The FCC’s decision stands. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Minnesota agreed with the 2004 FCC decision that companies, such as Vonage, provide interstate services, which put them out of an individual state’s control. This decision and its reaffirmation is mainly focused on Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, which… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: March 2007
EarthLink To Offer Wi-Fi Handsets
EarthLink has a new Wi-Fi phone, which may be hitting the market this summer. Currently in beta tests, the phone will let you make calls over the Internet through wireless broadband connections. To push this initiative along, EarthLink has been working with a number of cities to establish municipal Wi-Fi networks. The EarthLink phone and… Continue Reading
Wi-Fi Persists With Steady Evolution
Wi-Fi has become a staple technology in Australia. Sean Casey, business development manager of Intel Customer Solutions Group, considers the country a mature market, considering the uptake of the technology among consumers and businesses. Casey said the integration of a functional standard into handheld devices and laptops is driving the popularity of Wi-Fi. Part of… Continue Reading
Wireless Industry Gears Up For WiMax
This week, carriers and equipment vendors are converging in Orlando, Florida for the CTIA Wireless 2007 trade show. Mohammad Shakouri, vice president of marketing for the Wimax Forum, expects WiMax to be the main topic of talks, similar to what happened in the 3 GSM World Congress in Barcelona last month. Some vendors plan to… Continue Reading
Qualcomm Reveals New EV-DO Chipset For VoIP Handsets
Qualcomm Inc. has developed a modem chipset for its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. B, which it claims can deliver average downlink data rates of 9.3 Mbps via the 5 MHz spectrum. The company expects the Qualcomm Mobile Station Modem MSM7850 chipset to enable mobile TV, music streaming and VoIP calls. The device, which is due for… Continue Reading
Paint Your Way To Wi-Fi Freedom
EM-SEC Technologies plans to sell a wall paint that can bar or hold in WiFi radio signals. The EM-SEC Coating System provides an “electromagnetic barrier for the containment of wireless networks” that, according to Robert Boyd, vice president and director of technology at the Hampton, Virginia-based company, “reduces the threat from electronic eavesdropping and blocks… Continue Reading
WiMedia UWB Becomes A Standard, Opening Door For 480Mbps Wireless USB
That web of wires behind your computer and under your desk may soon become a thing of the past. Once WiMedia’s Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology and Wireless USB products based on WiMedia UWB hit the market. Which could happen in the very near future. UWB has finally become a standard technology as the International Organization… Continue Reading
Seven Business Reasons For Wireless VoIP
King’s Toyota reported a 48 percent growth in sales since July 2006, a development that Gerry Carmichael, its general manager, mainly ascribed to the showroom’s new wireless VoIP system from Spectralink. According to Carmichael, because the system operates with the existing switchboard and voicemail, it allows him to reach a sales or service person anytime… Continue Reading
Motorola Snags Developer Of Wireless HD
Motorola is one of the latest companies to enter the home entertainment market. Its venture capital unit, Motorola Ventures, has made an unspecified investment in wireless technology company Amimon. The U.S.-Israeli firm is known for developing a wireless high-definition interface that can be integrated in semiconductor chips to allow for wireless transfer of uncompressed high-definition… Continue Reading
802.11n Wi-Fi Draft Approved By IEEE
An IEEE working group endorsed draft 2.0 of the 802.11n wireless-networking standard, thus paving the way for a possible sale of products based on this spec by as early as this summer. With the approval, WLAN adapters and access points supporting the standard will need no radical upgrade to comply with the final spec, which… Continue Reading
China Passes U.S. As Skype’s Top Market
China has replaced the U.S. as the top market for Skype. The VoIP provider ascribed the current expansion of its market in Asia — home to 30 percent of its 171 million global subscribers — to the growing popularity of the service in China. For its China operations, Skype partnered with Tom Online Inc., which… Continue Reading
Siemens Teams With Nokia On Wi-Fi-GSM Handover
Siemens and Nokia are collaborating to perfect the handover of voice calls between corporate Wi-Fi and GSM networks. The two companies will work on certifying the compatibility of software in their products for business clients such as Nokia’s E-series mobile phones and Siemens’ fixed-mobile convergence server called MobileConnect, which is compatible with its HiPath 8000… Continue Reading
Nokia Signs On To Help With Sprint Nextel’s WiMax Deployment
Sprint named Nokia as its main partner in building its WiMax network in four Texas cities — Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio — which is expected to be operational by the first half of next year. Sprint earlier announced that it is teaming up with Motorola and Samsung to provide WiMax connection in… Continue Reading
Mobile WiMax Vs. 3G: Will Faster And Cheaper Win?
Though no one contests that mobile WiMax has been gathering momentum, some doubt whether the technology will deliver what it promises in terms of performance. Sprint Nextel believes its mobile WiMax network, which it will roll out in 2008, allows for download speeds of 2 Mbps to 4 Mbps and upload speeds of about 1… Continue Reading
New Wi-Fi Location Tracking Products
Several vendors are introducing new Wi-Fi devices for location services and tracking. According to the Yankee Group, the global location-services market is currently valued at $20 million but is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 2010. Ekahau dubbed its new radio tracking device “people tag,” which it plans to start selling for $50 during… Continue Reading