Keep Your Business Rolling By Making Your Car An Office On Wheels.

By Mike Hogan

Does it feel like you spend more time in your car than in your office? You’re not alone—even if you don’t carpool. A recent wide-ranging study by The Dieringer Research Group revealed that almost 21 million Americans work in their automobiles. Of course, entrepreneurs can be found “mobile working” just about anywhere—in airplanes, trains and even parks.

The continuous stream of laptops, cell phones and all things portable has left us pretty well-outfitted. The only thing missing is a place to plug them in—and I’m not talking about an AC power outlet. Most new cars are equipped with outlets for electronics, and there are plenty of aftermarket addons. The thing that will take mobile working to the next level is a broadband internet onramp—a wireless one is just around the corner.

As cellular providers build out their 3G networks by year-end and more hard hardware vendors exploit that availability, you’ll be able to wander just about anywhere.

You can already find 400Kbps to 700Kbps service in more than 200 metro areas, with 100Kbps-plus speeds pretty much everywhere in between. Bandwidth will increase and prices will fall next year as Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) and other multi-megabit-per-second networks like Flash/OFDM come into their own.

Your telecomputing gear won’t need to change much. At most, you may want laptop, phone or printer/fax/copier versions that fit your car’s ergonomics and connectivity options—or maybe accessories that make it easier to dock and undock your tools as you dash in and out of your mobile office. The other necessary piece of equipment is a short-range wireless network in and around your car.

You may soon see more Wi-Fi/3G router combinations. But fully half of all automobile brands are already building 1Mbps Bluetooth connectivity into at least some of their models, says Phil Magney, co-founder and principal analystof Telematics Research Group, a research and data firm in Minneapolis. Carmakers have long design cycles, and

Bluetooth was settled on before the arrival of 480Mbps Wireless USB. But Bluetooth is fast enough to connect digital entertainment systems to widely available Bluetooth enabled phones and computers, says Magney.

New models let you voice-dial a docked cell phone or choose a number from an automatically synced contact list in your car’s entertainment system. Incoming calls automatically mute music on the radio and can be answered using a steering wheel button. In-dash information displays are designed for safe access to in-vehicle communications and navigation systems. At some point, maps, directions and various menu options could be transparent images on your windshield. GPS-based navigation is on its way to becoming standard automobile equipment, says Magney, as are satellite radio and connections to iPods and other MP3 players.

Late-model cars already use computers to electronically control braking, steering and other major systems. Digital entertainment systems are adding DVDs, LCDs, and magnetic and flash drives to the cabin. This time next year, says Magney, we’ll see car-top antenna packages with various combinations of “cellular, GPS, Wi-Fi and WiMAX—you name it.”

We really don’t have that far to travel before your car will be outfitted just about as well as your office or home.

Mike Hogan is Entrepreneur magazine’s technology editor. You can reach him at mhogan@entrepreneur.com.