Wireless

Overheard: Municipal wireless and privacy

While some cities have seen their dreams of providing wireless Internet access for all fade, others have forged ahead with wireless networks for an altogether different purpose: surveillance. Joshua Brockman, Cities Gone Wireless: Safety Or Surveillance?

Today, public safety is the “largest and most successful sector” in the municipal wireless market, according to MuniWireless.com, a Web site devoted to tracking wireless broadband projects and technologies.

Overheard: WiMAX gets a marketing makeover

It turns out the announcement isn’t a new vaporware wireless technology, it’s my favorite old vaporware wireless technology, WiMax. Sprint finally figured out what to do with it. The unbelievably frustrating part is that Sprint has pretty much slipped the deployment plan for WiMax by another two years. It’s hard to get excited about a new technology, no matter how great the investors, when I have zero confidence in the companies’ ability to deliver. Michael Mace, WiMax gets closer and further away at the same time

The involvement of Google means we’re very likely to get a pretty much open ecosystem on a major wireless network, which Silicon Valley has been collectively screaming about for years. The size of the investments mean there is a lot of money available to build out the network. People ought to be dancing in the streets here, but instead most of them appear to be either yawning or throwing spitwads.

I’d be out there dancing myself if it weren’t for the slip in the schedule.

Hat’s off to Michael Mace for explaining the real buzz around WiMAX.

Overheard: WildCharge is the real deal

I set my WildCharge pad up on my nightstand. After a phone chat, I tossed my RAZR cellphone over to the charging pad; four magnetic contact points on the phone’s adapter helped it stick to the pad. A chime indicated my phone made electrical contact and started charging…I really grew fond of not hunting for the correct cord to charge my phone. Instead, I’d finish conversations, reach over and simply drop my phone down as if I was laying it on the table.  Katherine Boehret, A Pad to Easily Power Up Your Phone

I really want one of these.

Overheard: Forget hiding your SSID — pay attention to what you name it

Many people (including myself) have tried to “hide” SSID as a security measure. Unfortunately, efforts to hide SSID ultimately fail and degrade overall WLAN performance. Lisa Phifer, Configuring service set identifiers

SSIDs are analogous to Windows workgroup names. PCs use those names to browse a network neighborhood and discover others in the same workgroup. When a PC actually tries to access a fileshare, permission is determined by computer name, user name and password. Similarly, stations use SSID to discover APs in the same ESS, but access depends upon other parameters like the station’s address, WEP keys and 802.1X credentials. Access requests must carry the right name, but the workgroup or ESS name is not a password – it identifies the resource to be accessed.

Overheard: iPhone will be most disruptive tech of 2008

But as important as the iPhone has been to the fortunes of Apple and AT&T, its real impact is on the structure of the $11 billion-a-year US mobile phone industry. Fred Vogelstein The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

This was a great “big picture” story. The iPhone really shook things up in so many ways, it’ll be awhile yet before the dust settles. Remember when you got your cell phone for free when you signed a three-year contract?

Overheard: Did Web 2.0 bubble puts national public safety network in jeopardy?

Frontline Wireless, which has made no secret of its desire to bid and win on the D-block spectrum, has a released a statement saying ” Frontline is closed for business at this time. We have no further comment.” Paul Miller, 700MHz hopeful Frontline “closed for business”

Frontline Wireless LLC was the only prospective bidder that seemed interested in buying the D-block spectrum, the only spectrum in the upcoming FCC auction that was earmarked to be shared with public safety. According the New York Times, Frontline wasn’t able to raise the $128 million dollars it had to pony up to stay in the auction.

It came as a shock because the Silicon Valley startup had big backers. Frontline’s management includes former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications Policy Janice Obuchowski.

Whispers of “Web 2.0 bubble” began to turn into out-loud happy hour conversations, but I’m not buying it. The inabilty to raise funds is more likely tied to the fact that the FCC was asking for too much. Figuratively and literally.

The auction rules for the D-block are ridiculously complex, requiring that public safety officials get the last word when it comes to deciding how to build the network — and what private company wants to have to deal with that? Even worse, whoever builds the network has to foot the entire bill, which is expected to be in the billions. Sure I’d like to spend billions of my own money and have a government bureaucracy call the shots for me. Wouldn’t you?

Overheard: The most wired city in the United States is…???

For the second year in a row, Atlanta tops Forbes.com’s survey of America’s most wired cities in the U.S.To calculate our list, we looked at the percentage of Internet users with high-speed access, the range of service providers within a city and the availability of public wireless hot spots. Elizabeth Woyke, America’s Most Wired Cities

Overheard: Wireless charging demo’d at CES

Imagine walking into a room and your phone suddenly beeps with a green LED flashing at the corner indicating a wireless charging source is available in the vicinity. Your handphone/iPod/moblie device then asks you to allow/deny charging. You press “ALLOW” and your phone is wirelessly charging. Techie-Talks, CES: Showcasing the best of wireless charging

YES! I love technology.