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Philly finalizes muni-WiFi plan
The age of muni-WiFi is here. Yes, we already have small towns across the country offering WiFi to residents, typically in downtown and tourist areas, but they are not Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love has reached an agreement with EarthLink to turn large parts of the city into a huge WiFi hotspot. The contract calls for the company to own the 135-sq.-mi. network, with EarthLink to pay the city for rights to locate transmitters on city light posts. Details of the 10-year contract …
NTT to begin testing WiMax
NTT, Japan's largest telecommunications group, will begin testing WiMax technology next month. Various NTT groups will work together on trials of WiMax technology. The tests will examine issues such as actual throughput and potential interference to other services. This may--emphasis on may--not be good news for 3G. Recently, NTT DoCoMo said it would push the 3G technology WCDMA to faster speeds. The plan was to have this Super 3G service offer data transmission rates as high as …
Atheros to benefit from China's protectionist move
They say that when you have relations with an 800-lb. gorilla, you stop not when you want to, but when the gorilla does. My friends who have business relations in China say this more or less captures their experience, too. The Chinese government will announce that local organizations receiving funding from the Chinese Ministry of Information will have to buy wireless equipment based on an indigenous wireless network standard. Non-compliant vendors may find themselves unable to sell their …
TeliaSonera expands Nordic region presence
A year ago, a bridge over the Baltic Sea connecting Sweden and Denmark was opened. A good thing, too, as business relations between the two countries become even more intimate. The latest development is that Swedish operator TeliaSonera has acquired Danish WLAN company YesIHotspot, in the process cementing its leadership position in Scandinavia. The Swedish company now owns 180 hotspots and a nationwide EDGE network in Denmark, placing it in a good position to become a big wireless …
Metric: VoWLAN phone market grew 76%
The worldwide WiFi phone market grew 76 percent between 2004 and 2005 to $102.5 million. It is projected to more than double in 2006 as enterprises continue to deploy VoWLANs (see "Today's Spotlight"), 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 will initially be an enterprise application but will soon become popular with consumers, too and has potential for enormous …
SPOTLIGHT: Switch to VoWLAN? Not so fast
The past two decades have seen a revolution in telephony, infusing new meaning into the concept "any time, anywhere" connectivity. Businesses know they can increase productivity and improve customer service with mobile voice communications within their facilities, and most companies have long used cellular phones to deliver this capability. As WLANs have solved most of their security and QoS problems and begun to take hold in the corporate sector, enterprises have started to …
ALSO NOTED: Firetide, AWA roll out commercial WLAN in Spain; MetroFi to offer free WiFi in the Valley; and much more...
> Mesh networking specialist Firetide and Spanish WLAN operator AWA will roll out commercial WLAN and mesh networks for voice and data services in Spain. Release
> Mountain View, CA-based MetroFi will offer free WiFi connections across multiple Silicon Valley cities. …
FierceWiFi January 25, 2006
- IEEE approves EWC 802.11n as first draft
- Trend: WiMax has arrived
- Ubiquiti shows 900 MHz mini-PCI radio module
- Pre-802.11n to drive home WLAN market in 2006
- U.S. leads world in hotspots; SF leads U.S.
- SPOTLIGHT: WiMax companies join OBSAI
- ALSO NOTED: Nintendo WiFi users hit 3M; Future of UWB unclear; and much more...
IEEE approves EWC 802.11n as first draft
In October 1942, the pivotal battle for control of North Africa took place on the planes of Al Alamein in western Egypt. The Allied forces, led by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, defeated the Nazi forces led by General Erwin Rommel. In a speech on November 10, 1942, Winston Churchill referred to the Battle of Al Alamein within the larger context of the war against Germany, saying, "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the …
Trend: WiMax has arrived
Cato the Elder used to end every speech he gave in the Roman Senate, regardless of the topic under discussion, with the words Carthago delenda est--Carthage must be destroyed. I have forgotten my Latin, so I have to resort to Spanish (a Latin language) and say WiMax está viniendo--WiMax is coming. I have certainly repeated this message on these pages, not as persistently and certainly not as eloquently as Cato, but enough times. …
Ubiquiti shows 900 MHz mini-PCI radio module
Here is a clever solution from a very young start-up (with a catchy company motto: "Think Outside the Band"). San Jose, CA-based Ubiquiti Networks, founded in 2005, unveiled a high-power 900 MHz mini-PCI radio module for wireless mesh networking applications based on its patent-pending Frequency Freedom technology. The SuperRange9 (SR9) features 700mW output power capability, -93dBm receive sensitivity, advanced noise mitigation functionality and data throughput of up to 54 Mbps in OFDM …
Pre-802.11n to drive home WLAN market in 2006
The 802.11n first draft was unanimously confirmed last week by the IEEE, but the standard will not be approved until 2007. This will stop consumers from purchasing products based on the 802.11n draft, and their purchases will account for about 15 percent of all home wireless routers shipped in 2006, according to research firm Dell'Oro group. Consumers will buy about 3 million pre-standard 802.11n APs and an equal number of PC Card clients for notebook PCs.
802.11n will offer a …
U.S. leads world in hotspots; SF leads U.S.
I spent some time in Minneapolis a while back, and I still have a book I bought in a downtown book store: Scandinavian Humor and Other Myths (the author is John Louis Anderson, published by Nordbook in 1986, and the chapter on Scandinavian cooking is a must). Now Minnesota has another distinction: The state ranks 18th in the nation with 706 public WiFi hotspots. California leads the rankings (with 6,527), followed by Texas (2,534), Florida (2,427), New York (1,927) and …
SPOTLIGHT: WiMax companies join OBSAI
The Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) aims to create an open market for cellular base stations. An open market will substantially reduce the development effort and costs traditionally associated with creating new base station products. OBSAI had only three members when it was created in 2002. Now it has 130 members. Especially noticeable has been the increase in the number of WiMax companies joining and participating in the integration of WiMax into the currently …
ALSO NOTED: Nintendo WiFi users hit 3M; Future of UWB unclear; and much more...
> Following a deal between BT and Nintendo, Irish users of the game console will be able to enjoy free WiFi access at any one of 270 BT Openzone locations across Ireland, the company said today. Article
> Speaking of Nintendo... Nintendo WiFi users hit 3 million. Report
> Motorola is showing its MOTOMESH, a multi-radio, high …
FierceWiFi January 18, 2006
- Freescale RF LDMOS technology for WiMax in 3.5 GHz
- Cheaper WiMax spectrum leads to surge in licensees
- UWB standard group to disband
- New Windows WiFi security flaw discovered
- Wireless users more cutting-edge than wired ones
- SPOTLIGHT: Aruba challenges Cisco
- ALSO NOTED: NetGear's new RangeMax 240; Airpath Wireless to support Boston public WiFi; and much more...
Freescale RF LDMOS technology for WiMax in 3.5 GHz
Two cheers for Freescale Semiconductor: With its seventh-generation high-voltage (HV7) RF LDMOS technology, it has managed to achieve the RF power amplifier performance required for use in WiMax base stations operating in the 3.5 GHz band. This is another important step forward for WiMax: It appears to be the first time RF Laterally Diffused Metal Oxide Semiconductor (LDMOS) technology from any manufacturer has met these power challenges. Freescale already offers a portfolio of 12V GaAs …
Cheaper WiMax spectrum leads to surge in licensees
Follow the money. The price paid per Hz for WiMax spectrum is 1,000 times lower than for 3G spectrum, according to the latest report from research firm Maravedis.
The much lower cost of WiMax/BWA spectrum has led to a much higher number of licenses awarded for BWA/WiMax relative to those awarded for 3G: 721 BWA/WiMax licenses awarded compared to 106 3G licenses. There are 394 BWA/WiMax license holders in North America, 186 in Europe, 97 in Asia, and 49 in the CALA (Caribbean and …
UWB standard group to disband
Remember Don Meredith? He was on the original team of Monday Night Football commentators, together with Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, and Fran Tarkenton (and before that, a Dallas Cowboys quarterback in the 1960s). At the end of lopsided games, with his heavy Texas drawl, he would begin to sing: "Turn out the lights, the party's over." Meredith may well be in Hawaii now, singing that song to the IEEE 802.15.3a task group on UWB. It appears that after three years of agony, the group will …
New Windows WiFi security flaw discovered
As Saturday Night Live's Rosana Rosanadana would say, "It's always something--if it's not one thing, it's another." Just look at Microsoft's eagerness to help WiFi users by tweaking Windows XP or 2000 so that when a PC or laptop with these operating system boots, it automatically tries to connect to a wireless network. Helpful feature--but also a chink in the system's armor. Here is how it works:
When a PC running Windows XP or Windows 2000 boots up it automatically tries …
Wireless users more cutting-edge than wired ones
We all knew it, but it is good to have a confirmation: Wireless Internet users are more likely than wired users to purchase high-tech items such as MP3s, flat-panel televisions, and portable gaming devices, according to a new Ipsos Insight study. The findings suggest that marketers of high-tech products would do well to target wireless Web users. "'Wireless Webbers' are significantly more likely than those relying on wired broadband or dial-up access to own and use digital content, …
SPOTLIGHT: Aruba challenges Cisco
Now, here is challenge to Cisco: Aruba Networks is coming out with a competitively priced WLAN switch for small businesses. It also adds a high-end management appliance for companies with large WLANs to its Mobile Edge line of products. The Aruba 200 Mobility Controller, which will ship next month, is smaller than a notebook PC, includes Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and supports up to six APs and 100 users. It is very reasonably priced at $1,750 (compared to $4,995 for the …
ALSO NOTED: NetGear's new RangeMax 240; Airpath Wireless to support Boston public WiFi; and much more...
> NetGear has launched its RangeMax 240 range of WiFi products in Australia, claiming they provide users with wireless speeds of up to 240Mbps. Story.
> Boston's public WiFi project has selected Airpath Wireless to supply the planned system's administration and control platform. Report.
> Socket Communications …
FierceWiFi January 11, 2006
- IETF selects Cisco's LWAPP
- Trend: WiMax landscape comes into view
- Staccato shows single-chip, all-CMOS UWB solution
- New WiFi battle front: Airlines vs. airports
- U.K. Parliament mulls wireless connectivity
- SPOTLIGHT: Home life without wires around corner
- ALSO NOTED: Accton to show first WiFi VoIP phone; Nintendo to release WiFi version of Tetris; and much more...
IETF selects Cisco's LWAPP
Size matters, but then, perhaps it does not. Cisco's LWAPP (lightweight access point protocol) has been selected as the basis for a standard which will control WiFi APs in enterprise networks. We should use the word "control" carefully here because it is not clear how much sway this new standard will have. LWAPP was selected by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which has been working for a while now on the CAPWAP (control and provisioning of wireless access points) protocol. As …