WiFlyer

2 front-runners vie for Houston Wi-Fi project

2006-11-30T10:26:00.000-08:00

Houston moves forward with two finalists: The city will consider EarthLink and a firm with local ties, Convergent Broadband. The network would span 600 square miles.

Google Invests in Meraki

2006-11-30T10:21:00.000-08:00

Meraki Networks is building a business off of wireless mesh hardware and software based on the MIT's Roofnet project. Google has been very interested in the Mountain View-based startup as a way to extend its WiFi network coverage indoors.

Booming Business of Muni Wi-Fi

2006-11-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

Building out municipal Wi-Fi networks has become abooming and attactive business -- both in the US and internationally -- according to VON magazine.

The Cloud seeks to cover Europe with muni WiFi networks

2006-11-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

The Cloud, a company that has established WiFi networks in 16 European cities, including the City of London and Amsterdam, says it will seeking to expand its operatons across the continent over the next two years. According to the company, they are in discussions with over 30 cities, including Stuttgart (Germany). They also have received RFPs from cities like Paris and Prague. Obviously, The Cloud is not the only player in the citywide wireless sector in Europe, but it looks like they are trying to emulate EarthLink in stamping themselves as the leading provider.

Alexandria, Virginia chooses EarthLink for municipal wireless network

2006-11-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

Alexandria, Virginia chose EarthLink as the winner of the bid to provide the city with a municipal wireless broadband network that covers 16 square miles (41 square kilometers). The network is open to other service providers on a wholesale basis. EarthLink will deploy Tropos mesh nodes, Motorola's MOTOwi4 portfolio of products, including its Canopy high-speed backhaul and Wi-Fi mesh network equipment.

Waiting on mobile WiMAX

2006-11-28T11:28:00.000-08:00

Too many missing details put this wireless broadband technology into the wait-and-see category, according to John Cox of Network World.

New and (Soon) Improved

2006-11-27T18:21:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal offers a primer on fixed and mobile WiMAX, with quotes from Clearwire and Alvarion, among other players.

Ruckus Beamforming Upgrade

2006-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

Ruckus will demo a "smart" consumer-level Wi-Fi system based on next-generation 802.11n technology at CES in January. Current products based on draft 802.11n specification allow devices to transmit at speeds greater than 70 Mbps, but they all have problems sustaining the high performance at far distances, challenging locations or in noisy environments. The Ruckus technology is said to reject noise and delivers consistent throughput regardless of location and device placement. "Patent-pending BeamFlex-N is a dynamically-configurable, multi-polarized antenna system capable of forming thousands of unique antenna patterns to reject interference and focus transmit energy in various directions and orientations. BeamFlex-N selects the best antenna configurations for each packet by identifying the optimum path for each transmit radio and steering signals away from obstacles and interference."

Longer Range Municipal WiFi

2006-11-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

"InspiAir says their technology can enable full throughput of 11 Mbps over standard 802.11b, and an extended range up to 5 km (Point-to-Multipoint) and 40km (Point-to-Point) using 100 mW radios. But there's not much to go on." Wavion, in constrast, is represented as a company with a shipping product. Mati is mentioned as a pioneer in the field.

Alvarion Concentrates on WiMAX

2006-11-22T13:53:00.000-08:00

Alvarion is selling its Cellular Mobile unit to LG Wireless for $15 million in notes and the assumption of certain liabilities. Alvarion is unloading the unit to focus more of its efforts on WiMAX.

A Bad Week For WiMax

2006-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

1) Deutsche Telekom has chosen not to use fixed or mobile WiMAX in the foreseeable future to expand their ISP business to rural areas of Germany. They won't bid for 3.5GHz licenses.

2) Nokia has promised a WiMAX phone, but not until 2008.

3) With MIMO integrated into WiMAX technology (which is good), the costs of the CPE are going to exceed expectations (which is bad).

4) The Yankee Group released a major report saying that mobile WiMAX won't be available until 2008.

5) AT&T pulled out of a mobile WiMAX trials in which it was participating with other carriers. AT&T's explanation for leaving the Netherlands-based, multi-operator trials was that 'the technology was too immature'. According to Informa, AT&T says it will be another two years (2008) before 802.16e is mature enough in security terms to power service to enterprise customers.

City Wi-Fi Projects Have A Lot To Prove

2006-11-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

More than 300 cities have or plan to have Wi-Fi networks. But the business models and even the technology still are being ironed out, even with Google and Microsoft on board.

Google wants to put up its own SF test network

2006-11-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

IDG News Service reports that Google wants to build a test network using as many as 1,500 utility poles in San Francisco that would be separate from the EarthLink network. (Google is EarthLink's partner, but will be a customer of EarthLink's network, purchasing 300 Kbps access that it will give away.) The city thinks it's unlikely to accommodate the request. EarthLink asked the city for access to 450 poles with an option for 1,500. The story says this access would be "a condition of its participating in the project," which is a far cry from earlier statements."

Is Mesh a Problem for MuniFi?

2006-11-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

The CEO of Israeli WiFi software equipment company InspiAir1, Tamir Galili, says the inherent limitations of WiFi mesh technology are behind some of the slow MuniFi rollouts in U.S. cities — a lot of the test pilots that these cities are doing are failing, and mesh is just not suitable, he says.

Colubris lands $14M; searches for new CEO

2006-11-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

Colubris Networks Inc., a maker of wireless LAN gear based in Waltham, has closed its fourth round of funding to the tune of $14 million. The infusion of cash brings the company's total funding to $50 million since its founding in 2000. All of the company's previous investors participated in the round. The funding also comes despite the departure of Bob Eisenberg, former chief executive officer who left the company three weeks ago "for personal reasons," according to Roger Sands, vice president of engineering and interim co-president.

Wireless Mesh Node Market to Surpass $90M in 1996

2006-11-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

Dell'Oro Group reports that shipments of wireless mesh nodes used predominantly to develop metropolitan Wi-Fi networks are on track to generate revenues of over $90 million this year. In the third quarter, Tropos led the wireless mesh node market with 23 percent.

Wi-Fi standards face patent threat

2006-11-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

Australian government agency says it invented the tech used in two wireless standards--and it wants manufacturers to pay up.

Dallas gets new citywide public-safety wireless infrastructure

2006-11-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Dallas, Texas has received a partnership with CoCo Communications Corp., who said that the large Southwestern city is poised to become the nation's first city to have fully interoperable communications among municipal public-safety agencies without replacing existing networks.

Wireline Speeds Don't Always Match Promises

2006-11-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

"Before we hear too much about how cell, WiMax, and Wi-Fi networks aren't as fast as promised, let's cast a steely eye on wired services: Whether fiber, coax, or phone lines are involved, the New York Times reports on how variables service can be at higher data rates. Wireless, of course, has more difficulties because wireline service tends to be consistent, with congestion being a secondary problem after basic line conditions. If the line is good, it's typically good for as long as the wire or glass is intact. The route out to the Internet at the ISP then becomes the next important factor, and we already know service provider dramatically oversell the ratio between downstream bandwidth to customers and their downstream feed from the Internet -- ratios can vary from 20 to 100 to 1 oversell."

How the new US Congress will affect telecom issues

2006-11-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

Harold Feld has a long post on how the newly elected members of Congress could affect telecom and media issues in the United States. With several opponents of net neutrality gone, what will happen next? And it’s not just net neutrality that will be affected, it’s also the opening up of the television “white spaces” for unlicensed use, low power FM, and media consolidation.

Clovis, California issues RFP for municipal wireless broadband network

2006-11-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

Clovis, a city in northern California near Fresno, is seeking a vendor to build and operate a citywide wireless broadband network. Clovis is a fast-growing city with 90,000 residents. It covers 22 square miles. The city already has a fiber optic network which the wireless vendor can use for backhaul.

SBA Snags SunCom Wireless Towers

2006-11-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

BA, one of the largest radio tower operators in the country, has purchased 69 wireless radio towers from SunCom Wireless. The deal is valued at $18 million and covers towers in three U.S. states.

EarthLink turns dial-up lemons into muni Wi-Fi lemonade

2006-11-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

Computerworld looks at EarthLink’s move into Wi-Fi. EarthLink thinks that it will bring competition into markets that will benefit consumers by cutting all costs while increasing access. EarthLink’s point person says that telcos are nervous because of other offerings, such as local-network VoIP, would cut into their cash cows. It costs cell operators 25 cents to deliver a megabyte of data versus half a cent for a city-wide Wi-Fi network.

Tropos responds to questions on Mountain View Wi-Fi network

2006-11-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

Last week, Sascha Meinrath posted an article titled "Questions for Tropos: Does Google's Mountain View Network Fold Under Pressure?" -- a piece that generated a number of comments from readers. They answer with generalized results but didn't respond to specific complaints. The first commenter requests confirmation about about node densities. Someone reported Mountain View uses 45 per square mile.

Microsoft Takes Muni WiFi Plunge w/ MetroFi and SkyPilot

2006-11-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

In its first foray into the municipal WiFi sector currently occupied by search-engine giant Google, Microsoft Corp. said today it will collaborate with MetroFi Inc. on the citywide network for Portland. MetroFi will build and operate the network, using WiFi equipment from provider SkyPilot Networks Inc. , and Microsoft's MSN will act as the anchor supplier of local and national content plus advertising through its adCenter technology.

In-Stat: WiMAX Poised For Rapid Growth Despite Major Challenges

2006-11-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

WiMAX technology is entering a rapid growth phase, as service providers are now able to buy WiMAX Forum-certified equipment, reports In-Stat. Worldwide subscribers are estimated to reach 222,000 in 2006 and are forecasted to grow to 19.7 million by the end of 2010, the high-tech market research firm says. Most of those subscribers are in the Asia/Pacific region. The biggest challenge still comes from competing technologies and services. Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

* With Sprint being the exception, In-Stat does not believe most 3G carriers will deploy WiMAX in the near term.
* Alvarion had the largest share of WiMAX equipment revenue during the first half of 2006.
* In-Stat expects sales in 802.16e equipment to quickly overtake those in 802.16d.
* Regulatory uncertainty and spectrum availability continue to hamper the growth of WiMAX.

The price for In-Stat's report is $3,495.

NYC, Trump and MIMO

2006-11-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

Trump’s broadband supplier piles on Wi-Fi: MST/NuVisions is broadcasting Wi-Fi across a great swath of Manhattan, the company says. They already run a gigabit-ring-in-the-air—a backbone unencumbered by ground connections—and they’re leveraging their position on buildings to beam across the southern part of Central Park and other areas of the city. They expanded an earlier network that was highly localized around the buildings in which they provide tenant services, including many Trump properties, for the New York City Marathon on Nov. 5. They told the New York Post that they’re using MIMO technology, a multiple-antenna approach that has been slow to enter the metro-scale market mostly because of its newness. A few metro-scale equipment vendors were founded this year to use MIMO approaches to provide greater coverage with fewer nodes. NuVisions charges $10 for 10 hours and $30 per month for access to users who aren’t in-building subscribers. Their map appears to show their previous coverage area.

IEEE Plenary in Dallas

2006-11-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

The IEEE 802 Plenary Session runs all week in Dallas. Starting today, the IEEE Pleanary Session will bring the major 802 committees together to spur international standardization in a variety of 802 groups.

Democrats Promoting Universal Broadband in Five Years

2006-11-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the next Speaker of the House, states the Democrat's new agenda "guarantees every American will have affordable access to broadband within five years. Universal broadband will propel advanced Internet applications, such as distance learning, health IT, video-on-demand, and Voice over IP. Universal broadband -- whether it's delivered by Wi-Fi or WiMAX, or hard line -- will put all Americans, no matter where they live, no more than a keystroke or a mouse click away from the jobs and opportunity that broadband both creates and supports."

WiMax: The Real Deal?

2006-11-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

Still more than a year away, WiMax will offer enterprises a powerful alternative, according to new Unstrung Insider report. "Mobile WiMax: Who's Doing What" looks at vendor and service provider timetables for the powerful new networking technology. The report also examines the top issues that IT pros must consider in developing a strategy not just for WiMax but for mobile broadband in general.

St. Louis Park city council OKs city-owned Wi-Fi network; bids posted

2006-11-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

The city council of St. Louis Park, Minnesota approved the plan to fund and build a municipally owned wireless broadband network. The proposal/detailed study (PDF format) submitted to the city council by the St. Louis Park wireless project team is available from the city%u2019s website. The document contains the list of bidders, plans for solar Wi-Fi, business plan and pricing for Internet access, use of the network for municipal purposes, etc.

Ten Colorado cities form consortium to build large wireless network

2006-11-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Colorado Wireless Communities (CWC), a consortium of ten cities (Arvada, Boulder, Broomfield, Golden, Lakewood, Louisville, Northglenn, Superior, Thornton, and Wheat Ridge), formally announced its goal of enabling a comprehensive, low-cost wireless broadband network. The consortium plans to issue an RFP very soon.

America's Internet Disconnect

2006-11-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about the broadband in the US: America’s record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country. "Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much."

Questions for Tropos: Does Google's Mountain View Network Fold Under Pressure?

2006-11-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Some serious questions are raised concerning what's really happening on the Google/Tropos Mountain View Network when load levels increase. Second to comment on the weblog entry of MuniWireless is Marty Hahnfeld of SkyPilot. "Shaun" of MeshDynamics is third.

Mountains of Mesh Help One Ski Town

2006-11-06T16:14:00.000-08:00

MeshDynamics announced its first commercial deployment, a 13-node network for Enchanted Circle Communications in tiny Red River, New Mexico, a ski resort. Enchanted Circle installed the network a year ago. Enchanted Circle co-owner Keith Hall tried out two other mesh network systems first, from Cisco Systems and AirMatrix. Neither worked as advertised. MeshDynamics vice president of sales and marketing Byron Henderson says his company’s technology, on which it has eight patents pending, is the first self-configuring, third-generation Wi-Fi mesh networking system on the market.

Does Zigbee Trump WiFi mesh?

2006-11-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

According to market research company, In-Stat, the ZigBee standard will become the dominant wireless mesh networking technology because of "the clarity of the ZigBee standard, the organisational strength of the ZigBee Alliance and the involvement of several of the world's largest semiconductor companies." In-Stat doesn't explain how it reaches its conclusion in light of ZigBee's much more limited bandwidth than WiFi: a maximum off 250bkps, according to the ZigBee Alliance, as against 10Mbps and above for WiFi.

WiFi Outlook Cloudy in Mountain View

2006-11-06T12:15:00.000-08:00

Users of the Google-supported municipal WiFi network in Mountain View, Calif., have chimed in on the service they're getting -- and the picture is about as rosy as a military update from Baghdad.

Mesh Shakeout Looms

2006-11-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

Mesh WiFi vendors agree that a period of market consolidation is inevitable; the only question is when.

Bellevue: Do It Yourself and Lease Back

2006-11-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

The City of Bellevue plans to deliver their own municipal services then wholesale excess capacity. Bellevue will use Cisco 1500 meshed access points (right) along with the Cisco 4400 controller. After the 6-month trial, the city can either buy the equipment for approximately $100,000 or lease it for $25,000 - $35,000 per year (over a period of three to five years).

FCC Endorses Broadband over Powerline

2006-11-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday gave a big boost to Broadband over Powerline (BPL), classifying the technology as an "information service."

Hotspots Are Hot

2006-11-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

ABI Research predicts that in 2006 the number of commercial Wi-Fi hotspots will grow by 47% worldwide to 143,700. While almost three-quarters of these sites (74%) are still found in North America and Europe, the Asia Pacific region is growing very rapidly. Europe is still the market leader with over 57 thousand hotspots. One major driver of Wi-Fi hot spots is retail establishments. A prominent example is McDonalds, which has moved to add hotspots to 17% of its 4,000 locations. More than 675,000 access points will be shipped this year specifically for use in hotspots.

Symbol Debuts New RF Switch

2006-11-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

Multi-platform, multi-network hardware to integrate Wi-Fi, RFID, WiMAX, etc.

Got an empty roof in Houston? The city may need it

2006-11-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

Mayor Bill White took another step toward a municipal WiFi network yesterday, asking building owners to lease space on their roofs for network base stations for $1,000.

Editorial: Bogus Experts, Bogus Concern

2006-11-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

Broadband Reports has an editorial about so-called free-market think tanks faking interest in broadband deployment to maximize revenue. Their focus is not to increase broadband deployment. That would require offering broadband services to rural portions of America, where their employer's ROI would be dubious and stock prices would suffer. Rather, they want regulation demanding muni wi-fi projects be banned -- under the guise of no regulation.

Andrew to Buy EMA Wireless for $50M

2006-11-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

Georgia-based EMS Wireless racked up revenues of $28.5 million during the first half of this year from sales of its base station antennas and in-building repeaters for cellular networks. Andrew Corp. said it expects to achieve annual synergies and lowered corporate spending of between $5 million and $10 million beginning next year.

Tropos to Unwire Rock Hill, SC

2006-11-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

Rock Hill, South Carolina has chosen Consulting Services Group (CSGData), a wireless network integrator and Tropos to deploy a city-owned wireless network for public safety and utilities. Rock Hill issued its RFP last June 2006. The Tropos mesh nodes will be deployed for the municipal Wi-Fi network which will initially cover 32 square miles with backhaul connections to the city%u2019s fiber ring. Tropos mobile routers will be installed in police and fire vehicles, permitting immediate access to critical state and federal databases, along with remote viewing of security surveillance videos from the field via laptops. Additionally utility vehicles, building inspectors and other municipal workers will utilize PDAs in the field to access the municipal network for remote processing of paperwork.

ABI claims Wi-Fi far from dead

2006-10-31T12:18:00.000-08:00

Fixed wireless broadband is on the rise, and WiMax, the standardized version of fixed wireless broadband, will be available in some areas this year. With a theoretical range of 30 miles and a throughput of 72 Mbps, 802.16e-based chipsets are expected in laptops and other mobile devices by late 2006. With such range, throughput and mobility, will WiMax eclipse Wi-Fi? Should businesses kiss their wireless LANs goodbye? Philip Solis, a senior analyst with the Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based research firm ABI Research, thinks not.

Univ of Washington: Unwired by Aruba

2006-10-31T12:16:00.000-08:00

Aruba Networks today announced that the University of Washington has completed the first phase of its three-year project to deploy ubiquitous mobile access across its Seattle campus. To date, the university has deployed fourteen Aruba 6000 mobility controllers and over 2,000 Aruba AP-70 access points. The wireless network is expected to be completed in the summer of 2008 and will provide seamless mobility for 39,251 students and 27,600 staff across the entire Seattle campus, which comprises 218 buildings on 643 acres.

Decatur seeks ISP to run municipal wireless network

2006-10-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

The city of Decatur is looking for an ISP that will provide customer acquisition services as well as operate and maintain a wireless network that will serve educational, residential, commercial, municipal and public safety customers within the city's boundaries.

The Future of WiMAX?

2006-10-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

Will WiMAX eventually take over from 3G networks to be the wireless broadband technology of choice?

Wireless HD specification due in 2007

2006-10-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

Several leading consumer electronics companies are expected to announce Tuesday that they are working together to develop a new standard for transmitting high-definition audio and video signals wirelessly. WirelessHD will use the unlicensed 60GHz radio frequency band to send uncompressed HD video and audio at 5 gigabits per second at distances of up to 30 feet, or within one room of a house. While most other wireless audio and video transmissions occur in the 2.4GHz-to-5GHz range, WirelessHD says neither will allow the fast transmition speeds required for high-definition content.

Hartford Launches First Stage in Muni-Built Wi-Fi Network

2006-10-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

Hartford, Conn., spends $1m on pilot program to start gapping massive digital divide. The pilot project will encompass 5,000 homes and 75,000 people, with an additional 50,000 commuters exposed downtown. The city will sell 900 refurbished computers at $150 each, no more than one per household, coupled with a 45-minute training session. The computers will have Wi-Fi installed. More in-depth classes will be offered at libraries as the network expand.

Cisco Says 50% Of WiFi Problems Caused By Interference

2006-10-30T17:24:00.000-08:00

Cisco, which sells 55% of Wi-Fi Access Points in the market, now says that 50% of the problems in a Wi-Fi network are caused by interference, but more importantly, interference from outside the network itself. The fact that interference comes from the noise floor, microwaves, other WiFi networks, baby monitors, phones, and other devices is important, because network planners and administers have a diminished ability to plan around or 'fix' outside interference in the unregulated 2.4Ghz spectrum. The linked report from ABI Research notes that Cisco made the claim in conjunction with their announcement to re-sell a partner solution to the problem of interference, but the bias may be limited since it is not their solution, but a re-sold one - indicating a real need that Cisco could not meet itself. If 55% is the case for the average Wi-Fi network (office, warehouse, etc.) then what are the implications for outdoor networks that are more exposed to interference...and cause more of it, too?"

FON Router Giveaway

2006-10-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Spanish start-up FON will give away its Wi-Fi routers, which will allow broadband subscribers to share their Internet connections with Wi-Fi users throughout their communities. "Freedom Friday," as the company is calling the event, will kick off at noon in San Francisco's Union Square.

Loma Linda: Fiber Town, USA?

2006-10-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Loma Linda, a town of 20,000 residents wedged between Riverside and San Bernadino in Southern California, says it was the first city in the U.S. to mandate a building code for residential and commercial structures to include fiber optics. They're inflating the costs to residents, however, to preserve profits for future private deployments. Some comparisons:

Rotterdam: 30 Mbps upload and download service for $9 a month. That's $0.30 a megabit.
France: 50 Mpbs upload and download service for $38 a month. That's $0.76 a megabit.
Netherlands: 30 Mbps upload and download service for less than $9 a month.
Loma Linda: 15 Mbps download planned for $100. That's $6.67 a megabit.
Minneapolis: 5 Mpbs upload and download service max for $45 a month. That's $9.00 a megabit.

Esme Vos takes the town's CIO to task in the comments: "I cannot believe they are limiting the bandwidth so as not to undercut the future provider. That’s the wrong approach. LL should be upping the bandwidth, lowering the price to MAKE the provider compete and provide high bandwidth, cheaper service. LL should be setting a high floor, not a low ceiling."

Techdirt Corporate Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless - Early Testing Tools Available For WiMAX

2006-10-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

This is another step towards actually having some mobile WiMAX equipment in the market. All the existing "mobile WiMAX" networks are just proprietary implementations of wireless networks misusing the standard's name.

3G for mobile broadband? Think again

2006-10-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

While plenty of folks keep bringing up 3G cellular wireless as a "third pipe" to compete with DSL and cable, plenty of others are realizing it's not really competition at all. You get a slower connection, with a ton of limitations at a much higher cost.

MaxStream Extends ZigBee Range to 40 Miles

2006-10-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

The XBee from MaxStream comes in an aluminum casing with dipole antennas and runs at the 900 MHz 1-Watt XTend frequency. ZigBee networks are designed to be so low-power, yet this little modem uses a powerful band at such a long distance. The XBee is set to start at $399.

Citywide Wi-Fi spending could hit $3 billion

2006-10-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

More than $3 billion may be spent during the next four years to build and operate public wireless networks for U.S. municipalities, according to a new research report by MuniWireless.com. Spending will exceed $235 million in 2006 – significantly higher the forecast of $177 million made last year. For 2007, spending will reach $460 million, compared to last year’s estimate of $406 million. In 2008, U.S. spending will grow 105 percent to $940 million, and 2009 spending will increase another 87 percent to $1.8 billion. Among the other research findings:

Public safety, building inspection and public works are the three most prevalent applications for public wireless networks.
Large cities (those with a population of more than 500,000), which currently account for about one-third of all municipal wireless spending, will see their share of total spending grow to 40 percent by 2009.
Approximately 44 percent of all 2006 expenditures will go toward hardware and packaged software products, with the remainder allocated to services such as applications development, training, systems design and integration, and consulting.

Triple Wired Threat for Wi-Fi for In-Home Triple Play

2006-10-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

The triple play is the convergence of data, voice, and television (IPTV) across a single pipe. Wi-Fi’s in-home dominance of data and increasingly voice and IPTV (with proprietary extensions) will be challenged, ABI Research says, by the latest versions of three standards that work over coax, electrical wiring, and phone wiring. ABI Research says that by 2011, over 45 million gateways will offer wired-based distribution of data, voice, and video.

Metro-Scale Wi-Fi Testing Firm Launches

2006-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Uptown Services will offer independent performance evaluations of large-scale Wi-Fi networks. The company consults on municipal networks already, and is in discussions with one city for testing. Uptown will gather data at discrete points across the service area, and will test voice connections as well.

Nortel's Muni Push

2006-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Nortel is increasing investments in its Municipal Wireless Solutions. This includes opening a municipal wireless lab, launching new promotions for its Municipal Wireless Solution and accelerating collaboration with some of the industry's leading applications vendors.

Faster Testing Could Mean More Certified Wi-Fi

2006-10-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

A new suite from Azimuth promises to cut automated Wi-Fi certification testing time by two thirds — even for non-PC products without a user interface.

Muni Wi-Fi deployment challenges (and how to solve them)

2006-10-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

The cover story in the Technology Report of The Wall Street Journal is called “Civic Lessons“, a piece about the hurdles that cities and service providers face in deploying municipal wireless broadband networks.

Broadband is no Economic Panacea, But...

2006-10-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

... it is a big part of a rural American resurgence. There's no limit of cities that believe if they build a fiber network, their area will suddenly witness an economic resurgence. Though as we've long discussed, Broadband deployment alone is obviously no panacea, and needs to go hand in hand with more practical improvements for an area's revitalization.

Mayors seek wi-fi coordination

2006-10-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

While Minneapolis is looking to roll out its city-wide wi-fi plan next year, St. Paul is still considering what approach to take toward development of such a network. But mayors of both cities said at the Municipal Wireless Conference Tuesday that the future of city wi-fi in Minnesota would benefit from strong state leadership.

T-Mobile Tests Dual Wi-Fi and Cell Service

2006-10-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile has become the first major carrier to allow a phone in the U.S. to communicate over both cellular networks and WiFi hot spots. Clearly, this could hurt a lot of Internet telephony companies, like Vonage and the plethora of other start-ups in this area. You can bypass them now by simply making a call with your cellphone, using your home WiFi connection (if you have one, of course). T-Mobile is behind in terms of customer count, and so this might help them. However, other carriers are bringing similar offerings to market soon.

New Orleans to Unplug Free Wi-Fi Network

2006-10-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

New Orleans will give up its hard-fought battle for a free city-provided wireless Internet network once EarthLink Inc. finishes building out its initial wireless system, according to the city and EarthLink Inc. The wireless network that is run by the city for citizens will be taken down to avoid overlap between the two systems, said Mark Kurt, the city's director of information technology.

Wireless Oakland plan not off to a great start

2006-10-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

It doesn't look like the wireless network that was planned to cover Michigan's 910-square-mile Oakland County is off to the most rousing of starts. The Wireless Oakland plan was to hook up seven pilot communities by the end of the summer, including the cities of Troy and Oak Park. So far, only two cities--Wixom and Pontiac--have been hooked up, but the others are still waiting. Organizers are saying the delay can be chalked up to the access point hardware taking longer than expected to be deployed, as well as the actual engineering of the network.

Google Wi-Fi Plan Hits San Fran Politics

2006-10-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

"Every meeting is like the first," complains Google exec Chris Sacca. Blogger Davis Freeberg attended this week's Town hall meeting between Google, Earthlink and San Francisco leaders, and comes away concerned that bureaucracy and a "parade of activist oddballs who neither [understand] the technology nor the positive solical impact that free Wi-Fi could bring" is slowing negotiations to a crawl.

Solar Powered Wi-Fi in Minnesota

2006-10-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

The city of St. Louis Park, Minn., considers solar-powered Wi-Fi network: The service would be deployed by ARINC of Maryland in the current plan, using 400 solar panels paired with batteries and Wi-Fi nodes. A city official estimates savings of $40,000 to $50,000 per year in electricity. Not noted is a comparison of upfront costs for solar deployment versus what are often highly variable costs in wiring nodes into utility pole power supplies. The power at poles and other locations can be of varying voltage, only in operation certain hours of the day, or taxed to the limit, requiring substantial rework to obtain additional juice.

Triple play via wireless mesh?

2006-10-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

MuniWireless gets hot and heavy over Japan's NTT West using Strix equipment to help deliver something no other mesh player can. They got some facts wrong, however, and comments from a service provider and SkyPilot heat up the coversation.

Riverside: the Latest Tech Hot Spot?

2006-10-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

A deal with AT&T, offering all residents free wireless Internet access, is part of an effort to get computers in every home and make the city more business-friendly. Civitium is advising.

Strix Wins Big Japanese Mesh Deal

2006-10-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Metro-scale network equipment provider Strix scores with a giant NTT West contract in Japan: The NTT subsidiary will roll out 802.11j service, using the 4.9 GHz band. Strix says the deployment will ultimately pass 50m people. The deployment uses Strix’s Access/One OWS and IWS (outdoor and indoor) multi-radio products that allow voice, video, and data with quality of service scheduling. 802.11a isn’t allowed in Japan, while 4.9 GHz is used for public safety purposes in the US and military purposes in some other countries. Strix is the only mesh vendor, according to Unstrung, that’s selling into the 4.9 GHz band for 802.11j support. SkyPilot and others offer 4.9 GHz public safety gear in the US.

Free.fr Is Freer via Wi-Fi

2006-10-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Iliad, the company behind France's cheap broadband, cheap IPTV, and cheap voice now adds free Wi-Fi. The new set-top box from the company, called Freebox, has FoN like wireless network sharing features built into it, and thus every one of its 300,000 boxes can become part of a big wifi mesh. They are using Wi-Fi with MIMO technology in their boxes. Basically if you have a wifi phone (or a laptop) you can hop on to one of these networks and stay connected.

Rural Wi-Fi Rescue

2006-10-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Richard Martin profiles Forest City, a North Carolina mill town hit hard by layoffs and trying to rebound with the help of municipal Wi-Fi.

Boston Lights First Hotspots

2006-10-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Boston is beginning its road to bringing wireless internet access to its citizens with today's announcement of three public access points--one covering a 1-square-mile section of the Roxbury neighborhood, along with two others covering the Faneuil Hall and Columbus Park sections of Boston. According to Mayor Menino, these access points are being viewed as templates for the Wi-Fi network that will be spreading across Boston over the next several months.

McAllen, Texas to Deploy Wireless Network in '07

2006-10-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

City officials in McAllen, Texas are looking to put together a plan to develop and deploy a citywide wireless network sometime next year. The goal is to piece together a RFP within the next four months to have ISPs respond to in order to get the ball rolling. Estimations are that the construction of the network could run as high as $7 million, so the prevailing thought is to charge a monthly subscription fee of at least $15 to maintain it. In addition to the availability of the internet to users from virtually any location, city planners are envisioning the network as a resource for local government agencies as well as emergency responders.

Pols seek funding for wireless network on LI

2006-10-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

The effort to bring wireless access to Long Island's Nassau and Suffolk counties got a big boost with Sen. Charles Schumer's announcement that he'll be introducing legislation after the November elections to bring at least $5 million in federal funds to help build the network. The senator says that he doesn't expect the counties to have the money in hand until October 2007. Until that time comes, it is imperative that officials in both counties develop a cohesive plan to hook up these populous areas. It never hurts to have a powerful politico on your side in the development of projects such as this.

WiSpry Attracts Funding

2006-10-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

Fabless semiconductor company WiSpry has secured $13.5 million in Series B funding. The company will leverage the influx of financing to spur its next stage of growth. WiSpry, which is developing tunable radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for wireless devices, plans to use the funds to ramp up development, production and sales.

Portland Gets Mobile WiMAX

2006-10-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Motorola will integrate Intel's WiMAX Connection 2250 into their CPEi 200 Series of WiMAX clients. Intel's Mobile WiMAX chip, formerly called Rosedale 2, is the first with dual mode support, bridging the worlds of fixed and mobile WiMAX. Optimized for cost-effective Mobile WiMAX (or fixed) deployments, Intel says Motorola, Alcatel, Navini, Proxim, Siemens and SR Telecom, among others, have announced they will incorporate the new Intel chip into their product lines. Maloney also said it has begun a mobile WiMAX trial in Portland, Oregon in collaboration with Clearwire and Motorola. The trial is expected to run through 2007.

FCC lets wireless sneak between TV airwaves

2006-10-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-10-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-10-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

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.