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 lets customers make phone calls over broadband internet connections. The reason for this review of the FCC decision is Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission was looking for increased state revenue, and by registering Vonage as a phone company they would be required to pay state tariffs and adhere to rate regulations. Vonage CEO, Mike Snyder, is happy with the decision and believes his company can now grow without the constraints of pre-Internet regulations.
Via [usatoday.com]
Continue reading ‘Court Backs FCC In VoIP Case’
Archive for March, 2007
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 the service was designed to be a less expensive alternative for traditional telephone services and, in Wi-Fi hotspots, it can replace your cell phone. EarthLink is investing heavily in the Internet telephony market but faces some stiff competition from other providers such as Vonage and Skype and, across the board acceptance may be more of a long-term goal.
Via [informationweek.com]
Continue reading ‘EarthLink To Offer Wi-Fi Handsets’
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 the appeal of Wi-Fi is that it provides a cheap way to access the Internet. But widespread commercial deployment, according to Paul Budde of communication consultancy BuddeComm, will take two to three years. The answer could be in the hands of resellers. Casey said resellers need to see that “wireless is where the market is going and resellers have to go and play in this area to service consumer and enterprise demand.” He believes SMEs represent a large market as “these firms don’t have IT departments — it is difficult for them to get to grips with Wi-Fi, but resellers can come in and add value on a consulting basis.”
Jim Kellett, product manager at Internode, is confident that WiFi will have a bright future ahead in Australia. Bjorn Landfeldt, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney and a member of Smart Internet research, agreed with Kellett’s view. “Wi-Fi is definitely going to be one of the fundamental components in building infrastructure in the future. A lot of major players are interested in ensuring the technology is of a high standard.”
Via [crn.com.au]
Continue reading ‘Wi-Fi Persists With Steady Evolution’
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 showcase its WiMax devices at the CTIA, like Samsung, which will bring a handset, a mobile PC and a new USB dongle to enable wireless broadband for laptops to the trade show.
Shakouri revealed that the WiMax Forum is nearly finished with the certification requirements for new products. Certification of devices using the 2.3GHz spectrum is due by the middle of the year while those using the 35GHz will take place in the third quarter, and products using the 2.5GHz, by the end of 2007.
The technology is currently making headway in Asia. The Japanese government plans to issue more WiMax-compatible spectrum later this year. South Korea’s Korea Telecom announced it will begin offering WiMax service in 2007. Similar plans are also in the works in India, Malaysia and Pakistan. The Taiwanese government, meanwhile, is devoting $1 billion to promote the production and development of 2.5GHz WiMax products and programs.
Via [news.zdnet.com]
Continue reading ‘Wireless Industry Gears Up For WiMax’
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 sale later this year, is backward compatible with older EV-DO versions. Qualcomm announced it will release software upgrades for earlier Cell Site Modem CSM6800 to support Rev. B within the week. Qualcomm also unrolled single chip Rev. A systems including the QSC6085, which it is providing to WiFi provider China Unicom and phone maker Sanyo. India’s Tata Teleservices and China’s Huawei Mobile and ZTE are also QSC family clients.
Via [informationweek.com]
Continue reading ‘Qualcomm Reveals New EV-DO Chipset For VoIP Handsets’
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 out electromagnetic interference for the protection of electronic data.” The water-based paint was intended for use by the U.S. government and military and is certified by the National Security Agency as a Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions or TEMPEST countermeasure. The company has yet to announce how much it would charge for its product. Other similar products that are out in the market include Force Field Wireless’s DefendAir Radio Shield, an interior paint that can limit transmission of 5GHz signals, and BAE Systems’ FSS (Frequency Selective Surface) wallpaper.
Via [wi-fiplanet.com]
Continue reading ‘Paint Your Way To Wi-Fi Freedom’
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 for Standardization and Ecma International have signed off on EMA-368, ECMA-369, and ISO/IEC 26907, which provides the basis for Wireless USB. UWB uses low-power radio and multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing for short data transmissions. In the future expect all of the features and benefits of the USB 2.0 but in a completely wireless environment.
Via [arstechnica.com]
Continue reading ‘WiMedia UWB Becomes A Standard, Opening Door For 480Mbps Wireless USB’
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 and affords a salesperson more mobility. Carmichael said VoIP streamlined internal communications and led to a quieter environment as it removed the need for paging over a loud speaker system. He also credited the technology for the improvement in customer service because service agents can now go into the garage and explain the progress of repair to a customer over the phone. Since the system supports call forwarding, customers can reach sales people even during their days off. “In our business, being available is everything. If you have been working with a customer for a week and they call you with the one question that will get you the sale on your day off, and they can’t get you but they can get your competitor, you miss the sale,” Carmichael said.
Via [computerworld.com]
Continue reading ‘Seven Business Reasons For Wireless VoIP’
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 TV. Because it works with high-speed interfaces like HDMI and VGA graphics display systems, the technology enables wireless flat-panel TVs, PCs and other components to render image and sound quality similar to hardwired variants.
Via [zdnetasia.com]
Continue reading ‘Motorola Snags Developer Of Wireless HD’
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 is expected to be ratified in late 2008.
Last year, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced its plans to begin interoperability testing program for draft 2.0 equipment by June this year as well as certify and brand draft 2.0 compliant products, a reversal of a policy that only allowed testing of devices that comply with a final IEEE protocol.
Via [pcadvisor.co.uk]
Continue reading ‘802.11n Wi-Fi Draft Approved By IEEE’
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 earlier disclosed its intention to privatize its business. Scott Bagby, the new market development director at the eBay-acquired company, said the announcement has no effect on the partnership as well as Skype’s operations in the Asian nation, stressing that “Skype out” call service remains the firm’s main source of revenue there.
Via [reuters.com]
Continue reading ‘China Passes U.S. As Skype’s Top Market’
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 SoftSwitch. According to Marcus Birkl, vice president of sales for HiPath Wireless LAN at Siemens, Nokia will send some of its handsets to Siemens laboratories for interoperability and quality-of-service tests. To date, Nokia’s E60 phone has been certified to be compatible with MobileConnect, and two other E-series phones, the E61 and E70, are now being tested in Siemens labs.
Via [infoworld.com]
Continue reading ‘Siemens Teams With Nokia On Wi-Fi-GSM Handover’
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 Chicago and Washington DC, respectively, in 2008. By the end of that year, the company expects coverage to reach 100 million people in the U.S. Nokia will use its signature products like the Flexi WiMax Base Station, Access Service Network Gateway and NetAct network management platform to deploy Sprint’s network.
Via [informationweek.com]
Continue reading ‘Nokia Signs On To Help With Sprint Nextel’s WiMax Deployment’
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 Mbps on the average.
According to Kerton Group principal Derek Kerton, the success of WiMax will depend on whether it can address issues such as in-building penetration and power consumption, which its backers regard as insignificant. Ali Tabassi, Sprint Nextel’s vice president of technology development, conceded that like any wide-area wireless technologies, WiMax is not immune to in-building penetration problems. The company, however, houses a special group that has solved these issues for its cellular voice and data service, to apply its expertise to the mobile WiMax network.
Kerton admitted that Sprint has the right strategy of creating an ecosystem of products and services based on the technology. The company has contracted Motorola, Samsung and Nokia to provide equipment and handsets for its service. Intel already announced it would release chips that will have both WiMax and WiFi capabilities. Tabassi, however, could not say when these devices will be available. He expects PCMCIA cards and modems to appear in the market when Sprint carries out its launches in two markets. Samsung, he said, may come out with a dual-mode phone by the end of the year.
Via [computerworld.com]
Continue reading ‘Mobile WiMax Vs. 3G: Will Faster And Cheaper Win?’
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 the latter part of 2007. The water-resistant T301-B tag has built-in 802.11b radio based on a G2 Microsystems chip that allows Ekahau’s Positioning Engine software to identify the wearer’s location, and transmits an alert or a confirmation when the buttons are pressed. Its 2-line, self-illuminating screen allows for viewing of short text messages.
PanGo’s new Wi-Fi enabled V3 tag is now available. It is equipped with an 11b/g chipset from G2 Microsystems, which communicates via two modes — one makes full use of an access point while the other only taps an access point to transmit its MAC address and battery status to identify and locate the user. The tag features the Cisco Certified Extensions Tag Protocol that can connect devices with Cisco’s access points and its 2700 Location Appliance. It operates on one standard AA battery and has a maximum life span of five years.
This month, Trapeze Networks will release its LA200 Location Appliance to the market. The $15,000 system connects to existing wireless LANs to monitor as many as 2,000 wireless devices, like wireless laptops and handhelds, and third-party active Wi-Fi tags. Newbury Networks is providing the core technology called server-side pattern matching. The location technique retrieves the Received Signal Strength Indication reading from a wireless client and transmits this to the server software, which determines the client’s position.
Via [pcworld.com]
Continue reading ‘New Wi-Fi Location Tracking Products’
