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News that's changing the Wireless World!
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Friday, April 02, 2004 |
Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Washington Ferries Try
Wi-Fi This Month
Washington state ferry system moves ahead with trial of Wi-Fi on board with
one ship this month: The service should move onto three routes and six
ferries by fall covering the most popular commuting routes to and from
Seattle: Bremerton (ship yards), Bainbridge Island (bed room community), and
Kingston (the Olympic Peninsula's launching pad). The service is being
installed by a firm in beautiful Port Townsend, a gem of a former boom town
out on a tip of the Olympic Peninsula. The trial service will be on a ferry
route that runs between PT (as it's called) and Keystone, a town on Whidbey
Island. The article says that Mobilisa is trying 802.11a and 802.11g to link
back to the mainland. I assume that they will purchase tower rights with
line of sight to the predictable, set ferry routes. Since the company and
the service is in our vicinity, expect some first-hand reporting when the
service rolls out....
Source Link
6:43:21 PM 
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Source: C|Net
Feds tell states 'VoIP is ours'
Sen. John Sununu announces long-awaited Internet phone legislation that
would effectively eliminate state and local authorities' ability to tax and
regulate broadband phone calls.
Source Link
6:43:19 PM
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Source: C|Net
Wireless called key to global development
Speakers at a conference on using technology to solve social and economic
problems stressed that wireless communications can play a critical role in
improving the lives of people living in poverty.
Source Link
4:03:39 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
STSN Acquires
MyCall
STSN said it acquired MyCall, a company that wires business centers in 1,000
hotels in Europe: MyCall also apparently offers some Wi-Fi, but STSN
wouldn't reveal how much. The motivation for the deal is a foot in the door
at the hotels where STSN can build wired or wireless access in guest rooms,
common areas, or conference rooms....
Source Link
2:51:18 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Authentication
to SIMmer
The WLAN Smart Card Consortium hopes its new WLAN-SIM specification will
turn the telecom authentication standard into the preferred hotspot login of
the future.
Source
Link
12:00:02 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Express Wi-Fi Permission from Major League Baseball?
Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing asks, can you legally broadcast video over Wi-Fi using personal equipment at SBC Park?: The new Wi-Fi system at SBC Park is free this year, and ostensibly high speed enough for practical use. Thus, the question arises, without express written permission of Major League Baseball, one of the greatest legal phrases composed in the modern era, can a fan broadcast the game? There may be trademark and contract issues, an EFF staff attorney informally notes. This is part of the entire set of issues raised by the Broadcast Flag and related restrictions on personal use of sound, image, and motion that has some copyrighted or protected part. As Cory Doctorow, another BoingBoing editor and EFF's evangelist has asked in the past, if you're filming your kid's birthday and the TV is on in the background and you pan by a Broadcast Flag protected program, does your camera lock up? If not, when you play back the video, does your VCR or computer refuse to play it? I suppose MLB can't project a Broadcast Flag on the physical baseball diamond, thus preventing them from preventing you from recording in the first place. But if we can use Wi-Fi, it means we can bring computers in. If we can bring computers in, then we're going to be bringing in devices that can record and broadcast. If they restrict video cameras, we bring in digital cameras that have video capability and live output. There's no corking the bottle....
Source Link
11:45:00 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
LongBoard's Cludgey Roaming Software
A company called LongBoard has developed software for Wi-Fi and cellular enabled phones that enables voice on both networks: It hands off calls between the networks, but not in the smoothest fashion. When the phone gets near the edge of a Wi-Fi network, it dials the call on the cell phone network. The caller actually talks over both networks until the Wi-Fi network drops out completely. I'm very curious about the voice quality as both calls are operating simultaneously. A couple of small handset makers have agreed to include the software on their devices. The software can also work on Symbian and Pocket PC devices, although apparently it's not very reliable on PocketPC. Many companies I've spoken to say handoff between cellular and Wi-Fi networks isn't that difficult. The hard part comes on the backend with forming business relationships between operators and settling billing. If it is relatively uncomplicated to do real handoff between the networks as they say, it's not clear why LongBoard has developed a less-than-ideal solution. It could be that the LongBoard solution is all software and others aren't, which could make it easier for LongBoard to sell to handset makers....
Source Link
10:52:33 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Fools for
Wireless
The annual day of practical jokes is not lost on the world of Wi-Fi, as
'announcements' abound for fabricated products and services.
Source
Link
10:52:29 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Buying Wi-Fi
Minutes
A new Web site hopes to become the one-stop shopping center for travelers
looking to purchase pre-paid hotspot access for the limited periods of
time.
Source
Link
10:52:28 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
FatPort Stays on
Cutting Edge
In our latest report on wireless ISPs, we talk to Canadian firm FatPort: As
a scrappy company with just 10 employees running 138 hotspots, FatPort has
to stay a few steps ahead of the competition, which includes keeping a keen
eye on the mobile operators. The small company isn't afraid to spur
innovation, but president and CEO Sean O'Mahony just hopes his company can
benefit when that happens. "We can change the course of events and force
others to take action," he said. "The dangerous thing is when you open a
niche and don't get to exploit the benefits." FatPort is taking an industry
lead on a number of fronts. It recently began offering its voice over Wi-Fi
service (with pay-as-you-go operator Mobitus) in its hotspots as one way to
help venues make use of their broadband backhaul pipes. O'Mahony found that
in most cases Wi-Fi only uses up five percent of a DSL line in a hotspot.
"We have to fill the pipe up and add more services," he said. At the same
time, FatPort found that 85 percent of hotspot usage is by workers at the
venue or vendors that may visit the venue to sell products. The voice over
Wi-Fi service is aimed mainly at those users, more so than hotspot
customers, because the FatPort network isn't extensive enough for the voice
service to appeal broadly to customers, O'Mahony said. FatPort has other
innovative projects in the works. For the past year and a half, O'Mahony has
unsuccessfully tried to strike a wholesale GPRS agreement with a mobile
operator in order to offer FatPort customers a combined GPRS/Wi-Fi service.
"I couldn't get a deal. They wouldn't work with us," he said. But, O'Mahony
says he's found a back door way to secure minutes on a GPRS network, though
he wouldn't reveal details. While it's hard to predict when he might launch
the offering, he's hoping to by this summer. The hunt for a cellular data
deal isn't the only instance where FatPort has been in negotiations with the
cell operators. Recently, the four Canadian operators partnered to build
hotspots around the country under a common brand. The deal isn't bad news
for FatPort. O'Mahony is currently negotiating with the operators to offer
them wholesale access to FatPort hotspots. In that case, the operators could
keep their relationships with their customers but list the FatPort hotspots
as part...
Source Link
10:52:25 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Austin Project
Surpasses T-Mobile, Segments Market
The Austin Wireless City Project is touting the fact that it now has built
36 free Wi-Fi locations, with 75 venues on the waiting list, while T-Mobile
has 34 Austin hotspots: Rich MacKinnon, president and chairman of Austin
Wireless City, does some segmenting of the market here, something that some
analysts have been trying to do. MacKinnon considers that some business
travelers might be attracted to T-Mobile hotspots as those locations dispel
the uncertainties of trying an unknown venue in an unfamiliar city. But
local people, especially those who typically seek out locally owned venues
for coffee or meals, may be more likely to try out the free services offered
by folks like Austin Wireless City, which are located in independent
establishments. Sarah Kim, Yankee Group analyst, said she and other analysts
have looked at segmenting the market for Wi-Fi users, a challenging task at
this stage in the market's development. But it seems that more organizations
are leaving the business traveler market to the T-Mobile's of the world and
instead targeting local users. Telerama, the Pittsburgh ISP and hotspot
provider, recently launched in Seattle with the express goal of targeting
local Wi-Fi users rather than visitors to town. The free Austin locations or
the Telerma spots, which aren't free, could be ideal locations for people
who run businesses out of their homes or the telecommuters, Kim said.
MacKinnon also points out that T-Mobile is sending mixed messages. While it
is targeting the business user, it has made some offerings such as access to
music or exclusive interviews with artists to hotspot visitors that seem
more appropriate for the mass market than the business user. Using figures
published by Wi-Fi Networking News about T-Mobile subscriber growth,
MacKinnon suggests that Austin Wireless City is growing quite a bit faster
than T-Mobile. Austin Wireless City adds 60 users per day and those
customers use the network 30 percent to 35 percent more every two
weeks....
Source Link
10:52:23 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Lack of Roaming Slows
Growth
In the U.K., industry observers complain about slow subscriber growth and
worry about the affects 3G may have on the Wi-Fi market: Roaming is still a
big issue, and not just in the U.K. but everywhere. Until customers can pay
a single subscription and get access to almost all available hotspots, the
market will keep growing slowly. Also, in the U.K., the price for
connectivity is pretty outrageous. If a monthly subscription to a 3G data
service is cheaper than Wi-Fi, certainly some people will prefer 3G even if
it will be slower because the coverage may be better....
Source Link
10:52:21 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
"No Neighbor" Wi-Fi
Eliminates Interference
Broadcom and Atheros drop conflict, team up for interference-free Wi-Fi: The
Wi-Fi industry closed ranks today when a long-simmering dispute between
Broadcom and Atheros over interference caused by competing high-speed
products was dropped in favor of joint development. There's a history of
this form of cooperation in which companies that otherwise compete
cross-license patents and develop standards so that each can offer products
that benefit the consumer. As Tom's Networking reports, the new
SuperBurner-AF technology overcomes both physical obstructions that can
reduce the range of wireless networks while also eliminating the
interference caused by nearby wireless LANs. In related news, Tes-La has
introduced Wi-Fi-based laptop charging. The Tes-La wireless power system
allows hotspot operaters to add a TCP/EP (TCP over Electrical Power) to
their access points, while users add an adapter to their power jack. TCP/EP
allows a hotspot to meter and charge for electrical use over Wi-Fi. Tes-La's
leading competitor, Noside Connections, claims Tes-La technology could cause
death and injury, which all business travels know is a small price to pay to
keep one's laptop charged. In an entirely unrelated story except for the
name "Connections," but which happens to fit in this space, prisoners in the
UK get free Wi-Fi. It's the latest innovative approach to rehabilitation
coming from the country that brought us debtor's prison and jail time for
failure to pay television license fees....
Source Link
10:52:20 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Free Hotspot Offers Free VoIP
Personal Telco in Portland, Ore., has set up the first voice over IP over free wireless hotspot: We think this is a first, and they think it's a first. The story says "for the price of a latte"--implying a purchase, which we believe isn't necessary--you can make free VoIP calls. The VoIP unit is plugged into a PC which is connected wirelessly to the Internet, PersonalTelco guru Nigel Ballard confirmed for me via email. Ballard said the VoIP adapter uses a virtual line from IPKall, which offers a free public switched telephone network (PSTN) number in the 360 (southern Washington state) area code. Incoming calls, outgoing 360 calls, and 1-800 number calls are all possible, as well as SIP-to-SIP. (SIP numbers aren't six digits; this is erroneously noted in the article.) The next goal is setting up a local 503 node, Ballard said. The article conflates a few concepts into SIP. Session Initiation Protocol governs the connection. To quote from the IETF proposal for codifying it, SIP is a protocol for initiating interactive communication sessions between users. The writer conflates codecs (compression/decompression routines) used to encode and decode sound (and/or video) and the issues of bandwidth and latency with the actual connection method....
Source Link
10:52:14 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Microsoft Adds Voice to CE
Voice over Wi-Fi must have been a hot topic at the Voice on the Net conference: Microsoft said it is adding VoIP capabilities to its Windows CE operating system. Microsoft also said that Vonage will be its first service provider partner. Earlier this week, Vonage said that it will begin offering voice over Wi-Fi service, but didn't elaborate on what device customers would use to access the service. It's not clear if Vonage will offer voice over Wi-Fi handsets or if the service will hinge on the Windows CE devices....
Source Link
10:52:12 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Aptilo Partners with Gemtek
The two companies, heavy overseas in the hotspot market, will be working together to ensure interoperability between their systems.
Source Link
10:52:11 AM
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© 2004 [OCCalWUG]
Last Update: 5/14/2004; 9:02:52 PM
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