Network Computing reviews 802.11a APs

Network Computing reviews thestate of 802.11a gateways. Their winner was a Proxim Harmony, a fairly expensive unit at $695. Netgear and Linksys had poorly performing units, costing well under $400 (for the SOHO market). The Netgear is powered by an Atheros chipset, but I'm unsure what 802.11a chipsets the other products use. UPDATE: Jim Thompson (Musenki wizard and former CTO of Wayport), notes that all of the reviewed designs are based off of the Atheros reference design.

Business Week on the Mesh

Business week reports on the ways WiFi are putting broadband power in the hands of the people, and goes on to speculate on how this could reshape the broadband oligopoly. Personally, I think that citizen-controlled broadband access is a wonderful idea - but there are two issues (also read opportunities) here as well:

  • Interconnect to the Internet: Which means that if people are going to violate their AUPs, oligopolies will attempt to squash them or at least paint them in a negative light. Note how the conversation in the mainstream media falls into the classic "Robin Hood" mold, talking about stealing from the bandwidth-rich and giving to the rest of us.

  • Management of the mesh: Until enough of these devices make their way into people's hands, there will be reliability problems and poor user experiences for the non-techie. And when deployment does become widespread, interference and spectrum use become an issue, especially in dense urban environments. For broadband to really reach all of the urban areas in the country, we're going to need much smarter devices and we're going to need some (loose-handed) management, especially at the network interconnect points. That takes time and energy, which means money.

Community broadband activists: We need to be careful about how the media portays us, lest we become painted with the same "hacker, cracker, pirate, lawbreaker" brush that the MPAA and RIAA love to paint users of file swapping services and internet radio. This starts with terminology and concrete example. Why do we call it wardriving, for example? Or Warchalking? Well, it sounds cool, and we techies like the sounds of the terms. It sounds cool and dangerous. But it plays into the monopolist's hands.

We can battle this. Get involved in, and promote a low-income or egalitarian use of WiFi, like a project to wire towns in the Dominican Republic or set up wireless access at your local library.

Besides, it'll feel good helping out, too.

Related Stories patch accepted for Movable Type 2.2, Dave Winer's comments

I just heard back from Benjamin Trott, one of the authors of Movable Type, and he tells me that the new Google search (on both titles and excerpts) will be included in MT 2.2! Cool.Also, Dave Winer (glad you're back from the hospital, Dave!) posted about the Google hack in today's Scripting News. I'm glad that he liked it. However, he may have misunderstood what I was doing - my hack doesn't give you a Google-It macro that just puts a link to a Google search. Instead, it actually performs the search when you build the page, and puts the related links right on the page as well. This removes a step from the process, and more clearly adds context to each entry. In addition, whenever the index page is rebuilt (like when new entries or comments are posted), the Google-created links are updated, even for old stories. If Dave is looking for a Radio implementation of this, he should look at Jake Savin's macro.

WiFi speedbumps in the UK

The Register reports on a potential threat to the UK's new freedom in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Up until 2weeks ago, 802.11b outdoor or commercial use was prohibited. Now, the Low Power Radio Association is feeling threatened by this, according to their article.

My comments: It's funny, just when I think that the USA has problems with the FCC and its Part 15 rules in the 2.4 GHz spectrum, I'm remineded that there are countries with even less freedom of the airwaves available. I'm also surprised that Wi-Fi itself isn't considered "low-power" - sure, it is lower power than say, Bluetooth, but surely not much less power than alarm circuits or meter-reader radios. Sounds more like an established player is looking to hold onto its turf.

Joltage Networks signs up Atlas Broadband

Joltage and Atlas Broadband announced apartnership that will allow Atlas' existing clientele, in addition to other enterprises of all sizes, to transform their locations into Joltage-powered Hotspots. The two companies will deliver jointly the tools, services and support for creating and maintaining freestanding areas of high-speed, fixed wireless Internet access.

Joltage will provide the registration, authentication, billing, payment processing and quality management services. Atlas will supply the broadband connection with speed and quality of service guarantees.

They are also offering a website promotion to receive a free access point when you sign up for Atlas Broadband and Joltage.

I'm still perplexed by Joltage's business model, but hey, maybe they can pull it off.

NTT and Singapore Telecom each announce massive WLAN deployments

Alan Reiter posts a good analysis of two recent moves by big asian telecom carriers -Singapore Telecom andNTT DoCoMo to roll out massive numbers of hotspots throughout public Singapore and Tokyo, respectively.

These are big moves, and show off two interesting points:

In the NTT case, they are agressively making moves in the 2.4GHz space even though the ministry of Posts and Telegraphs (the Japanese equivalent of the FCC) hasn't officially opened the spectrum for outdoor use. Reliable word on the street is that they will be opening up the 2.4GHz spectrum along with a piece of the 5.1GHz spectrum for use with unlicensed devices.

In the Singtel case, they are promoting the use of the Nokia D211 multimode radio card, which supports GPRS and 802.11b WLANs. This is, in my opinion, the sweet spot where the established carriers show their true muscle.

This is also a page that the US carriers should seriously consider, both as a bridge to their 3G rollouts and as a way to lock up the business user market and to force handset manufacturers to include these capabilities in their new handsets and PDAs. If and when this happens, say goodbye to the fledgling WISP aggregator model, a la Boingo and Joltage, and all the little WISPS sprouting up where wired broadband is hard to find. The ISP model (and WISP model) will be won by those with the most capital and the most locations; any other players will have to survive at the fringes and in the smaller niches where they can dodge the footsteps of the giants.

Hey, this happened before, with the wired internet as a model, and some of the bigger ISPs were able to hang on against the ILECs. But what is so surprising to me is how quickly these large carriers are learning from their past mistakes and are getting out there with service now.