Wireless Choice Is Far From Clear
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Picking a wireless-phone service is supposed to have gotten easy. Competition and consolidation over the past couple of years have led most companies to adopt the same basic price structure, making it easy to compare rates. Two-week trials are standard. And, in the biggest improvement the business...
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Analysis Prospects bright in the Wi-Fi arena
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It may be something of a teenage nightmare: limits on when a wireless phone can make and receive calls and to whom, restrictions on text messages and talk time, and set allowances for ring tones and other downloads &#151; all at a parent's fingertips.
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... into the rarefied air of wireless service providers, that is.
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One lousy wireless service provider buys another. It might not be all bad, though.
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NEW YORK - When it comes to selecting a wireless phone for myself to use, I have in the past been a bit of a neo-Luddite. Sure, as part of this job I get to play with all the very latest and greatest that
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The recent stir created by Verizon Wireless when it turned down a text-message campaign from an abortion rights group, and then quickly reversed itself, is a reminder that wireless carriers, just like their wired counterparts, should not decide what kind of traffic rides over their rails.
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Letters And cheap tinsel worries wifi fans
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The demand for wireless chips takes a turn for the worse for this company.
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A new battle of technologies may be in the offing in the 802.11n arena as 12 key companies have developed a key proposal to counter another one announced last week that is backed by a group of top wireless players.
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One of the big complaints lodged against wireless phone companies is poor signal quality inside buildings, especially homes.
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WiMax products abounded at a large trade show this week, but Sprint's long-term WiMax plans remain hazy as the troubled carrier sorts out its priorities.
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(InfoWorld) - The next generation of portable wireless Internet access is available in Seattle through a Clearwire trial service. Clearwire, the wireless broadband operator, has quietly begun selling PC cards and a new service that lets users access the Internet wirelessly around Seattle. Most WiMax services, including Clearwire's in other U.S. and European cities, require larger modems that must be plugged into a power outlet, making it difficult for users to carry the modem to various locations for access. The new PC card lets customers connect to the wireless network easily from laptops at cafes or elsewhere in the coverage area. Anyone can visit a Clearwire store in the Seattle area and sign up for the portable service, said Helen Chung, a Clearwire spokeswoman. After rebates, the PC card, which is made by Motorola, costs $80. Monthly service costs $60 and offers 1.5MbpsÂ download speed. The Clearwire trial service competes with mobile cellular offerings. Verizon Wireless, for example, offers a PC card for mobile data access for $60 per month with an average download speed of 600Kbps to 1.4Mbps. However, Verizon's service prohibits continuous downloading or streaming of audio and video, and some customers have complained of having their accounts cancelled for overuse. As a result, some customers subscribe to such cellular services for mobile use and also subscribe to a wired broadband connection for use in their homes or offices. The Clearwire service doesn't come with any download limits, Chung said, so it could be used as a customer's only broadband connection. The cellular operators have an advantage, however, in that customers can use the services while mobile, such as when traveling on a train or in a car. The current Clearwire service is not designed to support connections while the user is moving. Chung couldn't say how many customers are using the service. She also cautioned that the service is a trial and so it's unclear what it might cost in the future. In May, Clearwire announced that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission had approved a Motorola PC card that the operator planned to use. At the time, Clearwire said the card would be available in its markets during the second half of the year. That same month, Clearwire said that along with Intel and Motorola it had completed a trial of a mobile WiMax service in a Portland, Oregon, suburb. Clearwire said it hoped to make that service available in 2008. Sprint Nextel Corp. is also in the process of building a mobile WiMax network, expected to launch next year. Clearwire currently offers its fixed service in 16 U.S. states as well as five international markets.
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An analyst rants Opinion Let me begin with a warning that am about to get on one of my hobby horses. This one has to do with the notion that modern wireless and mobile technology is largely about enabling people to become more mobile in the way they live and work, as if they were previously chained to one location and magically liberated by the latest gadgetry and connectivity. The notion seems to be that having access to email and other applications while mobile means that people are getting out and about more.â¦
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No one every said Wi-Fi was perfect. It suffers from difficult setup, questionable security, interferences from appliances, and doesn&#39;t always stretch its signal as far as advertised.
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The convergence of desktop and mobile phones into a single, go-anywhere gadget that works on multiple wireless networks may seem just around the corner, but large-scale deployments are still a long way off, said IT professionals and vendors at Interop.
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BusinessWeek Online - Wireless service providers have long faced a dilemma when it comes to the towers that help transmit calls. Customers want seamless coverage -- except they don't want the coverage-boosting cellular towers in their backyards.