The increased adoption of wireless technology in routine business operations has driven down costs and increased customer satisfaction, according to a new opinion poll of manufacturing companies.The phenomenon is being fueled by the availability of push-to-talk service, wireless local area networks and a desire by companies to extend their wireless barcode scanning capabilities to be ready for RFID applications. The survey, commissioned by Nextel Communications Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. polled 76 top manufacturing executives and found that the industry’s top four uses of wireless technology are cellular calling for executives and sales staff (100%), push-to-talk service (59%), BlackBerry devices (68%) and barcode scanning (78%).

Fifty-five percent of respondents identified geographic coverage as the primary criterion for selecting a wireless carrier, far outpacing data network speeds (18%) and pricing (17%).

 …