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FierceWiFi February 22, 2006
- Mobile WiMax arrives in Europe
- Proxim offers new line of 3.5 GHz WiMax products
- Trend: New mini mobile network operators to emerge
- Chicago's brand of muni-WiFi
- Swedish company shows smallest WiFi chip set
- SPOTLIGHT: WiFi fleecing in London?
- ALSO NOTED: Nortel enters Australia WLAN hardware market; Pune, India, subcontinent's first WiFi-enabled city; and much more...
Mobile WiMax arrives in Europe
Almeria, Cartagena, Alicante, Valencia--four good reasons to go to sunny, enchanting southeastern Spain. For those interested in WiMax deployment, there is now another reason. Spanish operator Codium Networks, an independent integrator specializing in WiMax-driven network solutions, will use Navini Networks equipment to deploy a broadband wireless network in the region. Thousands of subscribers for the alternative telco Voz y Dato will receive service through the new network. Voz y Dato …
Proxim offers new line of 3.5 GHz WiMax products
Proxim, a wholly owned subsidiary of Terabeam, has launched a family of WiMax products operating in the 3.5 GHz band. The Tsunami MP.16 offers a modular, scalable approach to system deployment, making these WiMax products suitable for a wider range of service providers, from rural providers to metropolitan providers. Proxim's Lionel Chmilewsky said, "...we have not had a product for the rapidly-growing 3.5 GHz market. By leveraging the radio, mechanical, networking and management …
Trend: New mini mobile network operators to emerge
Interesting news from the U.K.: A new breed of mini mobile network operators will start operation later this year. Carriers are watching this development with interest, if not anxiety, and those investing in WiFi gear are also a bit apprehensive. U.K. regulator Ofcom is offering between seven and 12 low-power licenses which would be suitable for wireless communications in premises such as an office. Ofcom says the licenses will be technology and application neutral, but observers expect …
Chicago's brand of muni-WiFi
Chicago is looking for proposals to build a citywide WiFi network. The Windy City joins others which are moving toward building a WiFi network of their own, among them Philadelphia and San Francisco. New Orleans, too, is using a free WiFi network to attract businesses back to the ravaged city. New Orleans got around the legal issues involved in deploying municipal networks more easily than other cities because its designation as a disaster zone made it exempt from various rules and …
Swedish company shows smallest WiFi chip set
Swedish chip maker Nanoradio has released a new WiFi chip set which, with a total die size of only 20 mm2, must be the smallest, lowest-power WiFi chip set available today. The NRX700 is available for evaluation by key customers. Production quantities are estimated to be available in the third quarter of this year. This is a very good time to come out with a small, power-modest WiFi chip set. There are two trends in the market which require smaller WiFi chips: IP telephony is going mobile …
SPOTLIGHT: WiFi fleecing in London?
Just read what Barry Collins of the London Times has to say about hotspot service: "These days, you don't need to have your credit-card details stolen to be completely ripped off online. The sky-high prices at most of Britain's wireless Internet (WiFi) hotspots is nothing short of scandalous. Frankly, it's a stick-up... Stroll into a Starbucks café with your laptop and click on your Internet browser. Up pops a screen brazenly demanding the princely sum of £5 for …
ALSO NOTED: Nortel enters Australia WLAN hardware market; Pune, India, subcontinent's first WiFi-enabled city; and much more...
> Nortel has entered the crowded WLAN hardware market in Australia with the launch of a range of enterprise-ready convergence products. Report
> Siemens has released Sinema E (Simatic Network Manager Engineering), a software tool for planning, simulation and configuration of industrial WLAN applications. Report
> Pune, …
FierceWiFi February 15, 2006
- Nokia's move to accelerate shift to IP telephony
- Folsom to launch city-wide WiMax "warm zone"
- Metric: WiFi phone market continues to grow
- Alcatel shows mobile WiMax base station
- Intel-GSMA: "To make every notebook SIM ready"
- SPOTLIGHT: Swooping to conquer
- ALSO NOTED: New use for VoWiFi; SIPquest introduced Mobile Console; and much more...
Nokia's move to accelerate shift to IP telephony
You can hear the footsteps of an elephant, and the elephants are heading toward IP telephony. Nokia earlier this week introduced the Nokia 6136 phone, integrating UMA technology, allowing for seamless handover of voice and data connections between GSM cellular and WLAN networks. An operator adding the Nokia 6136 to its offerings will be able to offer customers voice and data services over WLANs.
The important news here is that Nokia, the largest maker of mobile handsets, is …
Folsom to launch city-wide WiMax "warm zone"
Folsom, California, a city of about 62,000 residents, may become the first city in the United States to provide city-wide wireless Internet access using WiMax. A feasibility study commissioned by the city says the city could launch WiMax-based system by fall 2007. Rather than use hundreds of WiFi APs to turn the city into a hot zone, Folsom will use a single base station to create a WiMax "warm zone" allowing free Internet access within the zone. "In terms of municipal wireless, it's …
Metric: WiFi phone market continues to grow
The worldwide WiFi phone market jumped 76 percent between 2004 and 2005 to $102.5 million. It is projected to more than double in 2006 as enterprises steadily, if slowly, continue to deploy VoWLAN, according to Infonetics Research's latest report. Healthy VoWLAN growth is projected through 2009, when WiFi phone revenue will reach nearly $1.9 billion. VoWLAN is making its initial presence in the enterprise, but will eventually become popular with consumers too, and has potential for …
Alcatel shows mobile WiMax base station
Alcatel is using the 3GSM World Congress 2006 to establish itself as an early mobile WiMax solution leader. The company unveiled its Evolium WiMax base station, based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard (formerly known as 802.16e, but the name was changed after the December 2005 draft approval). The base station will be available for commercial network deployments starting mid-2006.
Alcatel's Evolium supports fixed, nomadic, and mobile usage. The company makes the case that, in the …
Intel-GSMA: "To make every notebook SIM ready"
The last piece of news from Barcelona also has to do with convergence: Intel said it launched an initiative to facilitate the adoption of the GSM family of technologies in laptop computers. Such a move will allow users to connect and seamlessly roam across global mobile networks. The GSMA and Intel will collaborate on developing guidelines for integrating 3G modems and SIM cards into laptop computers, enabling automatic connection to both 3GSM networks and WiFi networks around the …
SPOTLIGHT: Swooping to conquer
Mike Matthews, head of product marketing at communications vendor Aculab, says that a new entrant with the right strategic vision and plan may well swoop into and dominate the U.S. VoIP industry during the next five years. This vendor may or may not be based in the U.S., and it may not have yet even been formed. Matthews spoke at an industry panel at the recent Internet Telephony Conference in Florida. "I would suggest we are going to see a player, who many of us will not know the …
ALSO NOTED: New use for VoWiFi; SIPquest introduced Mobile Console; and much more...
> According to a recent In-Stat survey, more than one-third of WiFi users only use free WiFi connections. Will cellular data pricing damper future for-pay WiFi services? Article.
> New use for VoWiFi: Connecting rural communities in Outer Mongolia. Article.
> SIPquest introduced Mobile Console, a …
FierceWiFi February 8, 2006
- Bush's budget plan calls for taxing spectrum licenses
- IBM's millimeter wave frequency breakthrough
- 802.11n modifications to allow speed of 600 Mbps
- , Skype invest $21M in FON
- 2007 federal budget: Communications highlights
- SPOTLIGHT: Another bubble bursting?
- ALSO NOTED: Nokia launches WLAN-capable 9300i smartphone in India; Muni-WiFi for Madison, WI?; and much more...
Bush's budget plan calls for taxing spectrum licenses
The Bush administration has submitted a proposal to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the regulatory body to consider imposing fees on unauctioned spectrum licenses which would yield about $3.6 billion during the next 10 years. Industry analysts initially saw this as an effort to target newer broadband and WiFi services, but a closer analysis shows that there are no plans to tax WiFi. The administration on Monday submitted to Congress its 2007 budget proposal, and the …
IBM's millimeter wave frequency breakthrough
IBM says it has achieved a breakthrough in wireless technology which could lead to a new generation of wireless electronic devices capable of transmitting and receiving at speeds 10 times faster than today's advanced WiFi networks (IBM referred to speeds of up to 630 Mbps). Based on a silicon germanium compound, the chip set, conforming to the 802.15.3c specification, sends and receives information in a portion of the radio spectrum which is currently unlicensed and can carry a much …
802.11n modifications to allow speed of 600 Mbps
The task group responsible for developing the IEEE 802.11n project has voted to accept a joint proposal to amend the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard by adding specifications for new technologies which will raise WLAN connection speeds to as much as 600 Mbps. The task group working on this amendment, IEEE P802.11n (Wireless LAN MAC and PHY Specifications: Enhancements for Higher Throughput) voted unanimously to confirm the joint proposal as a baseline. The project to develop IEEE 802.11n began …
, Skype invest $21M in FON
Madrid-based start-up FON has big plans: It wants to build a global WiFi community which would allow members to share WiFi hotspots so they can access the Internet while traveling. Some big names have given it big money: Skype, and others have invested $21 million in the company. FON will enable its users to synchronize their home WiFi hotspots so that, if they have paid for a broadband connection at home, they will have instant access to all the other hotspots on the FON network. …
2007 federal budget: Communications highlights
The sale of U.S. wireless communications licenses will raise about $25 billion between 2007 and 2009, $7.8 billion more than last year's estimate, according to the 2007 budget submitted to Congress Monday. Here are some of the communication highlights from the proposed 2007 budget:
- The FCC will start selling 90 MHz of wireless airwaves on June 29, an auction which could raise as much as $15 billion.
- The auctioned airwaves will …
SPOTLIGHT: Another bubble bursting?
TODAY'S SPOTLIGH... Another bubble bursting?
It it possible that geeks are falling out of love with PDAs? The numbers do not lie: Despite a seasonal boost over Christmas, global shipments of PDAs decreased by 18.2 percent year-over-year in the last quarter of 2005. Shipments of handheld devices reached 7.5 million in 2005, a 16.7 percent decrease from the 9.1 million units shipped in 2004. Report
ALSO NOTED: Nokia launches WLAN-capable 9300i smartphone in India; Muni-WiFi for Madison, WI?; and much more...
> Nokia has launched the WLAN-capable Nokia 9300i smartphone in India. Release
> WeRoam has agreed to extend AT&T's WiFi roaming capabilities, initially by more than 5,000 new WiFi locations, with up to another 5,000 additional new locations to become available during first quarter 2006. …
FierceWiFi February 1, 2006
- Philly finalizes muni-WiFi plan
- NTT to begin testing WiMax
- Atheros to benefit from China's protectionist move
- TeliaSonera expands Nordic region presence
- Metric: VoWLAN phone market grew 76%
- SPOTLIGHT: Switch to VoWLAN? Not so fast
- ALSO NOTED: Firetide, AWA roll out commercial WLAN in Spain; MetroFi to offer free WiFi in the Valley; and much more...