Ben Hammersley on Wi-Fi serendipity: Ben runs an open access point and meets interesting folks at the nearby cafe where users drop in to log on. Who'd he meet the other day? Doc Searls, blogger, raconteur, keynote addresser. Doc's account of the meeting. The danger from Wi-Fi ubiquity is that these serendipswitchidous encounters will taper off.
The Register reports on predictions of hot spot counts: Two reports they cite note that the number of public commercial hot spots are expected to be well over 45,000 by 2006.
Texas Instruments signs on SMC: in what may be another blow for chipmaker Intersil, Texas Instruments has signed on SMC Networks to use their ACX100 chips in future products, which have not yet been announced. The ACX100 chipset supports TI's PBCC encoding which is an optional flavor for 802.11g. Before 802.11g ratification, TI is pushed its faster-speed, 22 Mbps mode. I hope that they make it clear -- or their OEMs do -- whether products sold now will be flash-upgradable to 802.11g.
BusinessWeek weighs in, favoring 802.11a over Wi-Fi and 802.11g: some impeccable logic in why 802.11a is a better bet than 802.11g in the short-term and long-term. It doesn't incorporate technical and financial data, however, which we should start seeing real-world analyses of as 802.11a is deployed. It's great to say use 802.11a, but if you need a 2x or 3x denser installation for the same services, then it may be better to simply use RAID - redundant antennas with inexpensive devices.