No Strings Attached

By Mike von Wahlde
Associate Editor, INTERNET TELEPHONY

As I sit here typing, an ENE swell is building off the northeast coast of the United States. Nor'easters are often the most feared of storms, but as the storm passes the resulting wave swells make for good surf throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

The storms of next-generation wireless development are starting to pound the shores with real applications and real deployments. I have been reading many news items in the past week about large deployments, mass hot spots, and subscriber interest. It's time to reap the rewards.

Austria is on top of the WLAN swell. Austria-based metronet wireless launched wireless high speed networks in January 2002, and is already operating a hundred hot spots in that country. A recent survey by the Swedish wireless magazine BrainHeart said that Austria is now the leader in the global ranking of the strongly growing WLAN networks. A prosperous and industrious nation, it bodes well for the WLAN revolution, and proves the applicability of the technology in real world.

Wireless broadband is going forward in a big way with IPWireless in Big Sky Country, of all places. The recently announced Teewinot Wireless Data, IPWireless, and Internet Connect Services network enables customers in the greater Missoula area to connect to the Internet over secure wireless links using the IPWireless pocket-sized, portable modem I discussed in a recent column. The Teewinot wireless network uses Mulitchannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) frequencies.

And in Taiwan, the 3G march carries on. On June 20, NTT DoCoMo will introduce its i-mode service in Taiwan, which becomes the first Asian country outside of Japan to get the service. The Chinese version of i-mode service will run on KG Telecom's general packet radio service (GPRS) network.

On the Bluetooth front, things are definitely still on the forward move. Texas Instruments just announced a new Bluetooth chip. The BRF6100, which integrates wireless networking technology for phones and handhelds that allows devices within a 30-foot range of one another to exchange data at speeds of 720 Kbps, will cost less than $4 in the first quarter of 2003 when it begins shipping (at least when purchased in volumes of one million units). WIDCOMM and TI have also unveiled a new Bluetooth USB dongle reference design which provides easy-to-use, cheap Bluetooth functionality. The reference design combines USB plug-and-play with fully embedded Bluetooth functionality, and is patterned on TI's BSN6050 Bluetooth solution.

And the oddest part of this wireless swell? Americans are choosing to surf the sound (pun intended) while the ocean churns. A recent study of 2,000 wireless subscribers shows that the factors that drive customer retention and satisfaction are not fast data speeds or killer apps -- its cheap service, followed by decent coverage. I guess most American wireless subscribers feel that they need to learn to swim in the calm waters before paddling into the wireless data swell.

Let's all hope they learn to swim quickly.

Mike von Wahlde welcomes your comments at mvonwahlde@tmcnet.com.