Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Frank Catalano deconstructs Wi-Fi: Frank's created a permanent URL outside of his Yahoo mailing list for his excellent column from last week that looked across the entire horizon of Wi-Fi industries, users, and challenges. [80211b News] comments? [] 10:49:05 AM     followups to Negroponte on Wi-Fi Nicholas Negroponte on Wi-Fi's disruptive effect: In the Sky Dayton-cover issue of Wired, Negroponte writes about how Wi-Fi is a harbinger of unclenching the fists of telecommunications companies on ubiquitous or at least widespread data networks. He talks about mesh networking, and its utility, although ad hoc mesh networks require communities: you won't have a device that arbitrarily links you into a grid; you have to make that choice. Wai Sing Lee forwarded me the link, and offers a variety of rebuttal and accuracy checks to it (read the third post by IronMac). [80211b News] comments? [] 10:48:39 AM     The "wireless internet" means too many damn things. Here's what it should mean. The term "wireless" means too many damn things.  In this item news item from Wireless-World@yahoogroups.com : A glut of 5.8 GHz gear hits the market, hotspot pioneerWayport continues to aggressively sell its services, and ClearSKY Networks launches high-speed wireless Internet service in a six-block hotzone. http://www.80211-planet.com/news/article/0,,1481_1469131,00.html the 5.8 GHz  gear referred is a Canopy-like product that brings internet to the home wirelessly, at which point the connection from the home to the computer is up for grabs.  (Could be ethernet cable, could be wifi...) .    In contrast, Wayport uses wires (DSL in fact) to bring internet to the end-site; what's wireless is the wifi connection to the end-users computer.  And what  about this:  "ClearSKY Networks launches high-speed wireless Internet service in a six-block hotzone" ?   This from  http://www.80211-planet.com/news/article/0,,1481_1469131,00.html#clearsky  ClearSKY's Clemson project provides inside and outside coverage across six city blocks and numerous apartment complexes. Expansion is already underway. The company anticipates that demand for wireless Internet usage will skyrocket among many of the city's 12,000 residents and 17,000 full-time students.   Headquartered in Clemson, ClearSKY Networks is expanding its current operation there. Long-range plans include providing wireless service to other cities throughout the southern United States. What technology are they using?  This from http://www.clearskynetworks.com/ : ...ClearSKY Networks is poised to bring to your residence or small business the same power, speed, and flexibility of a high speed corporate network. In addition, ClearSKY uses the latest in 802.11 technology at a cost well below DSL or Cable.   And how are they positioning it? Mobile - With ClearSKY, you can take your high speed connection with you throughout your community. ClearSKY community networks are designed for customers on the go. Students and professionals will enjoy the ability to stay connected not only in their residence, but on campus, the business district, and other areas all around town. I think "untethered mobility" is what consumers and communities mean when they ask about wireless internet.  Point-to-multipoint vendors better make it  that the wireless "multi-point to endpoint" connections are not bundled into what they are selling.  Otherwise, they'll be accused of bait and switch.      Of course, the right approach, in my view, is for point-to-multi-point vendors to bundle wifi right in, and adopt a pricing model that promotes, encourages and profits when end-users share their wfi access points. comments? [] 10:39:35 AM

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