Recently in WiFi Category

So, this morning I got curious: how well did iPhone sell over the weekend? I figured I might be able to get an idea by calling some of the larger Apple Stores around the country. I went to http://www.apple.com/retail and grabbed phone numbers for five stores: one each in Los Angeles, CA; Dallas, TX; New York City; Tampa, FL; and Lyndhurst, OH (near Cleveland).

 

Then, bracing for the time-consuming task of navigating phone menu systems, I hit the phone. Since I was calling mid-morning Eastern Time, I started with stores on the East Coast. I got through three of the five numbers before concluding that I wasn’t going to be able to get the info I wanted—at least not if I was honest about being a journalist. (Since I was planning to write an article and needed specific people to quote, I couldn’t just go undercover.)

 

At the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City, I was told that no-one at the store could comment to the media about anything iPhone-related. I was directed to call the a media relations person (the rep I spoke to implied this person knew about the specific store on Fifth Ave). I took the number, and went on my merry way.

 

After leaving a message for the media relations person, I tried my luck at the Apple Store on West Shore Blvd in Tampa, Florida. That store must have been hopping, since I got a busy signal. Next, on to the Legacy Village Apple Store in Lyndhurst, OH. After listening to a few of the menu options, it became apparent to me that all Apple Stores use the same phone system, so I saved time by deciding not to hear all the choices; instead I pressed the number for ‘all other questions.’

 

“We won’t actually be able to comment on that,” the gentleman I reached at the Legacy Village Apple store told me after I identified myself as being from the media. “If you’d like to call our media relations department, you’re more than welcome. I can get you that number.”

 

When I asked the rep if the media relations person was familiar with sales at particular stores, he told me, “We won’t speak about individual sales via stores.”

 

When he gave me the media relations number, it turned out to be for the same woman I’d been referred by the New York City store. So there you have it. Stopped in my tracks. I may have more to report later if the media relations person I left a message for calls me back.

 

I should stress that the two Apple Store reps I spoke with were very friendly, and I know they were just doing their job by throwing up barriers when they learned I was from the press.

 

One final note: if you’re wondering whether or not a particular Apple Store has iPhones available, you can find this information at www.apple.com/retail/iphone after 9:00 p.m. each night (once the store closes, staff determines if iPhones will be available the following day).

Sometimes, being an early adopter of new technology is not the best business strategy. That’s the tact being taken by wireless products manufacturer Motorola. CNet News reporter David Meyer wrote in a Friday article that, speaking at a ZDNet event in London, Motorola senior products manager Angelo Lamme said the company has no plans to make any 802.11n-based products until the standard is fully ratified by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

 

That’s despite the fact that 802.11n may not be ratified until 2009.

 

“We’re going to wait until the final standard has been set,” Meyer quote Lamme as saying. “It doesn't make sense to ship yet, as enterprises won't adopt (802.11n) that early, and we don't want our customers to end up with noncompliant, prestandard equipment.”

 

Wow, that’s quite a firm stance. One wonder, though, how long it will hold out. What if it really does take until 2009 before 802.11n is ratified? Will Motorola really wait that long to start manufacturing the next generation of wireless products? Even though the standard is not yet hardened, a lot of other manufacturers are jumping on board anyway. That could be a mistake, or it could be a smart move given how fast technologies change.

 

Not that I’ve got anything against standards, mind you. I just wonder if Motorola can really afford to take such a strong “wait-till-its-finished” approach when so many of its competitors are unwilling to be so patient. After all, as Meyer points out, another wireless industry group, Wi-Fi Alliance, plans to start certifying 802.11n products in June, despite the fact there’s no guarantee “that equipment currently available will be interoperable with the finalized standard.”

 

802.11, Meyer notes, promises to deliver improved bandwidth and range; many vendors, including Intel, have already started shipping products that conform to the draft 802.11n standard. Since it’s not in final draft yet, though, the standard could change significantly before it’s ratified by IEEE.

 

Meyer quotes Lamme as saying that Motorola’s 802.11n strategy is designed to protect enterprises and consumers. Those who adopt 802.11n draft products may later find themselves locked into technology that becomes redundant in only a few years.

 

What do you think—is Motorola making a mistake or being prudent?

In a recent Slashot post (April 27), a contributor identified as Zonk shared info from another contributor, Codecracker007, indicating that the government in India is planning to roll out free, 2 Mbps broadband access for all resident of the subcontinent by 2009. This is according to an April 26 article in The Economic Times which said that the service will be provided by government owned operators BSNL and MTNL.

That report warned that this plan, if implemented, “holds the potential to kill the telecom business as we know it.” That being said, it not too surprising, given that “the Indian government and its autonomous regulatory bodies are very proactive in holding the consumer interests above the operators.” The Slashdot post said that this heavy-handiness on the part of the government has helped reduce long distance and wireless tariffs by up to a factor of 20 during the past seven years.

So what does all this have to do with wireless? Well, as another Economic Times article (dated April 27) pointed out, much of the success of this initiative will rely on how wireless spectrum is doled out.

“The government must quickly decide on the modalities of 3G rollout and the spectrum issues, as 3G is essentially high-speed wireless broadband and the key to providing internet services in remote areas,” the article said.

In related news, WiMAX Day reported May 2 that the Department of Telecommunications in India is coming under increasing pressure to release radio frequencies for WiMAX network use. WiMAX, for those not familiar, is the souped-up cousin of WiFi that provides stronger signals capable of traveling greater distances between transmitters (often referred to as nodes). In many regions, WiMAX has been championed as the solution to providing wireless broadband in rural areas.

WiMAX Day said in its report that an Intel-hosted seminar was held last week in New Delhi, during which the chipmaker “urged the government to allocate 2.3 ~ 2.4 GHz, 2.5 ~ 2.69 GHz and 3.3 ~ 3.6 GHz frequency bands for use with WiMAX.”

The report noted that “The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has already recommended 3.3 ~ 3.6 GHz frequencies to the DoT, however the government has yet to release this spectrum.”

According to WiMAX Day, TRAI proposed that 200 Mhz of the spectrum in question should be doled out in blocks of 15Mhz. But, Intel and many local operators say that 30 Mhz is more appropriate for minimum bandwidth requirements.

Keep one eye peeled on India. It definitely looks like an interesting wireless broadband battle is heating up there. Depending on how it plays out, who knows—maybe we’ll all be able to learn something from India.

The CTIA Wireless 2007 show kicks off tomorrow in Orlando, Florida. Already the newswires are starting to get flooded with announcements from wireless industry companies promoting their latest products, services and achievements. A quick search on Google News for “ctia” turned up the following:

I’m bracing for continued deluge of news as the show gets underway, and will be blogging, albeit from afar, on events and news that catch my eye.

 

In the meantime, here’s a question for you (courtesy of CTIA’s home page): what word do you feel best describes “wireless”?

 

a. Everywhere

b. Marketplace

c. Fashion

d. Exhibits

e. Freedom

f. Global

g. Cool

h. Other

i. None of the above

Meraki Networks—a Mountain View, California-based provider of wireless networking devices—is on a mission: bring WiFi to the masses. Or, as the company put its, “to bring affordable Internet access to the next billion people.”

 

How’s the company intend to do that? By making available what it calls “the first consumer wireless mesh Internet network designed to ‘unwire the world.’” First stop, San Francisco.

 

Meraki today announced that, during the next several weeks, it will be working with official in San Francisco to deploy a WiFi mesh network that’ll provide free access to 15,000 residents.

 

Okay, let’s back up here a little. What exactly is a mesh WiFi network? According to a definition provided on SearchNetworking.com, mesh WiFi is kind of like a high-tech version of the old bucket brigade: “A wireless mesh network is a mesh network created through the connection of wireless access points installed at each network user's locale. Each network user is also a provider, forwarding data to the next node. The networking infrastructure is decentralized and simplified because each node need only transmit as far as the next node.”

 

Meraki makes just such nodes. Its product page lists two devices: the $49 Meraki Mini (wireless access point and repeater) and the $99 Meraki Mini Outdoors (weatherproof version of the regular Mini). A free, Web-based toolbox (Dashboard) lets you set up and manage your mesh network from anywhere.

 

“We want to bring Internet access to the next billion people in the world,” said Biswas. "Wireless networks offer the best opportunity we have to connect the rest of this country and the rest of the world to the Internet and our mesh technology is offering an inexpensive and easy way to do it,” said Meraki founder and CEO, Sanjit Biswas, in a statement.

 

The mesh network Meraki is setting up in San Francisco will use outdoor wireless routers to cover an area from Mission Delores Park through Castro and Duboce Park neighborhoods to Alamo Square Park. (The map image shown here of this area is courtesy of Meraki.)

“This is really a community project, and we are excited to work with individuals, families and businesses in this neighborhood to build out the availability of free access,” said Sanjit Biswas. “Our goal with this project is to bring free Internet access into homes across this neighborhood and into surrounding areas.”

If you live in San Francisco, within the area Meraki is covering, do let me know how this all works out, okay?

Among manufacturers that make chips and other components found in wireless consumer electronics products like cellphones and PDAs, there is a definite trend toward trying to cram more and more functionality into smaller and smaller spaces.

 

One way to do this, ABI Research noted in a new report out today, is to create wireless integrated circuits (ICs, also known as computer chips) that truly are integrated in the sense that they bring together multiple wireless connectivity technologies—such as WiFi, GPS, and FM radio.

 

In other words, the convergence of different wireless communications technologies is being applied to the very chips that power handheld device applications.

 

ABI predicts that by 2011, 32 percent of all ICs with Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMedia, GPS and FM radio functionality will be “integrated products that are either incorporated into a connectivity package combining two or more solutions, or will be integrated with a host processor or baseband processor.”

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, ABI predicts that the two equipment sectors to see the majority of this integration will be cellular handsets and mobile computing.

 

The change is happening already, ABI said. Analyst Stuart Carlaw used two examples to illustrate this point:

 

Broadcom’s recently launched BCM4325, which integrates Bluetooth, FM radio and WiFi in a single IC

 

CSR’s recent acquisitions of NordNav and Cambridge Positioning Systems, in line with the company’s goal to begin producing ICs that combine GPS and Bluetooth

 

“We are on the cusp of a high level of integration activity, as silicon vendors look to add value to their offerings, diversify, and differentiate themselves in what are increasingly competitive markets,” Carlaw said in a statement.

 

ABI said in its report that integration is a vital tool silicon vendors must use to maintain margins in markets where original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are squeezing their suppliers for every last drop.

 

“It also allows vendors to meet ever stricter OEM requirements for power saving and board space,” ABI said of IC integration. “There is a distinct possibility that the trend towards integration will significantly alter the competitive silicon supplier landscape.”

 

How do you see this integration changing the marketplace?

Two terms that are tossed around very frequently in the telecommunications industry are “dual-mode” and “fixed-mobile convergence.” Both refer to the idea that, someday, there may be phone services and handsets available that let users seamlessly switch between different types of networks. Most often, the idea is that those will be cellular and WiFi networks.

 

Dual-mode services promise to improve the end-user experience when using next-generation telephony—saving money on minutes and getting access to better bandwidth when within range of WiFi network, but retaining connectivity via cellular in virtually all locations.

 

A new report out this week from Ovum, though, says that the industry of late has been much too focused on the development of dual-mode phones. All this hype, the research firm claims, is creating unrealistic expectations surrounding the viability of dual-mode telephony anytime in the foreseeable future.

 

“We predict that by the end of 2010, only just over 2 percent of mobile subscribers, or less than five and a half million people, will have purchased dual-mode services, almost ten years after vendors first began talking up the potential of the technology,” Ovum analyst Jan Dawson said in a statement.

 

In fact, Ovum questions whether dual-mode services will ever take off as hoped.

 

“Equipment vendors have been fixated on dual-mode phones as the key form of fixed-mobile convergence, but the people responsible for implementing this at the carriers are really skeptical that the devices and solutions are ever going to be ready for prime time,” Dawson says.

 

Dawson goes on to point out that “fixed-mobile convergence” can and should encompass much more than just dual-mode phones and services. One element that should be included is “identity convergence”—the ability of consumers to use the same phone number, e-mail address, username and password on both their wired and wireless devices.

 

Identity convergence offers obvious benefits to users, but Dawson says that it is online portals like Yahoo!, Google and MSN that are taking the lead in this area, rather than carriers—to the detriment of the carriers.

 

Another area that’s not getting enough play, Dawson says, is remote access and control.

 

“Remote access and control is nascent today but there's a big opportunity here for the carriers to invest in technology and capture this opportunity as it arises,” Dawson says in the report. Consumers likely would be very excited about—and willing to pay for—services such as ability to remotely program their DVRs or check home monitoring systems.

 

On the business end, the Ovum report advises that carriers looking to invest in FMC should consider mobile extension and enterprises gateway services that provide intelligent call routing and control for enterprises looking for ways to reduce mobile spending.

 

“These solutions are going to deliver many of the benefits people associate with dual-mode solutions without the costs and hassle of deploying a WiFi infrastructure for voice, or the limitations of dual-mode devices,” says Dawson.

 

The Ovum report, if its predictions and analysis are correct, should serve as a wake-up call to the telecommunications industry. Dual-mode services may not fly, but other FMC services have great potential.

 

“Recent merger and acquisition activity has left us with three major players with a significant opportunity to combine wireline and wireless offerings, but we've yet to see any real moves in this direction,” Dawson notes. :Now is the time to act.”

 

What do you think—is Ovum on the money or does this report miss the mark?

Here’s something that landed on my virtual desk the other day, which I thought was kind of interesting: Spotigo, which claims to run “the world’s largest hotspot directory,” now boasts more than 180,000 WiFi hotspot listings, 100,000 of them in Europe.

 

The directory lets you search for WiFi hotspots in more than 130 countries, and sort your results by country, city, ZIP code, provider and site type (e.g. café, hotel, park). For American users, the search form may be a bit confusing with its European flair (cities are selected as “town” and you’d use the Postcode field for ZIP). Also, once you select USA as the Country, there is one single pull-down list for cities, and it doesn’t specify which state the city is in.

 

I took the directory for a whirl, choosing USA and then Norwalk as the town (that’s the city where TMCnet is headquartered). At first, I thought the search had malfunctioned because it appeared that only a longer version of the form loaded on the results page. But then I scrolled down and voila! It found 32 WiFi hotspots in Norwalk, including at the Barnes & Noble café, The UPS Store, and several Starbucks stores.

 

Then, I decided to see if there were any listings for my hometown of St. Albans, Vermont. I selected “Saint Albans” from the Town list, and was puzzled by the one result it found, location: 1050 Ben Road, St. Albans, 25177. Strange, I don’t recall a Ben Road in St. Albans, VT. Ah, here’s why: ZIP code 25177 is for St. Albans, West Virginia.  I guess that’s the flaw with one list of cities, no state specified.

 

So, Spotigo’s search form is a bit clunky, but nonetheless it may be useful. Now what I’m curious to hear back is whether or not its listings are reliable. Is there really a WiFi hotspot at 1050 Ben Road in St. Albans, West Virginia?