FierceWiFi June 8, 2005

• United Airlines to offer in-flight WiFi
• Bluetooth's security woes worsen
• Alvarion offers US market WiMax in WCS, BRS bands
• Arizona tests highway WiFi network
• RFID to bolster fight against digital piracy
• SPOTLIGHT: DoD's vote of confidence in VoIP
• ALSO NOTED: WiMax applauded Supercomm; Netgear's MIMO wirleless router; and much more...

United Airlines to offer in-flight WiFi

United Airlines said it would begin to offer in-flight WiFi service to its passengers. The service will begin next year. Early last week United and Verizon demonstrated wireless data could be transmitted from the air to the ground with no disruption to the plane's navigation systems. Two days later, the FAA gave the two companies permission to start installing the equipment in planes. The initial FAA approval is only for the same planes (B757-200) in which last week's test was conducted. …

Read more...

Bluetooth's security woes worsen

Bluetooth just cannot catch a break. The latest blow is a report by two Israeli security researchers (one of them a graduate student) detailing how it is possible to take control of Bluetooth-equipped mobile phones, even when the handsets have the security features switched on. This takeover uses a breaching technique which Ollie Whitehouse of @Stake detailed last year. An attacker with the right eqiupment can connect to a Bluetooth handset without authorization, and once the …

Read more...

Alvarion offers US market WiMax in WCS, BRS bands

Alvarion said that it was expanding its line of BreezeMAX products to include the WCS (2.3 GHz) and BRS (aka MMDS, 2.5-2.7 GHz) frequency bands for North America. Some 80 operators in 30 countries already deploy the Israeli company's WiMax-ready system, and now US carriers will be able to do the same. The platform will use the new BreezeMAX CPEs with the Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface. BreezeMAX 2300 and 2500 are similar to Alvarion's BreezeMAX 3500 and will feature advanced …

Read more...

Arizona tests highway WiFi network

In 1995 Congress created the CANAMEX Corridor, a series of highways which extends from Mexico to Canada, running through Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. The Arizona portion of CANAMEX spans 487 miles, with many parts running through rural areas with spotty cellular or landline coverage. To remedy that, the Arizona government in April launched a pilot project which would allow first responders to use a WiFi network to communicate along a 30-mile stretch of the highway, from …

Read more...

RFID to bolster fight against digital piracy

Last week we reported that RFID is now being mobilized in the effort to stop DVD piracy. Many in the entetainment business believe that if the idea is implemented correctly, it will be an important step in fighting piracy, a problem costing the entertainment world billions of dollars a year in lost revenue. The RFID-equipped DVDs are developed at UCLA's Wireless Internet for the Mobile Enterprise Consortium (WINMEC) as part of a broader effort to enhance Digital Rights Management …

Read more...

SPOTLIGHT: DoD's vote of confidence in VoIP

The Defense Department has decided to use VoIP, a major boost for a technology which, although increasingly popular, is still battling the preception that its reliability and security are not yet as good as they could, and should, be. Gartner's Bob Hafner says, "When you have a big-name public adoption, there is a strong message sent about security and reliability." Story

ALSO NOTED: WiMax applauded Supercomm; Netgear's MIMO wirleless router; and much more...

> WiMax gets nod of approval from execs at Supercomm. Story

> British Airways to promote use of RFIDs in baggage handling. Story

> Reva Systems shows RFID network architecture. Report

> Symbol shows Windows CE RFID …

Read more...