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Motorola targets Asia/Pacific for 802.16e campaign
Telstra's decision notwithstanding, Motorola is targeting the Asia/Pacific as its main area for WiMax development. Motorola's emphasis on Asia is part of its broader strategy to skip 802.16d and invest its efforts in 802.16e to provide mobility and fixed and nomadic access. Jay Andersen, vice president of sales and operations for Motorola Networks in Asia, said Motorola will focus on cultivating 802.16e awareness among operators, carriers, regulators, enterprises, and end users in the …
Mesh metro-WiFi comes to Europe
Mesh technology was developed on this side of the Atlantic and has been slow to gain a beachhead in Europe. It is beginning to do so. HiTel Italia and RoamAD announced an OEM partnership to respond to the growing demand for metro WiFi mesh solutions in the European market. HiTel is already selling RoamAD-based metro WiFi systems in Europe and expects to be able to announce its first metro WiFi deployment in Europe within the next 30 days. HiTel said it was gearing up to be a major player …
WiFi-enabled mosquito net kills bugs dead
If you cannot invent a new mouse trap, why not invent a new mosquito net? North Kingstown, RI-based American Biophysics has done just that: It is using WiFi to create a huge electronic mosquito net, or something that would serve the same purpose as a mosquito net. The company has already proved innovative in killing bugs dead by building a magnet which emits a human scent to attract bloodsucking insects. When the bugs fly into the net, the magnet sucks them in and they …
SPOTLIGHT: WiMax certification: The evolution
Remember that Remington electric shaver commercial: "I liked it so much, I bought the company?" Well, this is not quite the same, but close. Monica Paolini, the president of Sammamish, WA-based firm Senza Fili Consulting (what a beautiful name: Senza fili means "wireless" in Italian) was writing a large report on WiMax when she discovered that most of the people she spoke to had different perceptions of the WiMax certification process. "The information is out there, but …
ALSO NOTED: AirMagnet updates LAN analyzer; Nokia E-Series phones offer WLAN capability; and much more...
> AirMagnet has updated its LAN analyzer to allow remote scanning over any LAN or Internet connection. Article
> Nokia E-Series phones offer WLAN capability. Article
> PointShot Wireless will equip Canada's VIA Rail trains with WiFi connection. …
FierceWiFi November 16, 2005
- Cisco enters muni-WiFi market
- Korea launches WiBro, age of mobile WiMax begins
- to build WiFi hotzone
- Wibiki shows platform for trusted WiFi services
- Ofcom deregulates RFID in 865-868 MHz
- SPOTLIGHT: On dogs and caravans
- ALSO NOTED: Nintendo DS WiFi; WiFi finders; Irish Broadband deploys WiMax; and much more...
Cisco enters muni-WiFi market
We wrote a few weeks ago that the war over muni-WiFi is essentially over (but for the grumbling), and that the incumbents lost. What better proof of that than Cisco's decision to enter the municipal wireless market with wireless mesh products in cities in Ohio and Oregon? When we think about Cisco, adjectives such as "quick-footed" and "nimble" are not the first ones to leap to mind. But the company's strategists are smart, and metro-wide wireless is a growing industry, with US cities …
Korea launches WiBro, age of mobile WiMax begins
What an auspicious occasion: WiMax Forum delegates were on hand Tuesday at the inaugural launch of KT's WiBro personal broadband service. The ceremony took place during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) annual event in Busan, Korea. KT exhibited its new network and services through a series of live (and impressive, participants tell me) demonstrations and events in which its branded Wonder-Media (video service), Wonder-message (SMS, MMS), Wonder-Phone (mobile VoIP) and …
to build WiFi hotzone
has submitted a bid to build a WiFi network in San Francisco, but as it waits that city's decision, the search engine company is planning to build a WiFi network in its own backyard--Mountain View, CA, about 40 miles south of San Francisco where the company has its headquarters. has not given details of the plans, and it has not explained how it is going to make money on the scheme. The company will submit a proposal to the Mountain View City Council. The plan calls for …
Wibiki shows platform for trusted WiFi services
Wibiki, a subsidiary of Speedus, is providing a pre-release version of its new platform for trusted WiFi services to a small group of experienced user-testers. The company said its purpose is to create a safe and reliable "WiFi community of communities led by users," and that the introduction of Wibiki is "the first step in a larger project to make WiFi safer and more accessible for more people" in "hot neighborhoods," "hot shopping districts," and "hot towns and cities." Wibiki (short …
Ofcom deregulates RFID in 865-868 MHz
The Brits are catching the RFID fever. Ofcom has just decided to make the use of RFID operating in the 865-868 MHz range exempt from licensing. The growing popularity if RFID has created an increasing demand for new spectrum for the technology, particularly from the retail industry in which RFID tags are used to track goods throughout the supply chain and improve in-store security. Ofcom is responsible for the civil use of the radio spectrum in the UK, and the organization has a …
SPOTLIGHT: On dogs and caravans
The first wave of WiMax interoperability testing is coming to an end, and we should expect the first WiMax-certified products on store shelves by the end of the year. Along with the first commercial launch of mobile WiMax in Korea, these developments are important in two ways. First, after much anticipation and several delays, it will be possible to evaluate the performance of WiMax gear in real networks rather than merely speculate about such performance. Second, it is difficult to …
ALSO NOTED: Nintendo DS WiFi; WiFi finders; Irish Broadband deploys WiMax; and much more...
> Nintendo DS WiFi is launched. Article
> A bunch of new of WiFi finders. Review
> Intel will support the latest version of Cisco Compatible Extensions in its next-generation WiFi technologies. Report
> Kodak believes its new WiFi digital camera is going to be one …
FierceWiFi November 9, 2005
- Nortel pushes mesh in Canada, elsewhere
- Trend: Questions about viability of fixed WiMax persist
- Netgear shows new MIMO AP
- Avery aggressively promotes RFID plan
- New maritime navigation aid
- SPOTLIGHT: CSR eying Bluetooth-UWB amalgamation
- ALSO NOTED: Nintendo launches WiFi gaming service site; ITC launches WiMax service in Saudi Arabia; and much more...
Nortel pushes mesh in Canada, elsewhere
Mesh networking technology is picking up after dropping the ball two or three years ago (it faced problems of security and scalability). Cisco is about to release a mesh product, and now Nortel is teaming up with service provider SimplySurf Wireless Network to offer wireless broadband through a mesh network in rural Ontario. The firm will add other networks in and around Ottawa over time.
Nortel is demonstrating another rural mesh network in the small Canadian town of Chapleau. As …
Trend: Questions about viability of fixed WiMax persist
Where is WiMax heading? This was the question at the recent WiMax World conference in Boston. There were two points of tension which were articulated in different ways by many of the speakers. The first market in which WiMax has made inroads is the fixed wireless market, but most of the large carriers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of mobile WiMax. The choice between fixed and mobile is important, since transition between the two will be difficult because of the incompatibility of …
Netgear shows new MIMO AP
Netgear is releasing a new wireless AP, the RangeMax 240, which it claims can reach speeds of up to 240 Mbps--faster than the 100 Mbps of wired networks (improvements in Ethernet wired networks, though, can push speeds up to 1 Gbps and faster). The actual speeds of the new AP will likely be slower, especially as more devices are added to the network. Speeds of 100 Mbps, or even a bit slower, would be suitable for streaming music and video and HDTV. Note that in order to achieve these high …
Avery aggressively promotes RFID plan
Large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy and government departments such as the Department of Defense have mandated that their suppliers should use RFID tags in order to simplify and make more accurate the tracking of the millions of items coming in their doors. The deadlines for the RFID mandate are coming soon, so Avery Dennison's RFID business division has just launched a partnership program for qualified companies facing various 2006 mandates to affix RFID tags on cases or …
New maritime navigation aid
What with last week's attempt by pirates to hijack a cruise ship off coast of the Philippines, this new device may be of interest. WiFi Wireless has just unveiled its WF205 System, a streamlined, solid-state stabilization navigational aid. The system uses laser gyro controlled platforms and, unlike similar systems, it has no moving parts. It offers accurate pitch, roll and rate of turns on three axis. The nav-aid device is completely wireless and does not require much power (only 24Volts …
SPOTLIGHT: CSR eying Bluetooth-UWB amalgamation
Cambridge, UK-based CSR, a leading Bluetooth player, is continuing to develop its Bluetooth technology with an eye to combining it with other wireless technologies. The company will emphasize the amalgamation of digital signal processing of Bluetooth into different solutions. Specifically, CSR wants to combine Bluetooth with UWB in products ready for the second half of 2007, when the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is expected to ratify the technology's standard. "It's a …
ALSO NOTED: Nintendo launches WiFi gaming service site; ITC launches WiMax service in Saudi Arabia; and much more...
> Nintendo launches WiFi gaming service site. Report
> ITC begins WiMax service in Saudi Arabia. Article
> Fujitsu shows WiMax reference design at a China event. Article
> iRiver prepares to launch WiMax game player. …
FierceWiFi November 2, 2005
- New standard improves control of WLAN
- Sequans, Wavesat show WiMax plans
- Cisco comfortably leads among WLAN vendors
- Azimuth offers MIMO channel emulator
- More schools offering RFID certification programs
- SPOTLIGHT: You can look it up
- ALSO NOTED: Hotspot hits Atlanta airport; Qwest drops bid for Portland WiFi contract; and much more...
New standard improves control of WLAN
What do enterprises want? They want to control their networks, but in enterprise-class 802.11 deployments the control of the network is limited to the infrastructure (wireless switches, APs). What about wireless client devices such as laptops, PDAs and wVoIP phones? Well, network administrators have no control over them. The IEEE wants to remedy that by proposing 802.11v, a standard for wireless network management. The standard defines procedures by which a wireless infrastructure may …
Sequans, Wavesat show WiMax plans
Cupertino, CA-based Sequans Communications and Quebec-based Wavesat each unveiled a chip set and a mini-PCI card reference kit designed to accelerate WiMax development and deployment, and both are doing so a week after initiating WiMax certification testing. Wavesat said its design is the first mini-PCI card design and that the company is targeting Asian ODMs. They, in turn, would accelerate the volume of WiMax CPE and push costs down. The reference kit joins Wavesat's DM256 baseband chip …
Cisco comfortably leads among WLAN vendors
There may not be many differences in features and quality between WLAN equipment from Cisco and such equipment from other companies. Still, Cisco leads all other vendors comfortably, according to a recent study by Forrester Research. In a close examination of the top seven WLAN system vendors, Cisco was the clear victor, said Forrester's Ellen Daley. "Cisco is above everyone," she said. "They're the one to catch, but they're going to be hard to catch."
Forrester evaluated the leading …