NY Times: A Wireless Format Takes Hold

Replies:

Parents:

  • None.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/30/business/30NECO.html

> A Wireless Format Takes Hold
> By JOHN MARKOFF
>
> At the recent Agenda 2001 computer conference in Phoenix earlier
> this month, there was validation and a touch of irony for the
> conference organizer, Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of the
> Ethernet office networking standard.
>
> Hundreds of those attending the conference sat in a huge
> auditorium with their portable computers wirelessly linked to the
> Internet via tiny PC cards plugged in to their machines.
>
> It was tacit validation of a theorem Mr. Metcalfe set forth years
> ago, now widely known as Metcalfe's Law, which states that "the
> usefulness, or utility, of a network equals the square of the
> number of users."
>
> The irony, of course, was that while many of the conference
> participants were using a technology that essentially provides
> wireless connections at Ethernet speeds, they were using it to
> read their e-mail and surf the Web rather than pay much attention
> to Mr. Metcalfe's conference.
>
> There is no doubt, however, that "wireless Ethernet"- formally
> known as the 802.11b wireless technical standard as specified by
> the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - is
> finally taking off.
>
> The Ethernet standard for wiring computers into local networks
> caught on two decades ago because it was "open" - owned by no
> single company and available for many to adopt and improve. Those
> same characteristics could propel wireless Ethernet as embodied
> in the 802.11b standard, which allows data to be transmitted at
> 11 megabits - 11 million bits a second.
>
> The 802.11b format is catching on so quickly that it is
> displacing alternative wireless competitors that include
> Bluetooth and HomeRF. The cost of 802.11b technology continues to
> plummet; chip sets that cost as little as $10 or less may arrive
> in the next two years. So it should become cheaper and easier to
> set up an office network wirelessly than with traditional
> Ethernet wires.
>
> To be sure, there are some clouds ahead. The 802.11b wireless
> transmitters operate on the 2.4 gigahertz radio band, which does
> not require a license to use. Some technical experts worry that
> this band may soon grow so congested that it will create the
> world's first wireless data gridlock.
>
> The standard, first popularized by Apple Computer in its Airport
> line of wireless products last year, is now being embraced so
> quickly that it is touching off a wireless "air rush" as start-up
> companies and telecommunication vendors vie to lock up valuable
> sites at airports, hotels and other public hot spots. Such
> companies operate the Internet server computers by which wireless
> users actually connect to the global network.
>
> The appearance of the wireless standard in public spaces is
> following on the heels of installations on university campuses
> and corporate office parks. And some community 802.11b wireless
> networks have been set up, including SFlan in San Francisco.
>
> As part of SFlan, some Internet hobbyists have set up inexpensive
> 802.11b networks on their rooftops and are distributing Internet
> service throughout their neighborhoods. One user, Tim Pozar, said
> his local network reached a half-mile radius around his home.

Cool!

> Brewster Kahle, a computer network expert who has led the SFlan
> project, said, "It's possible that a grass-roots broadband
> network could be built organically."
>
> But for now, commercial efforts seem to be gathering steam most
> quickly. There have been a series of announcements in recent
> weeks by wireless companies including Aerzone , Mobilstar and
> Wayport, that have struck deals with airports and hotels to
> install 802.11b.
>
> Just last Friday, United Airlines said it was teaming with
> Aerzone, a San Francisco- based subsidiary of Softnet Systems, to
> deploy 802.11b in Red Carpet Club airport lounges, gate areas and
> terminals in as many as 50 airports served by the airline.
>
> "This is potentially a huge business because we offer the two
> things people want most: relatively unlimited bandwidth and
> mobility," said Lawrence B.  Brilliant, chief executive of
> Aerzone.
>
> Just two days earlier Wayport, based in Austin, Tex., announced
> it was installing 802.11b in the lobbies of 15 hotels in the Los
> Angeles area. Wayport has already started its service at the
> Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and the Austin Bergstrom
> airport.
>
> And while so far Apple and I.B.M. are the only two computer
> makers to offer portable systems with built-in 802.11b
> capability, by early next year the standard is expected to become
> a common built-in feature on all makes of portable computers.
>
> Meanwhile, a number of sports stadium deals have been announced
> and several of the wireless start-up companies say they have been
> in talks with Starbucks to offer wireless Internet service in the
> company's nationwide chain of coffee shops.
>
> Indeed the possibility of Starbucks's encouraging customers to
> spend time sipping coffee in its stores while they read their e-
> mail has created a new technology buzz- phrase: the "high-loiter
> retail" marketplace, in the words of Brett Stewart, Wayport's
> president and founder.
>
> The wireless networks based on 802.11b are also becoming popular
> as a convenient and low-cost way to create a network within homes
> already connected to the Internet through D.S.L. or cable modems.
>
> All this activity raises the possibility that 802.11b might upset
> the plans of some of the big telecommunications giants that are
> planning to spend millions of dollars building third-generation
> data and voice cellular networks. If millions of computer users
> and companies effectively build their own high- speed data
> network from the ground up, the telecommunications carriers might
> think twice about putting money into third-generation systems.
>
> The 802.11b standards offer far greater speed than the proposed
> third-generation network standards, which generally offer two
> megabits that must be shared by all the users of a single cell.
> And the industry is finishing a standard called 802.11a, which
> will allow even higher speed - 54 megabits a second - on the 5
> gigahertz radio band.
>
> In fact, a top Microsoft executive, Craig Mundie, said his
> company was trying to rally the computer and telecommunications
> industries to agree upon that standard for the future of wireless
> data networking.
>
> If the largely spontaneous 802.11 wave does swamp the various
> other wireless data networking standards, it might be fitting.
> After all, it was as an anarchic self-assembling world of
> isolated networks that the Internet originally came into being.

--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/

Re: NY Times: A Wireless Format Takes Hold

Replies:

  • None.

Parents:

At 04:07 11/2/2000 -0500, Gerald Oskoboiny wrote:
> > Just last Friday, United Airlines said it was teaming with
> > Aerzone, a San Francisco- based subsidiary of Softnet Systems, to
> > deploy 802.11b in Red Carpet Club airport lounges, gate areas and
> > terminals in as many as 50 airports served by the airline.
> >
> > "This is potentially a huge business because we offer the two
> > things people want most: relatively unlimited bandwidth and
> > mobility," said Lawrence B.  Brilliant, chief executive of
> > Aerzone.

How do they charge the user for the bandwidth (in places like an airline)?
__
Regards,          http://www.mit.edu/~reagle/
Joseph Reagle     E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65  BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E
MIT LCS Research Engineer at the World Wide Web Consortium.

* This email is from an independent academic account and is
not necessarily representative of my affiliations.

HURL: fogo mailing list archives, maintained by Gerald Oskoboiny