Updates to Cheap Home Gateways: the article on inexpensive WiFi gateways for home networks has been updated, and now sports eleven devices at $330 or less, with eight under $300. The options are staggering.
Asante announces wireless option for their residential gateway: Asante previewed at the Seybold trade show this week their new WiFi option for their home gateway. The Asante gateway should retail for $320, and features two 10/100 Mbps switched LAN ports, a parallel printer connection, and print spooler. Additional details to follow later this month.
ISP News reports on MobileStar's deployment plans for public space WiFi: MobileStar offers public access to a WiFi network for a fee in hundreds of U.S. locations. They signed a contract in early January 2001 with Starbucks to add wireless access to several thousand of the coffeeshop's U.S. outlets over the next two years. MobileStar's CEO and other executives left the firm within weeks of the Starbucks deal; no explanation was offered for the departures by the company or the executives I spoke with. However, the news this week that MobileStar contracted with IBM to handle the wiring and installation of their network puts deployment back on track. The article is unclear on whether the company will continue to roll out both WiFi and OpenAir (a HomeRF-compatible protocol for HomeRF's lower speed); it implies it will. In article I prepared for a publication a few weeks ago, the company declined comment through a spokesperson about their plans regarding HomeRF.
Sprint offers 2.4 Mbps cell phone: Sprint claims to have successfully tested a cell phone that can transmit 2.4 Mbps using 3G (third generation) cellular technology. I'm curious to get the details, as the laws of physics demand a rapid dropoff in power (and thus signal to noise ratios) as you move further away from a transmitter. At 1000 feet you should be able to send considerably less data than at 500 feet. And Sprint can't be planning to build nano-cells.
A highly technical but remarkably clear explanation of how WiFi sends and receives data