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The big media companies are at the forefront of the wireless revolution, and the first to try to pull profits out of thin air.

What’s a more user-friendly medium for distributing news: a papyrus scroll or a desktop computer? One is handheld, portable, easy to scan. The other you boot up, log onto an ISP, type in a URL, wait for it to download… There’s a reason why scrolls dominated for nearly 3,000 years.

Now along comes an invention that combines the best features of both: the palm-sized, connected mobile device. You don’t have to be Arthur C. Clarke to see the handwriting on the screen.

It’s also easy to understand why big media companies have been among the first to take a leap of faith into the next era of content delivery. The thirst for news-with its concurrent possibilities of revenue generation-goes on 24 hours a day. Result: Media companies have vowed to be at the forefront of the next digital wave.

“The [wireless news delivery] market is where the Web was in late 1995,” says Lucas Graves, a Web analyst for Jupiter Communications. “As the market takes off, there will be an opportunity for a few early arrivals to make a killing. However, a lot of the big portal, ecommerce, and media companies are going to dive in to extend their brands and revenue streams.” Estimates of the total number of handheld computers on the market by 2003 range from 40 million to 60 million. Within five years, predicts Graves, for the general consumer, “getting handheld content will be just as important as getting it from your desktop.”

Meanwhile, news providers stumble bravely and blindly ahead even while viable revenue models remain elusive and big questions remain about what kind of content people desire and how they will want it delivered. As pioneers, they will be closely watched by other content and service providers who hope to profit from their inevitable, and inevitably expensive, mistakes.

Together with the international calling cards, you may save money, since you can simply check your bill.