FCC lets wireless sneak between TV airwaves

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to permit certain wireless devices to use vacant airwaves between active television channels as long as they do not cause interference.

Intel Ships Next-Generation WiMAX Chip With Support for Mobile Networks

More WiMAX news out of this week's big WiMAX World conference in Boston, with Intel following Nortel's lead in announcing some speedy new next-gen wireless gear. The company's just unveiled the Intel WiMAX Connection 2250, which is apparently the first system-on-chip able to support both fixed and mobile WiMAX networks, as well as all global WiMAX frequencies with the aid of Intel's discrete tri-band WiMAX radio. The chip will initially ship only with support for fixed 802.16-2004 WiMAX, however, an over-the-air firmware upgrade will magically endow it with mobile 802.16e-2005 support. Not one to waste any time, Intel's announced that Motorola will be integrating the chip into its CPEi 200 Series of WiMAX customer premise equipment, with "several other" manufacturers also expected to churn out Connection 2250-based products in 2007.

Singapore plans free wireless Internet

Remember how Singapore was going to provide Wi-Fi for most of the island nation? Well, it looks like they're taking that one step further by taking the $63 million cost to the government, eating it, and giving free access (for the next two to three years) to the laptop-toting public.

Nokia joins growing list of WiMAX equipment players

Nokia Corp. joined the list of tier-one vendors launching WiMAX portfolios at the WiMAX World trade show in Boston. Nokia unveiled its modular Flexi WiMAX base station, which the company said will be available for the 2.5 GHz band at the end of 2007 and for 3.5 GHz in the first quarter of 2008.

Ruckus Brings Remote Management to Muni Wi-Fi and IPTV

This week, the Sunnyvale, California-based company unwrapped its MediaFlex NT unit and its new InTune platform to extend that philosophy by letting carriers do remote management of the network in the customer's house.

Remote, Non-Mechanical Antenna

Irish antenna manufacturer Stella Doradus introduced a new WiMax antenna, the first solid state remote electrical tilt solution for WiMax base stations. The Stella Netamorphic Antenna has no moving parts, and can be tilted remotely from a network operations center. By eliminating the need for tower climbs, the company says the antenna can save carriers many millions of dollars.

Real World WiMax

Intel, Motorola, Nokia, and others highlight new trends at WiMax World Show in Boston. As complete WiMax networks get deployed, many vendors are suggesting that mini-base stations will be the ideal way to add more capacity when needed.

Federal Trade Commission publishes report on muni wireless

The FTC has issued a staff report titled "Municipal Provision of Wireless Internet." It provides a historical overview of the development of this sector, including state and federal legislative battles. and some decision-making examples.

Covad enters wireless market in Chicago with DataFlo deal

Covad has shelled out $1.4 million to buy DataFlo Communications, in order to eventually offer Wimax wireless broadband service in the Chicago area. Back in February, Covad completed its purchase of NextWeb, California’s largest fixed-wireless broadband provider for businesses.

DSM to kick copper speeds up to 100 Mbps?

While everyone's getting all excited by that FiOS, fiber-to-the-home, fiber-in-the-home or even Google's alleged DWDM -- there's another futuristic bandwidth project currently afoot, the Dynamic Spectrum Management. The advantage of DSM -- which aims to replace DSL if its creators have their way -- is to use current copper wiring to create 100Mbps service in the home by futzing with the way that signals and packets are processed and transferred. Naturally, if DSM turns out to work, it would likely be a much cheaper alternative to digging trenches for fiber in the ground. In any case, this requires a fair amount of cooperation between those telecom firms who control the pipes, and so today, a group of tech and telecom companies (including the Israeli firm ECI Telecom and the Spanish giant Telefonica), have joined forces to try to work out all of DSM's kinks. The consortium announced that it will receive €8 million ($10 million) in grant money over the next three years from the Chief Scientist Office of Israel.

Motorola Invests in Ruckus Wireless

Smart Wi-Fi technology provider Ruckus Wireless has secured $16 million in new funding. The round was led by Motorola Ventures, Motorola's investing arm.

Dublin, Ohio to launch wireless network

In an effort to enhance public safety and bring commerce into the area, the city of Dublin, Ohio, will be launching a municipal wireless network in the very near future. Plans call for the system to be available to government workers and emergency responders first, with build-out of the network to the rest of the city.

Nortel Wimax IPTV - 4Mbps Wimax IPTV stream

Nortel today demonstrated real-time, multimedia IPTV and IMS services over a live 4G WiMAX wireless broadband network at the WiMAX World trade show in Boston. In Nortel's demonstration, an IP television (IPTV) service over a live high-speed WiMAX connection is used to view and download broadcast TV (via a four Megabit stream) with integrated electronic program guide.

82% of US hotels offer wireless Internet

Of 9,300 US hotels surveyed by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, 69% had upgraded their bedding in the past year; 72% were offering voice mail; 82% had wireless Internet; and virtually all were wired for cable or satellite television.

New Ruckus Platform Allows Remote Management, Updates

Ruckus’s MediaFlex NG wireless platform is designed to let carriers remotely diagnose, update, and inspect Wi-Fi hardware installed for IPTV and data purposes: The new platform tries to eliminate truck rolls and long tech-support calls by allowing an operator that’s bringing in many services into the home to figure out what’s going on in the home. Right now, that can be frustrating for consumers and operators alike. The MediaFlex NG platform will let service providers gather statistics and determine what the RF environment is like, among other remote diagnostics. Being able to push firmware updates prevents a user from having to follow the many, often irritating steps in that process. (It does mean that if a firmware update kills an adapter, the operator will have to be able to get a new adapter out quickly.)

Trapeze Unveils Next Gen Product

Trapeze Swings Again: WiFi switch startup Trapeze is back with a new architecture that it claims will offer the benefits of both centralized and stand-alone WiFi access points. The company calls the new architecture "Smart Mobile" and says it combines the benefits of centralized control and management with the efficiency of optimized traffic flows using "intelligent switching." Dan Simone, VP and chief technology officer at Trapeze Networks, says that this enables one system to support applications like fast device-to-device VOIP calls as well as separate guest access networks over the same system.

Motorola on Mobile WiMAX

Motorola's Senior Vice President and CTO of Wireless Broadband Networks, Dan Coombes says "mobile WiMAX can do everything fixed can do but better." Coombes says that the company will have some demos at WiMAX World this week. Coombes also gave his take on muni WiFi vs WiMAX networks: "The metro WiFi systems will get people interested in these services, but as the networks become too congested, people will move to licensed WiMAX. A certain class of users will be willing to pay for this service."

Nortel to Debut MIMO WIMAX?

According to an RBC Capital Market report called "Extreme Makeover: Nortel Edition,"Nortel will introduce its MIMO-enabled WiMAX base station and gateway at Wimax World later this week. Beyond WiMAX, the RBC report says Nortel is focusing on IMS, IPTV and 4G, and the analyst has a target stock price of $3.

Portland's Wi-Fi Antennas from SkyPilot

MetroFi's Wi-Fi antennas are sprouting like mushrooms on lamposts all over downtown Portland. They're the vanguard of Portland's $20 million city-wide WiFi cloud being built by MetroFi. The cylindrical SkyPilot antennas feature a 400 mW WiFi hotspot with a switchable 5.8 GHz backhaul. They can't be accessed by the public yet. It doesn't even look like they're plugged in. According to Rogoway, MetroFi will install antennas on the eastside, just across the Willamette River, within in the next couple weeks. MetroFi is still testing the system, but it expects free Web access in parts of the city by the holidays.

VeriLAN Quits Metro Wi-Fi Business

VeriLAN Inc., the Portland, Oregon-based municipal wireless company, has decided to pull out of the business. They believe the increasingly speculative municipal wireless business is "undermining the economics."

Aruba Networks to install "world's largest" WLAN at OSU

We all know how sketchy these "world's largest" claims can be, but Aruba Networks is dubbing its ongoing deployment of WiFi coverage across the gargantuous campus of The Ohio State University just that. While numerous cities (and even the entire country of Singapore) are moving forward with far-reaching wireless access plans, Aruba's "Mobile Edge solution" will reportedly be the most expansive WLAN by the time it's complete. Although the installation is only partially finished, 1,700 access points in over 28 buildings have already been lit, and Ohio State's IT department has plans to cover all 25 million square feet of the main campus with WiFi. Once complete, over 77,000 students and staff will have "ubiquitous wireless access to the university's networks" thanks to the "nearly 10,000" APs that will beam 802.11a/b/g all across OSU. Although the entire rollout won't be finalized until 2011, the 31 Buckeye residence halls will supposedly get blanketed within the next month, but we aren't sure if the 101,568 fans in The 'Shoe can expect unadulterated WiFi access to collegiate message boards or Facebook when Michigan comes to town later this year.