European WLAN market expands

Donald Rumsfeld might be able to discern the differences between Old Europe and New Europe, but when it comes to WLAN adoption, we see only a new continent. A just-published IDC report says that, as in previous years, most of the revenue growth was generated in the consumer space, but that growth in the enterprise market has been picking up pace, with demand for enterprise equipment growing during the last 12 months. The residential market accounts for 80 percent of the total European …

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Skype, The Cloud offer VoIP

It was bound to happen: Skype is joining hands with hotspot provider The Cloud in offering mobile roaming phone calls through Skype handsets across the U.K. and Europe. Customers with an SMC Networks' WiFi phone for Skype will be able to make VoIP calls automatically through Skype when they are within range of one of The Cloud's hotspots. Calls to and from other Skype users are free, and Skype says that calls to fixed and mobile users can be made at a substantially reduced cost if …

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SPOTLIGHT: Boston goes WiFi

OK, so it is not as historically significant as throwing tea into the harbor, but still: The city of Boston has taken a small step in the direction of muni-WiFi. Mayor Thomas Menino has unveiled two free Internet hotspots, one in Quincy Market and another at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, near Long Wharf. A mayoral task force has recommended that Boston designate a nonprofit entity to build a citywide network which would act as a wholesale Internet provider, allowing a number …

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ALSO NOTED: Freecom's 160GB storage gateway WLAN; Steve Jobs on the Zune; and much more...

>  Freecom is showing a storage gateway WLAN which offers 160GB of network storage and includes a full-scale wireless router. Report

> The way the Canadiens hockey team is playing,anything would help, so why not install WiFi at the Bell Centre in Montreal? …

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FierceWiFi October 10, 2006

• European WiMAX-3G spectrum war brewing
• Trapeze shifts WLAN distribution model
• Tide is turning on muni-WiFi
• Ruckus shows home WLAN control system
• Is BPL about to turn the corner?
• SPOTLIGHT: WiMAX sector galvanized
• ALSO NOTED: First also noted headline; second headline; and much more...

European WiMAX-3G spectrum war brewing

European mobile phone companies, chip makers, and manufacturers of wireless networks are engaged in a hot debate over how limited amounts of radio frequencies should be used for the purpose of transmitting data from the Internet to mobile devices and back. These decisions are typically made by governments, and in the case of the European Union, by the EU authorities. This is why Craig Barrett, Intel's chairman, is in Brussels this week: He will meet with EU officials to call for …

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Trapeze shifts WLAN distribution model

The finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony includes a very long coda, in which the main themes of the movement are played in compressed form. The symphony ends with no fewer than 29(!) bars of C major chords, played fortissimo. For the uninitiated listener, the long coda presents a problem: The bars are interspersed with rather lengthy pauses, so it is difficult to know when the symphony ends and when one should begin to applaud in appreciation. No one wants to clap too early, or too …

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Tide is turning on muni-WiFi

After nearly three years of legal skirmishes on the muni-WiFi front, it is time to take stock: Have the battle lines moved this way or that? What positions does the enemy hold? Who occupies the commanding ground? Jim Baller, an attorney with the Baller-Herbst Law Group and a veteran of the muni-WiFi wars, did just that at the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference in Las Vegas last week.

You may recall that the incumbent telecoms engaged in a no-holds barred assault on the very idea of …

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Ruckus shows home WLAN control system

These are heady days for Sunnyvale, CA-based Ruckus Wireless. Four examples: The company has released a home-WiFi management system which brings to the home many of the strengths of similar systems in the enterprise; the company has also raised $16 million from three investors, among them Motorola, long-rumored to be eyeing Ruckus as a possible acquisition target; and then, Ruckus has been selected by Belge and Czech service providers to distribute its MediaFlex in-home wireless system; …

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