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Pioneering muni-WiFi's early struggles
The city of St. Cloud, FL, launched what analysts say is the country's first free citywide WiFi network. These analysts may have their own definition of "free," but residents of this 28,000-person Orlando suburb are still paying to use their own Internet service providers as dead spots and weak signals keep some residents offline and force engineers to retool the free system. St. Cloud is a small town, but the troubles with the small town's big Internet project may hold lessons for …
Motorola to offer downloadable support for 802.11s
Motorola has a leading position in the mesh networking universe, so it is important to note that the company said its MeshConnex technology will add support for the final IEEE 802.11s meshing standard through an over-the-air software download. The 802.11s standard aims to define common features and ensure interoperability among mesh equipment vendors. Motorola has been a contributor to the 802.11s mesh standard and is active in the deliberations of the IEEE ESS Mesh Networking Task Group …
Trend: Handsets will be doing more with more
Doing more with less is the motto of the frugal set, but in the handset market they will be doing more with more. A new report from the Linley Group says the next-generation of feature phones and smart phones will deliver advanced functionality using highly integrated, complex chips which include application processors and baseband functions, often on the same device, and multimedia engines and other handset interfaces. These advanced processors will allow newer phones to play 3D games, …
WiMAX Watch: Broadband in Africa
What is it they said about the missionaries who went to Africa to do good, and did very well? The same may eventually be said of WiMAX service providers. For now, Malcolm Brew, technical director of Uganda-based Bushnet, says: "There is no such thing as the digital divide in Africa... All the technology, like GPRS, is already here. Where there is a divide is in the content that is available to users." Bushnet provides wireless connections to users in Uganda and is considered a pioneer in …
802.16e revenues to reach $53B by 2011
Follow the money. WiMAX services will generate $53 billion in mobile revenue in 2011 and will generate $65 billion in mobile capital expenditures between now and then. These are the conclusions of a new report from TelecomView. The report analyzes the market for 3G and WiMAX in mobile networks with forecasts through 2011, along with a business case which illustrates the benefits of WiMAX architecture in high-speed mobile networks.
"We forecast that WiMAX will account for at least …
SPOTLIGHT: More draft-n products
Linksys is showing its draft 802.11n wireless products, based on the IEEE draft 802.11n standard, thus joining Netgear and Buffalo Technology as vendors with draft-n products. Linksys said its Wireless-N Broadband Router (WRT300N, about $150) and Notebook Adapter (WPC300N, about $120) are available at BestBuy.com, with other locations to be available shortly. The company says the new equipment offers up to four times the range and up to 12 times the throughput of its wireless-g products. …
ALSO NOTED: Intel, PacNet team to deploy 802.16e in Singapore; AdventNet releases version 4.3 of ManageEngine WiFi Manager; and
> Intel and Pacific Internet (PacNet), a large Asia-Pacific ISP, have teamed up to deploy a 802.16e-based network in Singapore. Article
> AdventNet announced support for more than 70 models of APs, with the release of version 4.3 of ManageEngine WiFi Manager. Report
Editor's Corner
A brief note to mention that our WiMAX event, WiMAX Strategies @ GLOBALCOMM, is gaining more momentum. We recently signed a partnership with the WiMAX Forum to fully endorse the event. You can see the agenda has been populated with several big names who …
UMA is coming
Mobile VoIP technology is marching forward. WiFi telephones and walkie-talkie-like communicators have been used in hospitals and offices for a while, but now manufacturers and mobile carriers are getting ready to link cellular networks to the myriad WiFi hotspots dotting urban landscapes. This linking will expand coverage and make for cheaper mobile minutes. The technology used for such linking is unlicensed mobile access, or UMA. UMA transmits cellular information packets through the …
802.11n hogs bandwidth
You win some, you lose some. Next-generation 802.11n WiFi offers very fast data rates, but these will be achieved only by hogging bandwidth in channels already congested with 802.11b and 802.11g links, industry experts say. Existing WiFi standards use 20 MHz channels, and users can double the data rate by doubling this bandwidth. Proprietary turbo modes on some 802.11g devices do just this by "bonding" two channels, something akin to using two lines instead of one on a crowded …
Motorola improves wireless broadband position
Lead with your strength. Motorola is moving aggressively to strengthen its wireless broadband position. The latest move: It is acquiring U.K. manufacturer Orthogon Systems. The price was not disclosed. Orthogon specializes in equipment using OFDM technology for point-to-point high-speed wireless network connections. OFDM has many advantages, chief among them the fact that it uses several radio bands, thus making it more resistant to noise; it can also overcome physical obstacles …
Silvus offering soft cores for WiFi
"Speak softly and carry a big stick" is how Theodore Roosevelt described his approach to foreign policy. This is also the approach of Los Angeles-based Silvus Communication Systems to WiFi. The start-up, spun out of UCLA, is developing soft cores for next-generation wireless systems ranging from WiFi to software-defined and cognitive radios. The first commercial product of the company will help developers of next-generation WiFi chip sets and systems. The company has developed the VHDL …
Calif. city goes WiFi, waits for wireless project
Foster City, CA, will likely contract Mountain View, CA-based MetroFi, a four-year old start-up, to roll out a metro-wide WiFi network in the city. WiFi transmitters could be installed by October on 100 streetlight poles if the city council approves the contract. MetroWiFi has already installed city-wide WiFi networks in Aurora, IL, and Santa Clara, Cupertino and Sunnyvale, CA. The company has also been selected by Portland, OR, to install muni-WiFi in that city (where it beat EarthLink …
SPOTLIGHT: WiFi tracking to grow fast
WiFi is increasingly being used in location tracking applications and WiFi asset tags are expected to reach almost 2 million shipments in 2010, according to a report by In-Stat. The WiFi location tracking market is only just beginning and In-Stat says "many highly changeable factors will decide how fast it grows over the next few years." The tags are used in WiFi real-time location systems, which use WiFi APs to locate devices with external WiFi tags or devices with embedded WiFi. So …
ALSO NOTED: Nokia 770 review; Motorola joins Wi-Fi Alliance; and much more...
> Here is the Washington Post review's verdict on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet: "It Does Little, and Not Very Well." Review
> Motorola has joined the Wi-Fi Alliance. Report
> Siemens announced the availability of HiPath Wireless Manager Advanced, a modular extension for the Siemens HiPath Wireless …
Michigan county deploys 802.16e network
In what Unstrung's Richard Martin rightly calls "one of the most significant WiMAX deployments to date," regional Midwest service provider Arialink Broadband says it will build out a broadband wireless network for all of Muskegon County, MI, using 802.16e equipment from Samsung. Muskegon County borders Lake Michigan. It is about 200 miles northeast of Chicago and 200 miles northwest west of Detroit. The network is a public-private partnership funded by a $2.2 million federal …
Clearwire launches VoIP over WiMAX network
One thing we know about Craig McCaw: He moves fast, and he moves with purpose. As of Monday, Clearwire's customers in Stockton, CA, are able to subscribe to a new service which will enable phone services over the Internet. Clearwire says it is the first widely deployed wireless broadband company to offer VoIP services in the U.S. Clearwire Internet Phone Service is a facilities-based phone service specifically designed for use over the Clearwire broadband network. The service was jointly …
Aruba prepares for IPO
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan described the mid-1990s dot.com period as an era of "irrational exuberance." There is something exuberant--but certainly nothing irrational--about Aruba Networks' near-term plans. The leading independent maker of corporate WLAN gear has reshuffled top management roles in preparation for a potential IPO. The Sunnyvale, CA-based company said president and CEO Don LeBeau would take over as chairman of the company and be replaced by Dominic Orr, …
The dark side of muni-WiFi, continued
Do we hear the sound of another shoe falling? A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the worries of privacy advocates that the "free" muni-WiFi which large companies now offer municipalities is anything but. It may be the case that consumers will not have to pay cash for the Internet connection being offered, but pay they will, in the form of loss of privacy and being bombarded by ads everywhere they go.
As details of 's plans for San Francisco emerge, privacy worries become …
802.11n rush underway
There was the Gold Rush, and now there is the 802.11n rush. Marvell has partnered with Netgear to bring out a chip set complying with the draft 802.11n standard. Until now, WiFi chip set leaders Airgo Networks and Broadcom have brought out MIMO-enhanced WiFi chip sets, but without an 802.11n draft standard, both have been obliged to market the chips as being compliant with 802.11a, b and g. Now, with the draft standard having been published in March, Marvell has jumped into the market …
SPOTLIGHT: Nifty technologies, unproven ROI
VoWiFi is a potentially more reliable, flexible and cheaper alternative to cellular networks for making wireless phone calls within buildings. Dual-mode handsets will even let someone pass from a WiFi network onto a cellular one without dropping a call. That could mean mobile workers will not need a desk phone, since a cell phone shifts to the office network once on campus. Nifty technologies, but how many businesses will see the pay-back to justify building out a WiFi infrastructure …
ALSO NOTED: Freescale pulls out of UWB Forum ; More hotels offering WiFi; and much more...
> Freescale Semiconductor is pulling out of the UWB Forum, which it co-founded with Motorola and Pulse-Link. The forum was founded in 2004 in an effort to rally support around Freescale's direct-sequence UWB signaling and to compete with what has now become the WiMedia Alliance. Report
> More and more hotels now offer WiFi service. Beware: Many hotel networks come with but rudimentary …
FierceWiFi April 5, 2006
- Boeing to sit out FCC airwave auction
- WiMAX Watch: Motorola's 802.16e solution
- NIST certifies Aruba as FIPS 140-2 compliant
- TI shows mWLAN, Bluetooth, FM radio handset
- Intel-Pipex JV to roll out WiMAX in UK
- SPOTLIGHT: Muni-WiFi degrades corporate network security
- ALSO NOTED: Extend WiFi network range; iPass partners with T-Mobile; and much more...