In the wake of hurricane Katrina, with internet service unavailable to many business due to flodded central offices, the city of New Orleans opened it’s wireless mesh network for anyone to access. This helped in an emergency situation and helped sustain businesses. Now 6 months after Hurricane Katrina, with a third of the city New… Continue Reading
Wi-Fi Phones Still Rough Around The Edges
WiFi phones are a neat concept, but are’nt quite ready for prime time. Besides obvous association problems and lack of styling, the hardware Wi-Fi phones are’nt nearly as good as ‘softphones’ which run on PDA’s and laptops. While definatly a good idea, it’s not enough to make anyone want to ditch thier cell phone quite… Continue Reading
US Cities Warned On Long-term Costs Of Free Wireless
Municipal WiFi costs are a tricky thing. Who pays for it, how, who runs it, what happens if it fails. Municipalities should be very cautious and go in with eyes wide open about the realities of providing a new utility to it’s residents. Unexpected costs can easily soar without proper planning. Via [msnbc.msn.com]… Continue Reading
BellSouth’s WiMax Offered As Broadband Backup
Bellsouth is offering WiMax as backup service for broadband customers as a value added addon service for regular broadband custoemrs. The system was implimented after hurricane Katrina flooded central offices and delayed restoring broadband service. Using WiMax as a backup is a very good niche for WiMax to be in, however if your buying service… Continue Reading
WiFi Suppliers Try To Avoid Big Squeeze
The market for wireless devices is high, however profits are down because the per unit cost is falling. Manufacturers are scrambling to find ways to prop up sales of thier products. One way seems to be the ‘ala carte’ method of a modular wireless network where the customer only buys what they need and can… Continue Reading
Airvana Aims To Bridge Gap Between Cellular, IP Networks
Airvana is joining the convergance train and releasing a gateway to allow cellular and IP based networks to seamlessly roam from one protocol to another. The point is made though that such hand offs can have major security implications that haven’t been dreamed of yet. Only time will tell if this technology is really used… Continue Reading
MIMO Blasts WiFi Through Walls, Says Airgo
MIMO (Multiple in, Multiple Out) technology stands to greatly increase the coverage and stability of Wi-Fi networks. Chipmaker Airgo is starting to demo 200Mbit/sec wireless networking at various trade shows. Until the 802.11n spec is ratified, Airgo and other MIMO vendors stand to continue selling alot of units to cover ever increasing demands of users.… Continue Reading
Marriott Offers Guests Broadband
UK Marriot hotels are set to roll out Wireless net access for guests across 9000 hotel rooms. The deal with vendor iBahn covers 60 hotels for wired and wireless solutions. Hotel guests almost demand that hotels have broadband now. This roll out should keep guests happy with Marriot for a little while anyways. Via [vnunet.com]… Continue Reading
802.11n: It’s Never Easy
The average consumer wants to have fast, easy to use wireless and they don’t want to be stuck with one manufacturer. They want to be able to have the same speed and ease of use on any wireless devices. This is the whole point of the 802.11 specifications, interoperability and reliability are key to standards… Continue Reading
‘Largest Wireless Network’ Planned For Arizona
The ‘largest’ wireless mesh network that originally started in Tempe, Arizona is expanding out to the neighbooring towns of Gilbert and Chandler. The 187 square mile network will be one of the largest in the world and one of the first featuring compatability and cooperation between multiple communities. It will be a pay service, but… Continue Reading
London Gets Free WiMax Service
London is the latest city to get “free’ WiMax service. Of course it’s only free during the trial period and as with many things, is planned to be a pay service in a few months. Urban WiMax is aiming to come in about 50-70% of local SDSL prices and is using the trial period to… Continue Reading
UK Airports Get Wireless Access
London Stansted, Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Southampton airports will all soon have WiFi available for travellers. The partnership between ‘The cloud’ and BAA allows the BAA to provide for the ever increasing demand worldwide for WiFi service in airports. Via [vnunet.com]… Continue Reading
Municipal Wi-Fi Gets Backers
Only a short time ago telco operators were quietly pushing for legislation all over the states to prevent municipalities from starting thier own municipal WiFi programs for fear of competition and undercutting thier pricing. Now it seems that they have realized the oppourtunity in front of them and are starting to wake up and partner… Continue Reading
IEEE Group Reaches Pact On Mesh Wi-Fi
Wireless mesh networking is the key ingredient in making the dream of municipal WiFi a reality. That dream is a little closer with the adoption of 802.11s. Until recently there was no standard available for early adopters to use so they were risking alot if things changed from the method they were using. The lack… Continue Reading
Doubts Raised Over WiMax’s Future
Any time a new technology emerges, there is always debate over how well it will work. One group always touts it as the solution to all sorts of problems, while others say that it’ll never catch on. WiMax is no exception it seems. Developers of WiMax products obviously tout it as the solution to all… Continue Reading