As of this morning, I have seen, with an announcement by 24/7 Europe, the seventh sign of the Internet apocalypse: banner ads on cell phones.

This week has seen an explosion of announcements about the provision of Net content to cellular hardware. This is due, of course, to the Wireless 2000 conference in New Orleans this week, and in some part to the CeBIT conference in Germany last week. Tech companies love showcases.

Among the many partnerships/alliances/content deals revealed lately: Ericsson and Palmtop Software will provide Location Based Information Services (LBIS) on Ericsson cell phones. These services include maps, and eventually, restaurant information from Michelin. Oracle will create a portal to be called OracleMobile.com (though they don't yet own that domain name) to amalgamate and condense popular Web content for cell phones. BellSouth and Sun announced that BellSouth will create pagers and cell phones with Java technology built in, and that they will run their back-end services with Sun software, allowing more Java content on wireless devices. (In other news, now BellSouth and global telecomm beheamoth SBC are talking marriage for their wireless properties, which would give them the kind of reach now enjoyed by AT&T and Sprint PCS). AOL, which needs to get bigger like King Kong needs to get bigger, is creating a division to be called AOL Wireless, and rolling out agreements with Sprint PCS, BellSouth, and Nokia to provide AOL email, Instant Messaging, and other content on phones.

Now, the kid in me, the one that has always loved and been fascinated with gizmos, is giddy at the thought of all this content being available at the touch of a button. Forget AT&T's campaign that said your cellular could be your only phone. Your cellular could end up being your only communication device, computer included. In a word, cool.

But the very practical side of me is scared to death at the prospect of all this content being available at the touch of a button. Is it wise to consolidate all this data in one (small) place?

Of course, there are valid journalistic objections too. As it stands, briefs are becoming more and more the standard for Web reporting. One can only imagine what a daily news rundown on a tiny cellular screen might look like. 'People shot. Economy good. News at 11.' And with content providers fighting for real estate on phones, data is getting bumped further and further down in favor of ads. When the needs for ads gets greater, what gets shrunk even more? If you guessed Joe.com's E-commerce logo that they paid millions to have designed, guess again. The news will be the thing that gives up real estate.

Cellular content also looks somewhat incestuous. Three of the biggest shareholders in Palm will be AOL, Motorola, and Nokia. We already know from above that AOL and Nokia have their own little love match. Microsoft was busy on Monday, announcing a deal to provide MSN content to AirTouch and Nextel cell phones, and unveiling a new alliance with Qualcomm to develop wireless devices. Everyone in this business is trying hard to have their cake and eat it too. Competitors are buying stakes in each other, just in case one of them hits big time.

The question becomes whether or not people really need all of this content at all times. For most people, ordering a book is not so pressing that it has to be done, with all the labor involved of typing on a cell phone, in the middle of the day, and to the exclusion of other activities. Trading stocks is a different story, but if the economy weren't on such fire right now, there would be far less call for these kinds of services -- people would not be so hot to watch the ticker and trade all day long. What happens when the economy reverses - and rest assured it will at some point - and we live in the conditions of nine years ago? Will people even be able to afford these kinds of services? They certainly won't be paying to get the news at their fingertips; as long as radio is alive and well, and the Internet still works, the news can be readily gotten most anywhere anyway.

Chris Gent, the chairman of Vodafone AirTouch (which after its merger with Mannesmann will control 12 percent of the world's cellular), says he is bothered by what he perceives to be the slow pace of his company's growth in the States. Consider his annoyance in light of the fact that, as of April 1, AirTouch's joint operation with BellAtlantic will make the team the largest wireless provider in the country by a 2-1 margin.

If Gent thinks cellular is moving slowly, he needs to take a long, hard look around. Cellular is here, for better or for worse - and it will continue to grow like wildfire. The technology will improve, the reach will increase, and before long cellular connectivity will become an indispensible part of peoples' lives. The future really is now.