Hotspot operator Boingo has expanded it’s reach with the purchase of Concourse, giving it a presence in 12 major US airports and over 100 locations in the US and Canada. The purchase should not cause any job losses and should hopefully expand Boingo’s ability to support WiFi handsets. Via [wirelessweek.com]… Continue Reading
Author Archives: RenderMan
Altera, Sequans Unveil Mobile WiMAX Chipset
Altera Corp. and Sequans Communications announced the availability of mobile WiMax chipsets. Using FPGA technology, they seem very certain that they will be able to upgrade the chipsets for future improvements to the WiMax standards. No word yet on any customers. Via [eetimes.com]… Continue Reading
Why Cable Companies, Google Are Eyeing Wireless Spectrum
As companies compete for any advantage, some unlikely names are showing interest in radio spectrum. The FCC is set to auction off 90Mhz pieces of the 1.7GHz to 2.1GHz bands. Names such as Google and Time Warner and Verizon are all being listed as possibly interested in pieces of the spectrum. The theories on what… Continue Reading
Phoenix Plans To Create Downtown Wi-Fi Network
Downtown Phoenix is jumping on the municipal WiFi bandwagon. While not as ambitious at San Francisco, the plan will try and cover all of the Copper Square area. The plan does not include a free service option. The plan seems to be aimed at business people on lunch and tourists. The project is still at… Continue Reading
Free Wi-Fi in S.F. More Than Flipping A Switch
No one ever said it would be easy. The plan to blanket San Fracisco with wireless is not a matter of flipping a switch. San Francisco is full of hills and tall buildings, things that usually are problems for wireless networks. The network will probobly require $15 million and 36 nodes per square mile. It… Continue Reading
Meru Makes A Wi-Fi Backbone
Meru Networks has added wireless backbone support to it’s lineup. The technology allows for accesspoints to no longer be chained to a wire. The technology bonds multiple WiFi channels together to allow for more bandwidth on the backhaul, while reserving channels for clients to use. This should allow for more bandwidth in between building backbones… Continue Reading
802.11n Standard Fails To Gain IEEE Approval
With the draft of 802.11n back on the drawing board, vendors who jumped the gun and produced so called ‘pre-n’ gear are now faced with the difficult challenge of what to do if thier products are not sompatible with the final standard. It will now be interesting to see if the devices live up to… Continue Reading
Storage Goes Wi-Fi With Iomega NAS
Iomega has dived into the wireless NAS market. The StorCenter Wireless boasts an impressive 1 terabyte of storage capacity. The unit, along with it’s wireless capability has a pair of USB ports for extra drives or for a printer using the units own internal print server. At $900 it’s quite a decent way to get… Continue Reading
Qualcomm Signs First Patent Deal For WiMAX Product
In what will probobly become a big speedbump for WiMax, Qualcomm quietly announced a licensing deal for technology necessary for WiMax that it owns the patent on. This appears to mean that any vendor making a WiMax product will have to pay a licensing fee to Qualcomm, who have a history of defending a licensing… Continue Reading
Linux Gets Native WiFi Support
Devicescape Software seems to have seen the light and realized that helping the open source world is in it’s best interests. The company has donated technology to allow for native support of WiFi in linux. No word on which chipsets or what exactly the technology is, but given the difficulty in getting support from manufacturers,… Continue Reading
Google Wi-Fi Deal Gains Powerful Critics
The Google/Earthlink plan to unwire San Francisco is meeting with some serious opposition. While groups like the ACLU and the EFF applaud the economic and social benifits of the plan, but also have grave concerns about the privacy of the system. The latest person to step up with concerns is city supervisor Jake McGoldrick. No… Continue Reading
Lack Of Common Spectrum Will Hinder WiMAX
A lack of harmony between different countried available spectrum could hinder or even hurt WiMAx. The nearly universal availability of the 2.4Ghz spectrum is likely one of it’s strong points. WiMax does’nt have that availability. If countries don’t have a common spectrum allocation, manufacturers will have to make many different radios. This means more cost… Continue Reading
First 802.11n Products Show Standard’s Promise
Linksys has joined the Pre-N crowd with the WRT300N. Performance is impressive, but there is still the question of future interoperability since the 802.11n standard has not been ratified. There are also some technical glitches to work out, such as the interference problem with older 802.11g gear. Early adopters should beware they are purchasing in… Continue Reading
Wi-Fi Chip Offers Tenfold Performance Boost
New developments from a professor at the University of Rochester might make WiFi less power hungry. The new chips use an analog rather than digital clock to frequency match. Fewer digital operations means less power consumed. Hopefully this technology can make it into production chipsets in the near future as everyone would like more battery… Continue Reading
3G & Wi-Fi Help Rebuild
When hurricane Katrina made landfall, an unlikely group came to help rebuild. A contingent from the Burning Man festival, who are very familiar with building a community from nothing. Thier efforts were greatly helped with the Kyocera Wireless KR1 Mobile Router that allowed them to share the EV-DO 3G connection that previously was only usable… Continue Reading