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Written by Russell Shaw on January 28th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and WiFi and Cingular.
Written by Russell Shaw on January 10th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and trends and WiMAX and WiFi.
Written by Russell Shaw on January 9th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and General and WiFi and Earthlink.
Written by Russell Shaw on November 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Russell Shaw on November 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Russell Shaw on September 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Russell Shaw on September 14th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Software and Products and Microsoft and Reviews and WiFi.
TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: Panasonic to launch Skype WiFi phone
Tags: panasonic, skype, voip, wifi
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 1st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and VoIP and WiFi and panasonic.
Vonage and D-Link announced the availability of the VWR, a Wireless-B/G Broadband Router with 2 phone ports bundled with Vonage's service. The product leverages the Texas Instruments' TNETV1060 VoIP gateway chipset for QoS and good voice quality. The D-Link VWR packs four devices in oneone - a Wireless-B/G Access Point, a built-in 4-port switch to connect wired Ethernet devices, a router function so the entire network can securely share a single cable or DSL Internet connection, and two standard telephone jacks. Great for those of you out there who don't already own a home wireless/wired router or firewall.TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: D-Link VWR Vonage device packs 4-in-1
Tags: d-link, router, voip, vonage, vwr, wifi, wireless
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and VoIP and Wireless and WiFi.
Written by Russell Shaw on August 11th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and trends and Microsoft and WiFi.
Not since the PSP has Sony launched a consumer electronics device that falls into the must-try category. However, MyLo (my life online), a WiFi based handheld that is part-Nokia 770, part Sidekick, part OQO and part SkypePhone wrapped in a PSP-like body might change all that.
You cannot argue with the release of this device. Research shows that WiFi usage inside homes is only going to increase. There will be 160 million broadband enabled, networked homes by 2010, according to The Diffusion Group. This trend offers opportunities to sell devices specially designed for this type of environment.
Nokia was the first one to realize that when they released Nokia 770. Sony’s PSP only offered limited features, but lacked the true portability. Any communicator-type device that wants to be successful in the US, needs to have a keyboard and with MyLo, Sony has done precisely that.
The new device which is optimized for post PSTN communications - IM, email and Skype is targeting the MySpace set, that would rather thumb than talk on the phone. It can playback music, and has 1GB flash-based storage, and can also take additional memory stick slots. It truly does leverage the wireless network, and the feature which could be a killer in the long run is ad-hoc music sharing.
Providing networking possibilities without a wireless network, the mylo personal communicator detects when it comes into the presence of other mylo units. With the ad-hoc application, you can share play lists and stream music between mylo communicators one at a time.
The device has “presence” management features and allows you to track your social network of upto 90 people from a screen called “What’s up.” It also has a built in browser which makes sending emails via web interfaces easy. Now it won’t be Sony if they didn’t trip up a little - the device supports only 802.11b networks and is expensive, about $350. It will be available next month.
Full review at Engadget.
Written by Om Malik on August 8th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Connected Home and WiFi and sony and nokia.
Green Wi-Fi, a non-profit organization that aims to bring Internet access to schools in developing countries via cheap, solar-powered Wi-Fi networks, plans to start its first full-scale pilot project in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh at the end of the summer, reports News.com. Green Wi-Fi will be doing the India project for a Canadian aid organization that has asked for Wi-Fi in three schools in the northern Indian state where electricity is unreliable. One of these schools has a cable connection.
The concept behind Green Wi-Fi’s technology is to have a battery-powered router — charged by a solar panel — in each node in its Wi-Fi network. The nodes are mounted on rooftops and the network’s Wi-Fi signals are transferred over a grid using a wireless network standard known as 802.11b/g.
The company has received seed money from Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child Initiative (OLPC) that, interestingly, was recently rejected by the Indian government for being “pedagogically suspect.” According to Kaumudi, an Indian newspaper, the country’s education secretary Sudeep Banerjee said that giving schoolchildren a laptop each could harm their creative thinking and analytical abilities.
Green Wi-Fi doesn’t seem to have heard this particular take on the OLPC initiative. “We’ve heard that the strongest criticism they (OLPC) get when they evangelize their laptop is ‘What do you do about the network?’ If you have a computer but no Internet, you can play games and do spreadsheets, but accessing the world’s information is really where the value is,” co-founder Marc Pomerlau told News.com. We wonder what Banerjee will say about schoolchildren being given Internet access.
Written by Shailaja Neelakantan on August 4th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on WiFi and Wireless Broadband and India Telecom.
GoogleFi, Google’s Mountain View network, may be good for data connections, but is it good enough for making voice calls? In order to find out answers, I headed down to Mountain View to conduct some first hand tests, and well, make some VoIP calls.
Voice over WiFi has the potential to be one of the most disruptive applications for city-wide WiFi networks, unlocking callers from expensive cellular networks. But MuniFi and even WiFi hotspots, many (including Om) argue is not yet reliable when it comes to making phone calls and the devices are still quite complex.
So during another hot daytrip to sunny Mountain View, we took our handhelds and laptops in tow, and spread out our gear under a tree in a city park. First we just tested basic Skype running over a Mac laptop.
The biggest issue is just sitting in a spot with a fast enough connection to the closest access point. After a few tries, we were able to connect and make a regular Skype call to another Skype user online, and managed to get pretty decent voice quality. It’s not as easy or clean as cellular, but it works well enough and it is free!
Test one out of the way, it was time to stress test the network using non-PC devices. We fired up the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet running the Gizmo Project application, which can connect VoIP calls to regular phone numbers. It costs a few cents to make outgoing calls, but we could call anyone over the public phone system and its still pretty cheap.
One problem we noticed with the service is there was a slight lag time between when I called and the listener got the signal. The lag time was large enough to be noticeable. Despite that the call quality was quite clear. Our Pocket PC phones did not play nice with the network, but that might be some configuration issues on our end.
So what is our conclusion? If your call is critical and you’re in a big hurry, and not willing to tinker with new technology, stick to your cellular handset.
Now, if you’re willing to give up the ease-of-use of your mobile handset, then, Google’s Mountain View network is not bad. If you find a spot where the signal is pretty strong, the calls can be as good as cellular calls. It might be just me, but the prospect of cheap or free phone calls over a free network, is something to get excited about.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on August 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and VoIP and Google and Gizmo Project and WiFi and Cellular.
Open Source software might not be as visible in the telecom world, but its impact is slowly but surely being felt. A series of projects are tackling complicated products such as high-end switches, while others are cooking up DNS, Firewall and VPN gear. In fact start-ups such as Vyatta and Digium have based their entire business model on open source software. Add another name to the movement investing in open platforms.
Meraki Networks, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup is building a business off of hardware and software based on MIT’s Roofnet project. The Roofnet Project was previously funded by MIT’s Project Oxygen and NTT DoCoMo. Meraki also consults on mesh-networking related issues for the fabled $100 laptop prototype project. The first offering from the company will likely hit the shelves this fall, and is called the Meraki Mini, which is a $49 wireless 802.11b/g router that allows users to build a wireless mesh network or extend the range of a municipal network.
Sanjit Biswas, the company’s co-founder, and MIT student on-leave, hopes the low-cost hardware will cause a wave in the mesh networking industry, and the company is working on beta-testing this summer. The hardware uses an open platform and the company is encouraging users to tinker around and install their own software. Though, Biswas says the router isn’t completely open source and part of the software is closed.
Biswas says that Meraki’s goal is to enable a grassroots movement of small wireless ISPs by providing them everything they need to get started. “Hardware (the Meraki Mini) is part of the story, but we also have the mature mesh routing software and hosted billing/user management tools operators will need to run a production network. We let the operators set the pricing and also brand their service.” What if software from Meraki ends up in a FON router? That could open up some interesting possibilities.
Still, Meraki might be one of those startups that is in the right place at the right time. As more cities and companies show interest in muni wireless, wireless networks with open platforms are starting to gain traction. Earlier this month we covered Sascha Meinrath’s NSF grant for his open source wireless mesh project. Earlier this week the Mayor of Boston unveiled plans to bring low-cost metro WiFi access through a non-profit foundation.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on August 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on WiFi and Wireless Broadband.
There is a lot of debate over whether city-wide WiFi, or WiMAX, will replace or cannibalize high speed cellular networks. Telecoms and mobile handset makers talk about an era of seamless connectivity and painless switching between cellular and WiFi networks. Never mind the inherent conflicts with the harsh realities of their business. And while they talk, debate and pontificate, the real wireless-wireline convergence is happening inside the enterprise, thanks mostly to the slow spreading tentacles of IP telephony.
This is a trend which is quite likely to gain momentum. One of the start-ups betting on this trend is DiVitas, a Mountain View-based company that recently raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Menlo Ventures. Previous investors like Clearstone Venture Partners also invested in this round. The company has raised a total of $23 million so far. DiVitas’ technology gives a business the ability to cut costs on wireless services, by switching company cell phones onto the corporate wireless network while inside the office, and to the cellular network when outside. That also includes access to all of the company’s business applications.
DiVitas CEO Vivek Khuller says the technology can be used over any carrier and any WLAN hardware. Cell phone manufacturers could be really interested in this technology as a way to directly reach business customers, though right now only eight handsets are compatible with the technology. The company is currently shipping its products to corporations for beta testing.
DiVitas might be a young gun slinger in the space, but it will also have to watch out for Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion, more known for its Blackberry devices. The company has been making quiet moves, including its acquisition of Ascendant Systems, that allows it to become a big player in the enterprise convergence market.
While we are not dismissive of the telco convergence the current state IP Multimedia Systems doesn’t really instill confidence in the market just as yet. Some startups, such as BridgePort Networks have done a good job of lining up the corners of this extremely complicated jigsaw puzzle, but it will be a while before we all see the upside of their work.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on August 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and Start-Ups and WiFi and Cellular.
Dianah Neff, the technology czar and champion of Wireless Philadelphia is going to leave her job, and return to the private sector, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Philadelphia daily quotes four unnamed city government sources. Neff’s deputy, Terry Phillis is being wooed to take over the job.
“I have to say that without a doubt this project would not have made it to this point without her,” says Craig Settles, who is writing a book about Wireless Philadelphia., titled, Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless. “She had the vision plus the ability to get scores of people to believe in this vision.”
Neff, 57, is a viewed as one of the foremost authorities on Municipal Wireless Networks, and is likely to find a long list of suitors for her talents. There is a dearth of MuniFi experts. “She is a rockstar in the municipal wireless world,” says Settles. Among those who could be interested in Neff would include consulting firms, large corporations such as Earthlink and Google, and even cable operators who have wireless plans.
Those in the know say that the project is way beyond its teething problems and is on its way to become a showcase for MuniFi movement. More information as it becomes available.
Written by Om Malik on July 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on WiFi and Wireless Broadband.
The New York Times takes a look at the emerging trend of mobile phones with built in Wi-Fi connectivity and concludes that the barbarians are at the gates. Their conclusion is that WiFi could pose challenges to the traditional cell phone carriers. Maybe, maybe not!
Instead of relying on standard cellphone networks, the phones will make use of the anarchic global patchwork of so-called Wi-Fi hotspots. Other models will be able to switch easily between the two modes.
A lot of my good pals are pretty excited about this article, perhaps too excited. The story, looks at the positive side of the trend, but skips over the challenges of today’s Wi-Fi networks and consumer ability to use them as conduits for voice. These challenges, are likely to be around for sometime, despite what the folks from T-Mobile might have to say.
Later this year, T-Mobile plans to test a service that will allow its subscribers to switch seamlessly between connections to cellular towers and Wi-Fi hotspots, including those in homes and the more than 7,000 it controls in Starbucks outlets, airports and other locations, according to analysts with knowledge of the plans
Except, if you try to log on to the T-Mobile network, you have to jump through the hoops on a web page, which is temperamental at very best. Unless you have two of the T-Mobile’s Windows Mobile handsets - MDA and SDA - you cannot easily log on the the T-Mobile network.
I have tried it with Nokia N93, Nokia E61 and Nokia 9300i. It is a problem that occurs on other non-PC devices as well. Good luck entering your username and password information on a mobile phone browser. And even if you do, something strange will always happen making you repeat the process. And when you somehow overcome these problems, then try making a VoIP phone call. It would be a good way to convince your mother that you are an astronaut.
One of the reasons I ended up buying an E61 was because it boasted WiFi and VoIP in one device. WiFi is nifty when surfing the web or checking email, but VoIP hasn’t worked… period. You need special clients from Avaya or Cisco and your company needs to be using their IP-PBX systems. A simple Asterisk system, the kind I am using doesn’t work.
Even the WiFi VoIP only handsets, if you try using them outside the closed WiFi network (inside your home or office) are not that easy to use. Let me be even more blunt: WiFi/VoIP combo today is where the MP3 players were before iPod came along. So unless something as gigantic as “iPod” happens, this is just another complex technology for consumers (not the early adopters) to decipher.
The bottom line is that before WiFi-on-the-mobile becomes a legitimate way of making phone calls, you would find speedier versions of 3G - EVDO Rev A and HSDPA would come to market. The carriers will use the increased capacities to offer some sort of VoIP plans. What happens then?
That should be a topic for another Times story!
Written by Om Malik on July 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and VoIP and WiFi and Cellular.
Google is about to open up its Mountain View WiFi network to more than 500 more trusted testers, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The expanded test indicates that the service is inching closer to its public debut. Google hopes to make the service ready for general availablity later this summer.
When I posted about Google’s Mountain View WiFi yesterday, the biggest request from readers was to check out the network’s speed. So I went back to the network, and did several speed tests around Mountain View.
The fastest speed I got when sitting relatively close to one of the access points outdoors was 928 kbps download speed and 567 kbps for upload. Google has said the maximum speed for both download and upload is 1 Mbps, so that’s pretty consistent.
At other areas, farther away from nodes I got 850 kbps and as low as 420 kbps for download speeds and lower than 100 kbps for upload speeds. So for residents, the farther away your house is from a light pole with a Google access point, the signal will likely degrade considerably. Seems like by at least half of the maximum 1Mbps. But that’s also for outdoors signals only. Google has said indoor use will be hard to get without an extended-range WiFi modem.
At my house I have DSL with a WiFi network and that speed using the same tests was 2.43 Mbps download with 415 kbps upload. So as far as speed goes, Google’s Mountain View WiFi isn’t exactly a cable/DSL replacer for now. But its free and ubiquitous and that beats cable and DSL on any day.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 28th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and WiFi and Wireless Broadband.
Paragon Wireless released the world first commercial GSM/VoWLAN dual-mode smart phone, hipi, in March 2006 and was my pick to be a winner in this years' TMC Labs Innovation Awards. With a tri-band GSM/GPRS (Class 10) radio and an IEEE 802.11b WLAN chipset, hipi enables users to enjoy broadband multimedia services at WLAN covered homes, offices, hot spots/zones as well as reliable GSM/GPRS service anytime anywhere. Featuring a 2.4 inch TFT touch screen, QVGA, with 260k Colors, the hipi also supports STUN-based NAT traversal, the SIP standard, as well as G.711, G.729a/b, and G.723 codecs. It even has some gadgety-bling via it's built-in MP3 player and a QVGA/QCIF camera. The hipi can perform SIP-based seamless handover between GSM/VoWLAN. Importantly, it utilizes a unified phone book for both GSM and VoWLAN dialing and a unified GUI for the main applications i.e. phone, E-mail, QQ (IM), and browser.
According to Paragon, the Windows-version will have comparable battery/performance characteristics of their current Linux model.TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: Paragon hipi dual-mode GSM phone
Tags: dual mode, hipi, linux, mobile phone, sip, voip, wifi, windows mobile 5, wireless
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Mobile Phones and Wireless and WiFi and SIP and Linux and mobile phone and dual mode and hipi and windows mobile 5.
The Municipal Wireless market just got more interesting. Sources close to MetroFi, a Sunnyvale, California-based start-up tell us that the company has teamed up with AT&T to design, build and operate free wireless networks in different cities. The deal is with AT&T Enterprise Services division of AT&T. Riverside, California will be first city to get a service bid from the new alliance.
This is huge deal for MetroFi, which is building wireless networks in about a dozen cities around the US. MetroFi has been viewed as a laggard in the space, even though it has snagged some big cities. The company earlier this month won a bid to build and operate a big network in Portland, Oregon. It has similar deals with San Jose, California as well. More than MetroFi, the deal could have major impact on the whole Muni Wireless space.
First of all it validates the MuniFi movement, which so far has been vehemently opposed by the incumbents. A volte face if there was any. Secondly, it also puts a serious crimp in the plans of others, namely Earthlink, which have been counting on the MuniFi business to future proof themselves.
Written by Om Malik on July 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on WiFi and Earthlink and Wireless Broadband.
The new WiJET.e from Pegasus Wireless Corporation is a cool new wireless video streaming gadget that can connect to your home entertainment system and stream 5.1 surround sound audio and high definition video (up to 2048 x 1536) in real time to any display in the home. Think of it like a Slingbox, except it was specifically designed for high-quality video on your LAN where as Slingbox was designed for streaming over the Internet.TrackBack (0) | Comments (0) | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadget Blog | Permalink: WiJET.e gadget streams DVD video over WiFi
Tags: 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.1b, dvd, entertainment, slingbox, streaming, wifi, wijet.e
Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Home Entertainment and WiFi and streaming and dvd and entertainment and slingbox and wijet.e.
Written by Russell Shaw on July 20th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Products and WiFi and Streaming media.
GoogleFi all mapped out! Niall alerted us to this map of Google’s Mountain View access points. Click on the link for interactive map complete with coverage holes, bound to make those unlucky residents mighty unhappy.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and WiFi.
First they used to be inspired by Apple and iPod. Now they are taking a cue from Apple’s retailing strategy.
Cell phone makers are getting hungry for real estate these days. Motorola launched its first store in Shanghai a few days ago, with plans to open several more in China. Nokia opened its first U.S. store last month, Samsung has its New York showcase, and Earthlink is touting Helio phones in downtown San Francisco.
It looks like a growing trend for mobile manufacturers–traditionally the brand behind the well-branded carriers–to open outlets to market new designs and give tutorials on increasingly complex phones.
It worked for Apple. Build a hip store, add tech-savvy sales people, and stuff a room full of add-ons that customers might buy up while waiting in line. Apple brought in $636 million in net sales for its retail divisions in the most recent quarter, with $29 million in operating income. But the global cell phone companies are a far cry from design-conscious Apple, which may or may not add phones to its line-up one day.
Motorola might have hit it big with the design and branding of the Razr, which sold more than 23 million by the end of last year, but Nokia and Samsung have never been big design leaders. It’s hard to imagine Nokia’s Chicago store getting the attention paid by rabid Mac and iPod fans at Apple’s digs. If Motorola’s Shanghai launch is any indicator–phone tattoos?–we’re not so sure of the prospects.
The trend is also as much a signal of the difficulties of the phone market as anything else. The increase in the world’s phone sales is coming from growing markets with low-margin mobiles, while the markets with significant phone penetration are seeing manufacturers try to push high-end designs to plea for replacements. The stores are a way to tout the most sophisticated and stylish. and that’s likely another reason why phone makers need outlets–the devices are getting so complicated, a lot of customers need basic lessons to start!
One possible upshot of the store trend is that if Nokia can develop a design-driven following, a powerful brand could help the company if it ever decides to go head to head with the carriers. A WiFi phone that looks like the Razr could convince consumers to buy. Our advice to a Nokia is to keep creating those partnerships with Google and maybe the duo can deliver the design power, a compelling store, and an industry-wide shift in who controls the ecosystem.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 17th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and Apple and WiFi and Cellular and motorola and nokia.
Live from Mountain View–A few months ago a Google exec told me a story about a city resident who took a swing at him after a public hearing on Google’s WiFi plans. Naturally, when I heard about a public WiFi training session for Mountain View residents at the Googleplex last night, I had to stop by. Well, no fisticuffs, but a few interesting tidbits.
Google’s Mountain View WiFi network is ready to go, though not open to the public, but about 100 people are already starting to receive invitations to test the service.
The invitations give directions on how to discover the SSID number of the network, which is the number that distinguishes one wireless network from another. (Anyone want to send one along to us?) Right now the SSID number is “cloaked”, so Mountain View residents can’t access it. A few of the residents were saying that they could already see the SSID number when their computer searches for a WiFi signal. That made a Google spokesperson look a bit nervous.
There were probably more than a hundred residents at the training session, and most were worried about not being able to get coverage. For a few areas of Mountain View the company could not secure space on light poles, so Google is asking residents if they wouldn’t mind putting an access point on their chimneys. They even thought about flyer-ing those areas, but said they didn’t want to be too aggressive. Google also said that “it is unlikely that a WiFi-enabled laptop or computer with a conventional WiFi card will work indoors at most locations. If you want to use the system indoors we suggest getting an extended-range WiFi modem.” So that’s another extra cost if the resident wants to rely on the network as a DSL or cable replacement.
After the 100 testers give the network a rigorous review, more trusted-testers will be invited to check it out. Google is calling it a “rolling launch.” They want to make sure that there’s as few glitches as possible for the official launch day, which they’ve only set at the “summer of 2006.” Hopefully we’ll get a chance to give it a spin pretty soon.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 13th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Unwired and Google and WiFi.
Phillip Alvelda, MobiTV’s CEO, is having a great day, and you could hear it in his voice. His mobile TV company just received a $70 million fund to grow the company.
Phillip discussed a few interesting moves with me, including a plan to push the company’s service on PC’s (it’s already available over WiFi), which will be announced in August. That service could possibly challenge place-shifting in the wireless domain. And with all those content deals, well maybe Qualcomm can step-up and buy them for some premium dollars!
Q. We heard a bit about the company’s plans to work on PCs, is part of the fund going toward this?
A. The WiFi deal with AT&T is commercial today, at the company’s some 20,000 hotspots. A bigger deal will be announced in August with PC products, but we’re not giving details on that right now. Our goal is not just to work over cell phones. The real issue is that there has been overwhelming demand for our product. When we look out, we see a huge greenfield.
Q. What are your mobile broadcast plans. You’re already testing DVB-H. What about MediaFLO and WiMAX? What else?
A. Our mantra from the early days is to be network technology agnostic. We have trials in the U.S., U.K., Europe with various technologies. WiMAX is really taking off. We are also guided by our partners and what they think will show a strong demand.
Q. What is your relationship with Qualcomm?
A. With Qualcomm we’ve been working on BREW for a long time. We’re like a gold or platinum BREW developer. We’ve had a great relationship on that front. MediaFLO is a different beast–they are taking a go-it-alone approach for that.
Q. A Qualcomm acquisition might make a nice exit and partnership for you guys?
A. Agreed, everyone would all love something like that. Though, this is obviously just speculation.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 12th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on WiFi and Cellular and qualcomm and Place Shifting.
I got a chance to check out Metalink’s wireless chip technology a few months ago, as the company played a crystal-clear high definition movie and ran it over three blazing-fast wirelessly-connected TV’s. If the demo was the norm, it was as easy and fast as wireless networking should be. Today Chinese consumer electronics-maker Haier said it tested its high-def TV’s that are using Metalink’s new WiFi chip set–N-compliant standard–for wireless networking.
But the technology won’t likely land in your living room for a good long while, if it makes it that far. Metalink is an Israeli fabless chip company, that has plans to work with other consumer electronics makers to embedded really fast WiFi in products like set-top boxes, DVRs and residential gateways. While the technology is the latest wireless breakthrough for the digital home, the company isn’t making any money off its innovation just yet. The company lost $4.1 million in the first quarter of this year, and competitors like Airgo, and Broadcom could very well have the upper hand.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Connected Home and Unwired and Broadband Life and WiFi.
WiFi phones are essentially changing the home-phone landscape, bringing cellular portability and cool into a realm that was once owned by the Bells and later folks like Con-Air and Coby (see: $9.99 special phones at your local drug store). Even though seem to be running a little bit behind schedule put forward by telephone industry leaders.
Not surprisingly, WiFi phones like D-Link’s latest, the $249 DPH-540, are essentially home phones with SIP connectivity to most major VOIP carriers (which means you’ll probably be able to use this thing with Vonage or your Cable company’s VOIP system). Surprisingly, this phone looks like a low-end, clamshell cellphone, which means the size and shape of these things will soon rival even the slimmest Motorola.
Best of all, this phone is compatible with PsipTN, which is a public VOIP telephone system that just may take the big boys down a peg or two. Expect firmware upgrades from D-Link in the next year.
Earthlink has plans to offer WiFi phones. Municipalities are also getting into the act, although only Taipei has created a faux-public network call “Taipei Easy Call” to unwire their offices and schools while making - or not making - a buck selling service to private consumers
Mobile carriers should worry about the trend because, if not today, or tomorrow, eventually the alternative s will get enough traction. If they follow the same design-and-feature curve as the cellphone, it won’t be too difficult to imagine a future where these WiFi things had better end up lying side-by-side with the latest CDMA or GSM phones. D-Link DPH-540 WiFi Phone
Written by John Biggs on July 10th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Connected Home and Unwired and VoIP and WiFi and Earthlink and Cellular.
Niall stopped by Earthlink’s SF store last night and snapped these photos. He says the store opended up on Thursday and has been touting DSL, VoIP, Helio, Mindspring, and muni WiFi.
The company thinks that boots-on-the-ground in targeted cities can help convince customers. We’ll see. And if their obvious bid to bring in pissed-off phone and cable customers wasn’t clear enough, they commissioned this not-so-subtle chalk drawing outside. (well that’s my interpretation of it–what’s yours?)
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 8th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Unwired and WiFi and Earthlink and Wireless Broadband.
Written by Russell Shaw on July 6th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Verizon VoiceWing and WiFi.
Like Earthlink’s WiFi phone plans, the city of Taipei, in Taiwan, is pushing dual WiFi, cellular phones as a way to offer lower-priced phone calls over its municipal wireless network. The initiative is being called “Taipei Easy Call,” and is backed by ten companies says the BBC. By August the group hopes to upgrade schools and government offices to the new telephony system, which is supposed to be significantly less expensive in the long run.
Well, that’s the plan. If no one joins the network, then of course there’ll be significantly more investment and absolutely no savings. The New York Times recently reported that the network was finding it tough to attract paying customers. JiWire says Taipei’s municipal network is the largest in the world and perhaps these cheap calling plans would attract more users.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 6th, 2006 with no comments.
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Earthlink’s first muni WiFi network made news when it was launched in Anaheim, California, last week, but Earthlink’s VoIP VP Steve Howe, revealed some interesting news to me in a conversation this week. He says Earthlink plans to start selling WiFi-only phones starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The phones will work over Earthlink’s WiFi networks, and will have a voice plan somewhere between $10 to $25. Users have to pay extra for a data plan. That’s in contrast to the dual cellular-WiFi phones that the company plans to sell with its MVNO Helio, estimated to launch in the beginning of 2007.
Steve says Earthlink has narrowed down the WiFi phone search to two manufacturers, though declined to name which ones. (If you know which ones, or feel like speculating, add your comments.) He says over the past few days the company has been testing Earthlink’s WiFi phones over the company’s Anaheim network and that they’re working well up to 40 miles per hour.
Other companies have been offering WiFi-only phones for some time. Skype and Netgear have a WiFi phone, as does Vonage with UTStarcom. But Earthlink’s voice over WiFi could give a significant boost to these services going mainstream. The service could also boost the demand for Earthlink’s WiFi services, primarily because of the voice-data bundle. Earthlink will have to keep the prices low enough to attract mainstream users. High prices of cellular data services have been the main hindrance to mainstream adoption of such services thus far.
Still, there remain significant hurdles to Earthlink’s WiFi phone plan. Right now the phones are expensive. Steve says Earthlink will have to subsidize the phones for a good while, to push the industry standard below its current hundreds of dollars range. But “this business will get really interesting when the phones get down to the $40 range,” he says. Will this become another drain on Earthlink’s cash reserves? The company is spending like crazy on its municipal wireless projects.
Then there’s the basic risk of the citywide wireless deployments, and the big question: Will networks be able to attract enough subscribers to make enough money! There’s been fair enough discussion over that in recent days, and I wrote about this with an interview with Gary Betty earlier this year. It could happen, but given that the networks are so new, it’s entirely unproven.
Earthlink is also assuming that the price of WiFi phones will come down significantly, which will only happen if they become popular enough to support an economy of scale and a resulting price drop. That’s a more risky proposition and some speculate that WiFi-only phones are only transitional devices on the way to dual-cellular phones. With the Helio dual mode plan, the company can hedge its bet somewhat on the WiFi vs cellular debate.
When I asked him if the company had come into any major fights with cellular providers over the upcoming WiFi phones and cheap voice over WiFi offering planned, he says, “They probably don’t stay awake at night over Earthlink. But maybe they should.†It’s a savvy PR move to act as the savior for disgruntled phone company defectors. The company opened an Earthlink store in Seattle last week, and is planning to open another store in downtown San Francisco at 1 Front Street next week to convince more pissed Bell customers to join them.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 6th, 2006 with no comments.
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The attention on city-wide wireless isn’t just stateside, and Paris has delivered a media-savvy mayor to rival SF’s. The mayor told reporters that Paris is looking to add 400 WiFi spots through out the city, which will be run by private companies that will bid on the contract next year. In addition the city will lower taxes on local fiber deployments.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 5th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Russell Shaw on July 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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North Carolina daily, The Pilot, is going to offer free WiFi from its offices, and will eventually offer pay services in the Moore County and surrounding markets where it sells the paper. There is going to be WiMAX involved. Good idea? Jeff Jarvis doesn’t think so - and channels the ghost of Newspaper ISPs, which failed miserably. Sticking to your knitting and focusing on core competencies is a good way to keep competitors at bay. Shouldn’t The Pilot be focusing more on enhancing its online presence than having a dalliance with WiFi?
Written by Om Malik on July 1st, 2006 with no comments.
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Seven groups that include heavy weights like Cisco Systems, and IBM have responded to the RFP put out by Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force. The RFP is to build a giant wireless network that covers most of SIlicon Valley - from East Palo Alto to Santa Cruz. (More details in our previous report.) The most notable part of this news announcement is that Earthlink is not going to participate in this big build out.
These proposal will be reviewed, and a short list created, and will be announced by early September.
Update: WiFiNetNews has a complete analysis of the announcement, and it strips away the hype. Worth a read.