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Catching up from a week of backlog: I've categorized some of the stories I've seen or had sent to me in the last week while on vacation into a few areas for easier browsing.
Spectrum and Policy
Crisp summary of 5 GHz compromise: The more I read about the US military and US industry compromise on the use of the 5 GHz band (including, I believe, more spectrum to be opened up), the more I think that the adaptive response to radar presence is just a modification of or extension to 802.11h, the European power/signal adaptive modification to 802.11a. Does anyone know for sure?
More digits: 802.16a approved: The 802.16 working group at the IEEE deals with wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs) which are typically used for back haul, or aggregating many customer premises connections into a stream sent back to a high-speed backbone. The 802.16 group has focused on licensed applications, although its work is now broadly applicable to the 5 GHz band. Note at the end of the article Alvarion is moving its proprietary 5 GHz gear into compliance with 802.16 for better industry-wide adoption.
A step towards US spectrum harmonization/coordination: The FCC and NTIA signed an agreement that should allow better coordination of frequency policy. Now if Congress could just sign an agreement that says that they won't introduce individual bills to govern frequency reallocation but rather only create omnibus bills for spectrum that separate out the auction issue, we might have a national policy. Until then, Congress can always try to force the FCC's hand.
Hot Spots
Intel, Wayport co-market: Interestingly vis-a-vis Intel's investment in Cometa, Intel will be offering marketing support to Wayport to promote their new inclusion of wireless networking technology in chipsets. Wayport reveals some numbers: 126K connections per month (no breakout for subscribers versus one-day sessions), but only 5 to 10 percent are wireless. Still, an interesting benchmark of 6,000 to 12,000 wireless connections per month. (Wayport's hotel networks are still largely the older Ethernet into the room style.)
Insite into UK Wi-Fi: UK cell operators paid about US$40 billion for 3G licenses; they're running scared. British Telecomm continues to push forward on their target of 400 hot spots by August. (Wasn't that 400 hot spots by last year originally and 4,000 this year?) [via Alan Reiter]
Starbucks adds Florida: T-Mobile, HP (?), and Starbucks launch service in certain outlets in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay next week. HP continues to appear on these press releases, but their role appears to be as a supplier/brand supporter.
Spotty Wi-Fi hot spots in Hawaii: Wi-Fi hot spots are increasing, but pricing and availability are spotty and inconsistent.
Intel's Wi-Fi entry causes yawns in industry: Many of those quoted don't expect Intel incorporating Wi-Fi into their motherboard designs will have an impact on the industry -- Intel has little experience in the field, and customers will want more than they're going to build in, they say. Another point: Intel won't be able to sell motherboards that have Wi-Fi built in to secure facilities.
Other News
Pyramid Research's latest Wi-Fi newsletter: Some excellent insight from Pyramid Research in their free Wi-Fi newsletter.
Phil Windley, Utah's Wi-Fi poster child: Phil, Utah's very tech hip (but always focused on utility) Chief Information Officer, talks about the ways to secure Wi-Fi in a local newspaper article.
News.com on the potential for point-to-point and mesh wireless to the home: A nice survey of the options out there, the technology to feed it, and some of the companies involved, focused on Etherlinx and John Furrier.
Proxim announcements: I don't like to post press releases, but Proxim is now the 400 to 600 pound gorilla, and thus small to large changes and announcements by them have ripple effects. Over the last week they made several announcements. Orinoco AP-2000, AP-2500 price drops, and AP-2000 802.11g kit: list on the AP-2000 is $595; the AP-2500 $795. The AP-2000 is a solid enterprise access point that can be aggregately managed; the AP-2500 adds VLAN support among other features. The AP-2000 has two slots, allowing a + b or a + g support with a new card. The new 802.11g card for this unit has a list of $149 and will ship in the second quarter.