NetStumbler.com

The city of Pune, India is going to be unwired by Intel over the next year. The plan is to use WiFi and WiMax technologies to cover 400 square kilometers of the emerging tech hub city with wireless net access. The area is riddled with high tech companies who definatly know a few things about technology and can leverage it well. As well the local government seems to bee keen on various education and e-government initiatives that could be launched over the network.
Via [computerworld.com]

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 Orleans still without basic phone service, Bellsouth and other telco’s want to shut down the free access and prevent the city from doing so again in the future. If the Telco’s cannot provide reliable service, stopping the only internet lifeline for some area’s seems to be a bad idea. However when one looks at Bellsouth’s Wimax installations in New Orleans, you can understand that they would prefer that people use thier free service, rather than a municipal free one.
Via [redherring.com]

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 yet. Convergance of Wifi and Cell networks would be the best and most profitable solution. Us Wifi and VoIP at home and cell on the road.
Via [mercurynews.com]

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]

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 in case of disaster, you probobly have other things to worry about. If you building blows away, not having broadband is the least of your worries. The service would be much more useful as a raoming value added where a home/business is using wired broadband and has WiMax available for emergency, but also allowing users to roam when away from the office and the service is not being used for backup.
Via [news.com.com]

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 expand, rather than scaring them away with high cost of entry. The usual manufacturer/standards squabling seems to also be affecting the market. Proprietay extensions and control locks in customers to specific vendors. Hopefully the realize that working together might make the market grow more than fighting against the customer demands.
Via [technewsworld.com]

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 that much and how secure it will be.
Via [pcmag.com]

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.
Via [electronicsweekly.com]

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]

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 and the Wi-Fi alliance. With the draft of 802.11n being finalized, manufacturers are scrambling over each other to be the first out with ‘n’ gear without being sure that they will be compatible with the final ‘n’ specification. What’s left is consumers scratching thier heads as to the alphabet soup and wondering why one device won’t talk to another.
Via [wi-fiplanet.com]

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 the larger area makes it a much more valuable service, particularly for business people.
Via [informationweek.com]

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 hopefully hook a userbase for the product.
Via [techworld.com]

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]

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 with cities to roll out municipal WiFi projects. First out of the gate is Google and Earthlink in San Francisco, but there are many more in the pipeline it seems.
Via [redherring.com]

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 sorts of communication problems and say it will kill 3G and WiFi at once. Others seem to think that WiMax will only appeal for niche markets such as rural broadband. Only time will tell who was right.
Via [news.bbc.co.uk]