Intel research director warns of same-device wireless proliferation problems: A single cell phone in 2009 might handle GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile WiMax, Bluetooth, ultrawideband, and digital TV over something like MediaFlo--and have to have all the receiving and transmitting antennas and radio circuits within millimeters. Better cooperation among standards makers--such as what happened in 802.15.2 and the Bluetooth SIG to coordinate with 802.11/Wi-Fi--will reduce problems. The director also said 60 GHz will be the next hot band by 2012.

McDonald's free Wi-Fi (and more important IT uses): I confess I didn't know that the Wi-Fi in 8,000 McDonald's was free with purchase; I know there was a brief promotion of that sort years ago. But Nintendo DS gamers, who get free McD Wi-Fi whenever, account for 25 percent of network use. This article examines wider uses of Wi-Fi in "quick-service restaurants" (QSRs) for payment, back-office, and other purposes.

Ruckus offers interoperability testing: The Wi-Fi media adapter and bridge maker's Ruckus Interoperability and Open Testing (RIOT; good theme) Metro program counts most major mesh and metro-scale equipment makers among early partners: BelAir, Mesh Dynamics, Motorola, Proxim, SkyPilot, and Tropos. The program ensures that Ruckus's customer premises equipment doesn't work at counter purposes or encounter compatibility problems with edge networking equipment. In some cases, monitoring and remote configuration can be available to a service provider's core network operations, too.

Pings...in...spaaaaaaaace! To my knowledge, no one has employed this play on words yet (cf., The Muppet Show) for the US military's partial funding of a Q1 2009 launch of an $80m satellite that will use Internet protocol routing. Cisco and Intelsat are partners in the venture, but the private funds are coming from a venture fund. The satellite's first year of use is dedicated to Pentagon purposes; thereafter, commercial rental. The satellite will have one C-band and two Ku-band transponders.

Pierce County, Wash., sees first stages of rollout: The entire county, which encompasses Tacoma, will be covered. The rollout by CenturyTel, which specializes in less-than-urban market telecom and landlines, started with a square mile in Steilacoom.