Muni Broadband might become as common as “public power”

If the municipal broadband community has many more allies in Washington like Congressman Chris Cannon (R-Utah), muni broadband might one day become as common as "public power".Congressman Cannon, who is in his third term in Washington, says the Bells and the cable companies have no incentive to provide high-bandwidth and affordable broadband service because they face no significant competitive challenge in most markets. more...

Google's Free WiFi equals targeted ads

Bambi Francisco Commentary: Nothing is free, and what happens to ISPs?

When Google said it wanted to offer WiFi Internet access for free in the city of San Francisco, my immediate thought was: I feel like a testing ground. Google's (GOOG: news, chart, profile) grand ambition to get San Franciscans onto the Internet for free - as altruistic as it sounds - is really about targeted advertisements. "Unwiring San Francisco is a way for Google to support our local Bay Area community," Google spokesman Nate Tyler said. "It is also an opportunity to make San Francisco a test-ground for new location-based applications." (MarketWatch - Free subscription) more...

Sprint To Trial WiBro

Sprint said that it will work with Samsung Telecommunications to test pre-standard mobile WiMAX wireless broadband technology. The companies said in a statement that they will conduct both laboratory and field tests of the technology as well as interoperability tests with other Sprint technology providers. Sprint provided only hints about their long-term intentions. more...

The rush to Wireless IP- Based Multimedia Services

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Emerging Wireless Multimedia: Services and Technologies to their offering. One of the most exciting and challenging aspects of next generation wireless networks is the provision of IP- based multimedia services, similar to those recently emerged on the Internet. Currently, both in commercial and academic arenas, a great effort is underway to develop, test and standardise the technologies that would enable efficient, secure and cost-efficient provision of wireless IP-based multimedia services. Emerging Wireless Multimedia Services and Technologies will provide a comprehensive resource of the most up to date wireless multimedia technologies and services. It will approach the subject in two parts, Multimedia Enabling Technologies and Wireless Multimedia Applications and Services. It will cover areas such as Audio/Video Coding Technologies through to WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and Push to-Talk technologies. more...

75% of US firms to turn to VoIP

Three quarters of all corporate telephony lines will be IP-based by 2009, according to research by Radicati Group.The study found that a majority of companies, especially medium to large sized businesses, are gradually upgrading their PBXs to hybrid solutions. more...

Rogers, Bell to form wireless network together

TORONTO — In a massive pooling of wireless broadband resources, telecom competitors Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada are hooking up on a national wireless network, the companies said Friday. Bell and Rogers said joint venture Inukshuk Internet Inc. will spend $200 million to build and operate the network that the companies expect will reach more than two-thirds of Canadians in less than three years. more...

New Services: Delivering the 'Quadruple Play'

Multi-system operators (MSOs) are on the verge of adding mobility to their existing voice, video and data services, delivering the quadruple play to their customers. MSOs need to add these high-value services in a way that allows them to optimize their business plans and keep subscribers in their control and on their networks. more...

Nortel Gets Busy with WiMax

Communications specialist Nortel Networks is taking the nascent WiMax broadband technology to the next level with plans to deliver both fixed and mobile products based on the latest standards. To do so, the company is partnering with Intel and Airspan Networks to bring such products to market. more...

China's ZTE plans WiMAX trial in Pakistan

WiMAX will soon be touching down in Pakistan. China’s ZTE Corp. said Monday (Sept. 19) it would launch a trial run in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, of its beta equipment for the fixed wireless service. The trial will begin next month, through local provider Telecard, and include an installation of one six-sector base transceiver station and 17 receivers. more...

Eliminating Interference And Enabling Video-Speed WiFi

Rotani, Inc. announced the release of AirReferee, a next-generation WiFi access point technology that makes any 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) interference-resistant. AirReferee is a turnkey OEM access point reference design, providing the uninterrupted throughput needed for multiple video streams, online gaming, VoIP and other latency and throughput-sensitive applications. more...

Notebooks Expand Reach with Broadband Wireless

Laptops are acquiring long distance communications skills. PC makers Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. are moving to offer their corporate notebooks with wireless broadband. The companies have partnered separately with Verizon Wireless and on Monday announced plans to bundle the hardware necessary to offer the wireless provider's Evolution-Data Optimized or EV-DO network service with their notebooks. Wireless broadband is still mainly used by businesses, which purchase the service so as to allow their employees to stay continuously connected while on the road and away from phone lines for dial-up access or hotspots that offer Wi-Fi connections. more...

UK Provider Launches WiMAX-Class Broadband Services

Fine Point Networks, a division of Fine Point Technologies, and a leader in broadband network PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) connectivity, today announced that Telabria Networks, a leading provider of wireless communications services in the UK, will be utilizing the full range of Fine Point Networks PPPoE solutions including the ServPoET Broadband Management Server (BMS) Product Family as well as WinPoET and MacPoET as it launches its 'Skylink' WiMAX-class broadband service for data and voice. more...

802.11n challenging fast Wi-Fi standard

Intel has caused a delay in the arrival of high-speed wireless LANs by forming a new faction in the standards process, according to industry observers.The chip giant, along with Broadcom, Atheros and Marvell together control the bulk of the market for Wi-Fi chipsets, and have formed a new camp lobbying for the final shape of the 802.11n standard. The standard hopes to quadruple Wi-Fi speeds in equipment backward-compatible with existing kit. more...

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