.

Four US high-tech firms on Monday announced an alliance to develop a wireless package that would provide voice, data and messaging services on the Internet. The tie-up links Nextel Communications, a wireless communications provider, Netscape, a software provider, Unwired Planet, which makes servers and microbrowsers for the wireless industry, and the electronics systems giant Motorola. A joint statement from the firms said the project would enable users to access the Internet via portable telephone and to treat voice and data on their laptop or stationary computers. The completed package will be known as Nextel Online, a wireless Internet portal capable of extending Internet services to mobile phone customers. It will combine Netscape_s Custom NetCenter and its electronic commerce software, through which businesses can create their own portals, according to the statement. The system will make use of a Motorola portable telephone, the i1000 plus, expected to be released in mid-1999. The statement described the device as "the first integrated handset to support Internet access". In a separate announcement on Monday, Motorola said it had also joined Cisco Systems, which built networks for Internet access, in an endeavour to extend the reach of the Internet through cellular phones and other wireless devices. The two companies will spend up to $US1 billion over the next five years to make the Internet as accessible over wireless networks as through computers and telephone lines.