Category: Telecom

Writes Jeremy Wagstaff (WSJ):

SMS is a great way to communicate without actually committing to anything. You can SMS someone you barely know, safe in the knowledge that while it opens up all sorts of possibilities for flirting/business/gossip/extending your circle, the social cost is low. As Rich Ling, a sociologist in Norway, points out, sending a message like ‘How ya doing?’ initiates contact and invites a response, but isn’t half as hairy as walking across a dance floor/pub/funeral parlour and striking up a conversation with a hot stranger. Similarly, the recipient has plenty of wiggle-room, ranging from ignoring the message entirely — claiming, if it ever came to court, that they never received the thing — or taking their time to phrase a suitable reply.

In general, the 160-character limit is a blessing, giving the texter room only for a couple of pithy sentences, perhaps a joke and a disarming smiley character. As social observer Sadie Plant has pointed out, this has a liberating effect since it encourages SMS users to be candid, frank and informal, breaking ice without risk of embarrassment.

Indeed, there’s an intimacy to SMSing that other forms lack. Despite it being a mobile medium, there’s little chance of eavesdropping as both sender and recipient can exercise a good deal of control over where and when their dialogue takes place.

It’s also a great way to sustain links with close friends, relatives, spouses, colleagues and others that share a shorthand. Communiques such as “I’m 10 minutes late/Lunch?/Order more beer” don’t really require a voice call, and fit the SMS format neatly. Indeed, now that cross-border SMSing is the norm, friendships can be maintained on the cheap.

Continue reading Why SMS Rules

From Wired magazine:

Dayton, who founded EarthLink eight years ago, is working his everyman routine to promote Boingo, his new ISP for the Unstrung Era. Boingo sells Internet access via Wi-Fi, the short-range wireless technology that broadcasts 11-megabit-per-second broadband over radio waves. Conceived as a way for sysadmins and home networkers to eliminate pesky cables, Wi-Fi nodes have found their way into conference rooms and living rooms alike. Now they’re spreading beyond private spaces. Geek hobbyists are popping networks up on windowsills and fire escapes, pointing Wi-Fi antennas at adjacent parks, bars, and wherever else city dwellers might dig free bandwidth. Dayton is betting that businesspeople want to surf sans wires, too, especially while on the road, and that they’ll shell out $75 a month for the privilege.

But, as numerous failed entrepreneurs can attest, capitalizing on a snazzy new technology is trickier than it sounds. In Boingo’s case, bringing wireless Internet access to the masses raises a host of problems. For starters, there’s the infrastructure %u2014 or, more precisely, the lack thereof. If Boingo is going to sell access to a far-flung wireless network, it first needs a far-flung wireless network. That’s not as easy as scattering cellular transponders along the highway. Whereas a single cell switching station can cover an entire town, most Wi-Fi signals peter out after a few hundred feet. As a result, we’ll need tens of thousands of nodes nationwide before coverage can be considered even minimal. Wi-Fi’s first big commercial venture, MobileStar, went bankrupt while putting access points which can cost $4,000 each in 550 Starbucks. Deploying a network powerful enough to cover a good-size airport can run well over $500,000. And deep pockets aren’t enough. Before the buildout can happen, someone needs to convince the bureaucrats who operate the hotels and airports critical locations for Boingo’s target customers that a Wi-Fi network can be a revenue-generating magnet for business travelers.

WiFi is what the world’s emerging markets need to leapfrog their bandwidth infrastructure problems. In the developed markets, there are many alternatives for high-speed Internet access. But the emerging markets are where WiFi can become core to the network, and not just another access method.

Writes The Guardian on how mesh networks can realise 3G’s vision:

Two companies, US startup MeshNetworks and Moteran Networks of Germany, are each developing their own competing version of mesh networking. Instead of the current hub-and-spoke model of wireless communications, with every device connecting to an overburdened central antenna, any time “mesh-enabled” devices – mobile phones, PDAs, laptops – are in close proximity to each other, they automatically create a wireless mesh network. Every device in the area acts as a repeater or router, relaying traffic for everyone else. Traffic hops from person to person until it reaches the nearest internet access point, reducing the need for central antennas, and improving wireless coverage.

Because mesh networks use Wi-Fi, the equipment and infrastructure needed to create them is cheap and readily available. Instead of building cellular phone towers that often cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, all that is needed to get a network going are wireless access points (around 100 now) placed strategically around town to relay traffic, and the proper software. Existing laptops and PDAs can be mesh-enabled by software.

Continue reading Mesh Networks

Writes News.com:

Communications chipmaker Conexant Systems announced that it is adding Intersil Wi-Fi chips to the semiconductors it builds for high-speed cable or digital subscriber line (DSL) modems.

Such an integrated product will help manufacturers to build a set-top box that creates its own wireless network instead of just connecting to an outside wireless network. Normally Wi-Fi networking chips are located in hardware that hangs on a ceiling or wall and provides access within a 300-foot area.

“(It is) the next step in the evolution of Wi-Fi,” said Intersil spokesman Ron Paciello.

Paciello said these new kinds of Wi-Fi modems should start to surface by the end of the year. Using them, customers could, for example, make telephone calls over the Internet via a television, or use one device to send digital TV signals and computer games wirelessly to different computers or TVs, Conexant spokeswoman Gwen Carlson said.

From New Zealand Herald: “Wireless operator RoamAD has built a network covering three square kilometres of the central business district [in downtown Auckland] where it is offering wireless internet access for owners of laptops and handheld computers equipped with “Wi-Fi” or wireless network cards, which typically cost $200 to $300….The venture will soon extend to a fifty square kilometre area of the city.” A sign of things to come.

Writes Business 2.0:

Eventually the battle for Wi-Fi users will likely be fought between cellular carriers and wired network access providers (dial-up, DSL, and cable). From a marketing perspective, cellular is synonymous with wireless access, and upcoming dual-mode (GPRS/Wi-Fi) hardware might give subscribers automatic access to the best available data network wherever they are at any moment — something only a cellular data operator can currently offer. But as a group, the cellcos are inexperienced at billing for data.

When it comes to the all-important question of charging users, the landline access companies are better positioned: They have the billing relationships with data customers and are already supporting hardwired connections to the Internet. Adding Wi-Fi access points is not terribly expensive, and the acquisition of a few WISPs would make it easier.

Writes John Patrick (News.com): “Wi-Fi is one of those grassroots phenomena that will soon become as ubiquitous as the PC itself.”

Adds John:

Think about all the places where you have to “wait”–the car shop, medical offices, hotel lobbies, restaurants, hospital check-in areas and, of course, on a bus, train and in airport lounges.

Think about the concept of community services. When people go downtown, they naturally expect the local infrastructure to include streetlights, fire hydrants and parking spaces. Soon, I believe, they also will expect Wi-Fi connectivity. Sitting on a city park bench and checking e-mail will not seem so strange; in fact, it will be something people demand.

Not that everyone needs to be connected all the time, tethered to the Internet. But if people want or need to be connected to the Internet, they should be able to plug in. The Internet has transferred power from institutions to people. Isn’t it time to enable this power to become pervasive?

From SiliconValley.com on WiFi:

A technology originally developed to link PCs in small, wireless clusters is spurring grassroots efforts to create Internet “clouds” that could eventually bypass the networks of big telecommunications providers.

So far, the greatest buzz over WiFi, or Wireless Fidelity, has surrounded the sharing of connectivity among neighbors, friends and strangers.

But the inexpensive technology, known scientifically as 802.11b, may be destined for something much bigger. Users are expanding homegrown networks with little or no control from the local phone or cable company.

Wireless clouds could support a new generation of technology, from always-on portable phones and handheld computers to futuristic sensors that could continually update weather or smog conditions, for instance.

Coverage remains limited today, a far cry from what is offered by cable, phone and cellular companies. WiFi is still mostly used to provide Internet to laptops and desktops in homes and offices as well as airports, hotel lobbies and coffee shops.

But advocates say WiFi’s organic growth, low cost and simplicity bodes well for future development. And while current wireless equipment extends DSL or cable Internet service to several hundred feet, the range can grow to a dozen miles or more with the addition of a stronger antenna.

The real potential lies in using WiFi for wide-area network coverage, going beyond its LAN scope. This is great for emerging markets who can now build a high-speed, pervasive network infrastructure, bottom-up.

A Kumar wrote in with the following update on the wireless licencing in India:

1. In the US, the FCC amended its Part 15 rules in year 1997 to make 300 Mhz of spectrum available for high speed wireless digital communication with un-licensed operation. This band called the U-NII ( Un-licensed National Information Infrastructure) band, provides spectrum at:
5.15 to 5.25 Ghz for indoor use, ( Lower band )
5.25 to 5.35 and ( Middle band )
5.725 to 5.825 for outdoor use. ( Upper band )

The peak transmitted power is limited to 23 dBm for indoor and 30 and 36 dBm ( 4 watts ) respectively for the middle and upper bands.

So, wireless operators ( WISP’s ) rolled-out large scale networks using this
spectrum, as it was free and no spectrum royalties payable and this did result in low cost products as these Radio’s were made in huge volumes thus resulting in
economies of scale.

2. In India though, these band are already used in some sensitive applications:

a. 5.15 to 5.25 Ghz for Aeronautical and Radio navigation
b. 5.25 to 5.35 Ghz by Earth exploration satellites, Space research
c. The upper band has been opened by WPC for use by ISP’s and other telecom operators for point to point as well as point to multi-point links.

Hence it is my view that 802.11a products could de-generate RF signals used for these applications, as you are aware ingenius RF Enginners in India, will rig out RF links spanning 10-12 KM’s with this so called indoor WLAN products in 5 Ghz by getting the chipset at < US $ 100 and pluging a high gain antenna of 18 – 24 dBm.

3. So, in hindsight India could opt of 802.11g standard , whenever the capacity of 802.11b is saturated as we can get 54 Mbps out of the same 2.4 Ghz spectrum used in 802.11b.

4. I also understand that in Germany and other europrean countries and Australia the 5 Ghz spectrum is used for similar RADAR applications and hence they may not approve of 802.11a standard.

Thanks for the update, Kumar. Very useful.

A report on wireless LANs which also has some stats [via Kevin Werbach], has a quote which echoes what I think: “I think that [802.11’s] potential as a last mile solution has generally being overlooked..WLAN technologies will become very widespread in the distribution of broadband access from DSL/cable nodes to local communities. It is relatively cheap to purchase/install, has global standards in place, widely available equipment, no licenses to purchase, and a nice fat bandwidth to offer.” The quote is by Tony Crabtree of Juniper Research.

Another related story — MIT scholars predict shift in telecom model:

Keeping the Internet an open entity will depend largely on users’ abilities to set up ad hoc networks among themselves, instead of large telecommunications companies controlling the infrastructure and therefore the bits that travel across it, according to some members of the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory.

With the emergence of new wireless LAN technologies, such as the IEEE 802.11 specification that lets users with the right equipment pass data back and forth across a short distance without requiring physical connections, device manufacturers that include such technology in their products are enabling users to create networks on their own.