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FierceWiFi May 23, 2006
- Editor's Corner
- BT to blanket UK cities with WiFi
- Intel continues global WiMAX investment push
- Consumers drive UK WiFi sales
- Wavion shows innovative metro-WiFi AP
- HP releases kit to unify business networks
- SPOTLIGHT: Tough slog for 802.11n
- ALSO NOTED: Boingo acquires Concourse Communications; Netgear to ship RangeMax NEXT router; and much more...
Editor's Corner
As you can see from the countdown at the top of today's issue, our WiMAX Strategies event @ GLOBALCOMM is right around the corner! Though our early bird rate has officially expired, we're still offering an exclusive discount to our readers. Enter the promotional code "FIERCE" when you …
BT to blanket UK cities with WiFi
A new project announced by BT will fit street furniture such as phone boxes, bus stops, and park benches with WiFi antenna to extend the coverage of wireless Internet access. Cardiff and Westminster have been testing the new service which allows users with WiFi-enabled gadgets to access the Internet using a pay-as-you-go service or an ongoing subscription. The trial is currently in its final stages, and BT says that the first six WiFi-enabled cities will go live by the start of …
Intel continues global WiMAX investment push
Intel Capital continues to invest in WiMAX companies around the world. The latest investments call for collaborative efforts between Intel and two established companies. The investment in Egyptian company Orascom Telecom WiMAX is the first investment from the Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey fund announced in November of 2005. Orascom will focus its efforts on working with governments and companies throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia to obtain spectrum licenses for the …
Consumers drive UK WiFi sales
Sales of WiFi equipment in the U.K. have rocketed over the past year, with consumers adopting the technology at a faster pace than expected. Report from market analysis firm Gfk says that sales of wireless routers increased 108 percent in the first quarter of 2006 compared to the same period in 2005. Some 380,000 units were sold over the three-month period, worth a total of £24 million. Sales of wireless cards increased by 87 percent year on year to 525,000 units, worth £13 …
Wavion shows innovative metro-WiFi AP
San Jose, CA-based start-up Wavion has a new technology which would be on interest to service providers and infrastructure equipment vendors: It is a new category of wireless AP. Wavion's spatially adaptive AP appears to be the first MIMO-based metro-scale AP. The company says it goes a long way toward addressing vexing performance and penetration issues currently facing metro-WiFi equipment--and in the process, also addressing similarly vexing profitability issues for metro service …
HP releases kit to unify business networks
Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve network division is showing new hardware allowing companies a unified wired and WLAN network. ProCurve's global mobility product manager, Kail Krall, said, "We're providing a single 'pane of glass' to manage both user policy and devices [wired and wireless] across the network." The new hardware includes a Wireless Edge Services xl Module for HP's 5300 series switches, a Redundant Wireless Services xl Module and three thin access point models (HP calls them …
SPOTLIGHT: Tough slog for 802.11n
Glenn Fleishman reports that an IEEE member informed him that the Task Group N schedule has slipped considerably. The group received 12,000 comments on the Draft 1.0 proposal, which was accepted as a working draft in March and failed to achieve in May anywhere near the 75 percent required (it received under 50 percent) to make it a final draft heading to ratification. The big surprise in the 802.11n ratification process to date is not so much the failure of Draft 1.0 to receive 75 percent …
ALSO NOTED: Boingo acquires Concourse Communications; Netgear to ship RangeMax NEXT router; and much more...
> "Wireless LAN (WLAN) is strongly preferred as the home networking technology of choice for not only experienced home network users wanting to upgrade their equipment, but also those who are planning to set up their first home network," says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. Report
> Boingo acquires Chicago-based Concourse Communications Group, which provides WiFi services at O'Hare and Midway airports. …