Tag Archive for 'Wi-Fi'Page 2 of 2


Call for Papers: Infrastructure Regulation: What works, Why, and How do we know?
Deadline: 05 December 2008.




The new new thing in WiFi

A Wi-Fi Express Lane - New York Times

IT’S axiomatic in the computer world that nothing is ever fast enough. And so it goes with popular wireless Wi-Fi networks, which already seem overcrowded and slow. The growing interest in video sites like YouTube and streaming TV programs online has served to underscore the problem. Naturally, the wireless manufacturers are happy to step into the breach with a new, faster Wi-Fi standard. Well, almost.

Under the technical rubric 802.11n, the new Wi-Fi routers and adapters for desktops and laptops are based not on a completed specification but on a draft version of the specification that is before the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards body. The institute standard is not expected to be ratified until early…

ICT Infrastructure Issues in Sri Lanka Part 2

Please continue discussion from the thread Dharmashala meeting on Wi-Fi here. This thread is dedicated to ICT infrastructure issues in Sri Lanka that include mesh networks in Mahavilachchiya, backbone infrastructure, Wi-Fi and Wimax licensing etc. Please keep discussion civil.

UK city gets into free wi-fi game

“Norwich is pioneering a free wi-fi project which covers three sectors of the UK city and its centre.

The £1.1m, 18-month pilot has been live for three weeks and is backed by the East of England Development Agency.

Paul Adams, from Norfolk county council said: “It allows people to see the benefit of wireless technology.”

The city centre, county hall and educational establishments such as the university all have wi-fi access.

Mr Adams, director of corporate resources and cultural services, said: “The original idea was to use it as a demonstration project - to wireless-enable a significant part of the city so we could begin to see what the benefits were in terms of economic development, benefit for the public and public services workers.”

“We don’t know what will happen…

More on Google’s Wi-Fi service

In developed markets where the foundation of a high-capacity data transmission network exists, WiFi overlays are likely to be very effective. In emerging economies, where the foundation is yet being built, the same solutions may not as effective. But it is worth following the action, described in the NYT article below.

“Google has deployed 380 lamppost-mounted Wi-Fi transceivers in Mountain View to make wireless Internet service available to anyone who has registered for a Google account, which is free. The company has invested a significant amount in promoting the benefits of wireless Internet access. It has held a series of tutorials, one of them drawing 750 residents.

Users will be limited to one-megabit data rates for both uploading and downloading information, somewhat slower than digital subscriber line…

Google mesh network is running in California

A journalist report on Google\’s mesh network that is now operational in Mountain View, CA:

\”In the first week in August I drove down to Mountain View on a sweltering afternoon looking to test out the promise of free or cheap phone calls and ubiquitous internet access over a city-wide wi-fi network.

Thanks to Google, the city has been blanketed by wi-fi, which will soon allow its residents to connect to the wireless internet all over the city for free.

Using a technology called mesh, Google has placed hundreds of wi-fi nodes on lamp posts around the city that can connect your laptop or handheld device to the internet. For a town that gets the service, it\’s like living in a giant wi-fi hotspot.\”

Full story

The Wi-Fi threat to mobile

Later this year, T-Mobile plans to test a service that will allow its subscribers to switch seamlessly between connections to cellular towers and Wi-Fi hotspots, including those in homes and the more than 7,000 it controls in Starbucks outlets, airports and other locations, according to analysts with knowledge of the plans. The company hopes that moving mobile phone traffic off its network will allow it to offer cheaper service and steal customers from cell competitors and landline phone companies like AT&T.

“T-Mobile is interested in the replacement or displacement of landline minutes,” said Mark Bolger, director of marketing for T-Mobile. Wi-Fi calling “is one of the technologies that will help us deliver on that promise.”

Major phone manufacturers including Nokia, Samsung and Motorola are offering or plan…

Cheaper alternative to mobile phone calls?

BBC News | Taipei to embrace net telephones 
 
The city of Taipei, in Taiwan, could have 200,000 people making phone calls using wi-fi by the end of 2006.
Ten companies are pushing a “Taipei Easy Call” initiative which involves mobiles which can switch between calls using wi-fi and the phone network.

“If this is successful, then the model could be copied in cities elsewhere in the world,” said Daniel Wongg, of the Taipei Computer Association.

The wi-fi mobiles provide a cheaper alternative to mobile phone calls.

Keeping connected in the aftermath of a disaster (Lessons from 7/7 events)

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

In the aftermath of the 7 July bombings, people were understandably keen to talk on their mobile phones. Londoners wanted to assure friends, relatives and colleagues that they were OK; keep up to date with the latest news or find out whether anyone they knew had been caught up in any of the four explosions. Yet, while speaking on a mobile phone is a routine part of modern life, for a crucial eight hours on 7 July it became difficult, and for many, impossible. In some areas of London, the sheer number of people wanting to make phone calls was enough to bring the mobile networks to their knees.

Wi-Fi “Innovation” in Indonesia: Working around Hostile Market and Regulatory Conditions

By Divakar Goswami & Onno Purbo, March 2006
LIRNEasia’s latest research paper is available for comment. The paper looks at the deployment of Wi-Fi in Indonesia, under the 2005 WDR theme, ‘Diversifying Participation in Network Development.’

Download paper: indonesia wi-fi study 2.0 [PDF]

Please post your comments below.

Executive Summary
With their low-cost and quick deployment time, wireless Internet technologies like Wi-Fi offer last-mile access network solutions to developing countries with limited network infrastructure. Among developing countries, Indonesia is unique for the extent of Wi-Fi that has been deployed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and private entrepreneurs in more than 40 towns and cities across the archipelagic nation. However, the findings from the current study finds that Wi-Fi “innovations” in Indonesia are not a result of enlightened policy designed to extend…

Politics of Wi-Fi in Cities

Throughout the past year we have debated the pros and cons of "free" (as in beer) WiFi networks in cities, especially the sustainability and fairness of using taxpayer funds to pay for the network.  An interesting commentary on the state of play in the US is given at

Advocates of Wi-Fi in Cities Learn Art of Politics - New York Times

India

Mass computing’s next big thing runs into an archaic law that bans outdoor use of Wi-Fi

Thakkar

RESHMA PATIL & PRAGYA SINGH
Posted online: Sunday, February 06, 2005 at 0154 hours IST
Indian Express

MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, FEB 5: When tech entrepreneur Jayesh Thakkar geared to connect computers—without wires—20 km away in two Vadodara offices, his corporate client first applied for a licence. They have been waiting for a year. At Mumbai, a construction giant is waiting since nine months for permission to wirelessly connect offices in two suburbs. [...]
‘‘Most big corporates stay away from outdoor WiFi use because licences are cumbersome and bureaucratic,’’ says Thakkar, director, JayRaj Exim, a company WiFi-enabling offices in Mumbai. ‘‘By the time a licence arrives, what if the technology is outdated?’’ [...]
Many WiFi believers…

India

Mass computing’s next big thing runs into an archaic law that bans outdoor use of Wi-Fi

Thakkar

RESHMA PATIL & PRAGYA SINGH
Posted online: Sunday, February 06, 2005 at 0154 hours IST
Indian Express

MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, FEB 5: When tech entrepreneur Jayesh Thakkar geared to connect computers—without wires—20 km away in two Vadodara offices, his corporate client first applied for a licence. They have been waiting for a year. At Mumbai, a construction giant is waiting since nine months for permission to wirelessly connect offices in two suburbs. [...]
‘‘Most big corporates stay away from outdoor WiFi use because licences are cumbersome and bureaucratic,’’ says Thakkar, director, JayRaj Exim, a company WiFi-enabling offices in Mumbai. ‘‘By the time a licence arrives, what if the technology is outdated?’’ [...]
Many WiFi believers…

Net Thru a Wall Outlet

Should this be added to the debate? 65% of homes have electricity; more than the 25% with some form of telecom access.

By TOM McNICHOL

HIGH-speed Internet access usually comes to homes through one of two wires: a telephone line for D.S.L. subscribers, or a coaxial cable for cable modem users. But an emergingtechnology known as broadband over power lines, or B.P.L.,may soon offer a third wire into homes, channelinghigh-speed data through a somewhat improbable conduit: anordinary electrical outlet. B.P.L. is the ultimate in plug-and-play. Users plug a smallpower line modem into any wall outlet and then connect the modem to a computer with a U.S.B. or Ethernet cable, orthrough a wireless Wi-Fi connection. The appeal of B.P.L.is that most of the wiring for the network is…

Intel to Join in a Project to Extend Wireless Use

The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by samarajiva AT lirne DOT net.

By JOHN MARKOFF,
SAN FRANCISCO,

In an effort to create a global wireless alternative to cable and telephone Internet service, Intel said on Monday that it would collaborate with Clearwire, a wireless broadband company, in developing and deploying the new technology. The companies said that Intel would make a "significant” investment in Clearwire, which has begun building long-range wireless data networks around the world. Clearwire, founded by Craig O. McCaw, a pioneer of the cellular industry, said in August that it had raised $160 million from 23 investors in a private stock transaction. The companies are betting that a new wireless technology called WiMax - which is intended to extend the…

Why LIRNEasia?

Provisional Mission Statement: Improving the lives the people of Asia - by making it easier to use the information and communication technologies they need; by changing the laws, policies and regulations to enable those uses; by building Asia-based human capacity through research, training, consulting and advocacy.

Why LIRNEasia?
Enormous amounts of money are invested annually in ICTs. The potential of information and communication technologies, or ICTs for economic and social progress is substantial. ICTs aren’t necessarily the answer to higher incomes and development in itself; but together with other factors, they provide a means to improve people’s capabilities and knowledge so that they may better their lives. ‘Asia’ is the collective name for the countries roughly encircled by Russia, Turkey, Egypt and the Indian and Pacific Oceans.…