I think the public atl-large has gotten the message that WiFi is all the rage. It seems that everybody is buying a device (or devices) that are WiFi-capable. No one wants to stay tethered to one place anymore just to surf the web.
This story in the New York Times discusses the proliferation of WiFi routers and adapters being manufactured for laptops and desktops, and the fact that most of them are being built under the 802.11n spec, which probably won't be ratified by the IEEE until sometime in 2008.
The thought here is that should consumers, as well as enterprise customers, spend the money to purchase these "Draft N" products before the spec is made official? What if a serious glitch is discovered or, better yet, a new spec is developed that will make 802.11n obsolete? What happens then?
Of course, if these Draft N products are the best in existence and they promise to make your WiFi experiences productive ones, then there really is no other alternative. WiFi is still an evolving technology, and it will take several more years of research and development before a spec comes along that will make things "perfect", if there is such a thing. Until then, we'll have to make do with what is currently available, and see where it will take us.
Despite the proliferation of smartphones and other wireless devices that can do it all--telephone, e-mail, web browser, camera, text messaging, streaming video, downloading of music, and so on--it seems that many of us have more than one device to perform one or more of these applications.
A new study from In-Stat says that over 15 percent of people have two cellphones, and that 80 percent of survey respondents that have a phone with a camera in it also have a digital camera.
Other findings of the study include:
75 percent of smartphone users also carry a PDA
Over 50 percent of smartphone users also have an MP3 player
It makes sense. Many of the newfangled smartphones are a bit on the pricey side, and people who have invested money into purchasing a cellphone, a digital camera, an MP3 player, etc., may be reluctant at first to ditch all of these gadgets for a brand new one. However, as these smartphones continue to come down in price, consumers will make the leap to them.
As you might surmise, it's been another busy week here at The Wireless Report. Take a moment to view what we believe are the most important stories over the past seven days. Enjoy!
Mobile television appears to still be rather primitive After reading this opinion article over at RCR News, I couldn't help but agree somewhat with the author. Basically, he states that in over two years of witnessing the "growth" of mobile television, the services offered by all U.S. carriers at this time are "crap".
Ad spending for mobile consumption to hit $2.9 billion in 2011 In a new mobile ad spending prediction, Jupiter Research has estimated that advertising spends for the mobile arena will eclipse the $2.9 billion mark in 2011 -- five years from now at the latest. While I'm sure mobile ad spending will continue to increase, that's a pretty lofty jump -- but I may agree with this one.
Study says men who are constantly using cellphones have difficulty fathering children OK guys, if you've dreamed about fathering a child, you better get off your cellphones. There's a new study out that says that men who spend more than four hours a day placing and receiving calls on their cellphones will suffer from low sperm counts and will have difficulty being able to father a child. The results of the study were made public at this week's American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) meeting in New Orleans.
AT&T tops telecom donations with $2.4 million I guess money does get you what you want. AT&T has topped the list of telecom players with a total of $2.4 million in donations to federal candidates in the 2006 elections. With its Bellsouth merger just waiting in the wings to happen, perhaps this money will grease the wheels of the corrupt government machine and get the merger passed, and now!
OK guys, if you've dreamed about fathering a child, you better get off your cellphones.
There's a new study out that says that men who spend more than four hours a day placing and receiving calls on their cellphones will suffer from low sperm counts and will have difficulty being able to father a child. The results of the study were made public at this week's American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) meeting in New Orleans.
It is believed that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by handsets, as well as the heat they generate, are the main causes for the debilitating effect. According to the report, men who use cellphones for more than four hours a day had a 25 percent lower sperm count than men who never used a cellphone.
In other words guys, if you want to be called "Daddy" by a little girl or boy in the future, get off your cellphones!
With each passing day, more people are doing away with their landline phones and switching to their cellphones as their primary means of communication.
Nowhere is that more the case than in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, where a new report from Qwest Communications says the region leads the country in the number of consumers who are going all-cellular.
Some of the key reasons why include cost and portability. Of course, there are advantages to having a landline phone, including if the power goes out in your home, a home security system will still work.In any case, the momentum of people going all-cellular continues to steam ahead in all parts of the country.
The end of another week has arrived, and it's been a busy one here at The Wireless Report. Please take a few moments to check out some of the fruits of our labor. Enjoy!
The Wireless Report Podcast -- October 17, 2006 We are pleased to bring you the seventeenth regular installment of The Wireless Report Podcast. We'll be discussing the citywide WiFi situation in Chicago and why Mike and I think that the Chicago folks are really doing things right so far in the Windy City's RFP for a citywide WiFi network. Kudos to them on the detail request and the way in which they have laid out the network they want to build.
ESPN exec says mobile service overestimated consumers' desire to switch At a recent magazine publishers event, an ESPN executive vice president said the company's effort to establish a mobile phone service failed because the company overestimated the number of consumers who would switch from their existing service to ESPN Mobile.
Is wireless service becoming commoditized? With several larger carriers in the U.S. and other countries these days, has wireless service become commoditized? Of course, the carriers would say no, but when a customer is in a town or city with complete coverage by three or four carriers, it is easily seen how at least voice service is seen as one in the same by millions of consumers.
Washington county commission surveys residents about wireless network I like the approach that the state of Washington's Pierce County Rainier Communications Commission (RCC) is taking in terms of determining the needs of its residents when it comes to wireless internet access.
A great idea for mobile video streaming -- teaching The world is the wireless industry's oyster if it can only figure out ways to be innovative in product and service offerings -- and many carriers are doing just that since competition is fierce and pressure to find new revenue streams never ends in the mecca of high-tech and consumer uptake.
It's been another hectic week in the home office of The Wireless Report. We invite you to check out what we think are the five most important wireless stories of the week. Enjoy!
Buy a red RAZR from Sprint, help fight AIDS For those of you who have wanted to see a red-colored Motorola RAZR for quite some time, one is coming to national CDMA carrier Sprint Nextel as the RAZR V3m soon, and when purchased, will contribute $17 to the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.
One Laptop Per Child organization strikes deal with government of Libya The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization, whose mission it is to bring low-cost computers to schoolchildren in developing countries around the world, has struck a deal with the government of Libya to provide 1.2 million laptops by mid-2008.
Nokia jumps in the WiMAX bandwagon Nokia has decided to join the rapidly-growing WiMAX universe as that industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The world's largest wireless handset manufacturer launched a complete WiMAX portfolio this week at the WiMAX world tradeshow, which was I think expected.
2007 could be a quadruple play kind of year If you already subscribe to cable TV, internet access, and landline phone service from the same provider, would it be much of a stretch for you to add wireless service to your bill?
With the ongoing spat between Broadcom and Qualcomm still in progress, both companies have said that they have been victorious in recent court proceedings there -- apparently -- the results were so unclear to both companies that neither wanted to take a spill and admit loss.
The judge in the case ruled that Qualcomm did in fact infringe on a Broadcom patent, but then Qualcomm goes on to say that the patent is invalid completely. But, the court also found that Qualcomm did not breach patents on two of the three patents in the case, with all three belonging to Broadcom.
If you already subscribe to cable TV, internet access, and landline phone service from the same provider, would it be much of a stretch for you to add wireless service to your bill?
According to some analysts, there is potential for many consumers to opt for the "quadruple play" for companies such as Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications, and Verizon. The advantage is that you're getting all of these services on one bill, and you probably will be able to get a basic service package for about $100 a month. Of course, one disadvantage is that you could end up beholden to one provider for all of your services, and your options will be limited.
It's an interesting question for consumers. The next six months will tell us a lot if the quadruple play concept will make a dent in the marketplace.
With WiMAX becoming the talk of the global town in terms of soon-to-be wireless broadband everywhere, the collective wireless broadband industry expressed, um, utter dismay that XM Radio's land-based repeater systems were operating at power levels outside the norm (hence, interference maybe?) as well as 19 of the repeaters operating outside of the scope of the FCC permit XM Radio has for land-based repeater systems.
The repeaters help augment the satellite radio signal where taller buildings and other objects block the satellite signal, and are mostly used in large metro areas with a decent amount of teller buildings and such.
Although there are no immediate concerns to the wireless broadband industry -- as it just now plans for service rollouts -- XM Radio will be under the microscope and auspices of WiMAX companies until it gets the situation under control -- and quickly.
Wireless service providers are certainly happy to know that their customers are increasingly purchasing more of their products, which translates into higher monthly bills, which means more revenue into their bottom lines.
A new study from J.D. Power and Associates found that the average monthly wireless bill is now $66, up from $55 back in 2004. Most of that growth comes from the increasing purchase and use of services such as text messaging as well as government-imposed fees, but we will certainly see more products such as streaming video and music downloads added to that total within the next few months.
A new study from Frost and Sullivan indicates that sales of ultrawideband (UWB) and ZigBee chipsets will increase significantly over the next three years.
I can't help but be a bit skeptical over this new research. We've seen over the past couple of years the turf war over the definition of a single standard for UWB, and that effort fell right on its face. Plus, we were supposed to see a slew of products being released over the course of this year, including those dealing with home entertainment. So far, we haven't seen anything yet. To be fair, we do have a few months left in the year and the holiday shopping season around the corner, so there is still time left for this wireless technology to make some sort of impact on the marketplace.
With regard to ZigBee, it definitely is finding a niche in the home automation market, especially in the security/alarm sector. It doesn't appear that ZigBee will ever become a "hit" like Bluetooth, but if it can find a couple of strong niches to park itself in, that will be just fine for its supporters.
The new combined company will be the new force to be reckoned with in terms of global wireless infrastructure sales, battling with LM Ericsson of Sweden, Nortel of Canada and Nokia Siemens Networks (the two recently teamed up) -- but with mightier heft this time as a combined entity.
Alcatel's $10.7 billion offer to acquire Lucent has been seen as too generous in the industry, given Lucent's recent lackluster earnings reports. However, others have pointed out that Alcatel and Lucent will be in a stronger position as a combined company to compete against Nokia Siemens Networks and L.M. Ericsson.
As the clock turns away from summer into the fall, the news from the wireless world still remains sticky hot. Check out these five blazing stories from the past week. Enjoy!
Is WiMAX starting to entrench on WiFi? Although citywide and municipal WiFi continues to gather steam all across the U.S. and the world, are developing technologies like WiMAX starting to pose a threat to the established (but short-range) wireless broadband technology?
Toronto's downtown wireless network launches Yesterday marked the launch of a wireless network in Toronto's downtown financial district. For the first six months, access will be free to all users. After that, it will cost $5 an hour, $10 a day or $29 per month.
Google unveils AdWords service for mobile advertising I've been waiting for Google to get into the mobile advertising space, and it looks like the search leader has done just that. Google has announced that it now has the Google "AdWords" program available for mobile devices (cellphones, smartphones, etc.) that use a mobile web browser.
Consortium wins bid to build wireless network in Silicon Valley A group of companies including Azulstar, Cisco Systems, IBM, and SeaKay has been selected by the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force to develop and deploy a wireless network that would cover the entire 1,500 square miles of Northern California's Silicon Valley.
Sprint to offer full-length movies over national wireless network This is what I consider to be a watershed moment in mobile multimedia -- the featuring of full-length video-on-demand movies right over the air to your wireless handset. While I've been skeptical for some time on whether customers really want to enjoy video multimedia over their handset screens, this may be the feature that attracts new customers to the space.
The U.S. Army has developed and recently demonstrated a new wireless system that provides a communications infrastructure in the event of a breakdown in fixed communications in the event of a major emergency.
The RMCS monitors vital signs of responding personnel and provides the incident commander oversight of the existing environmental conditions, as well as voice communications and live video.
According to Army officials, the RMCS will bridge the communications interoperability gaps between defense and civil support missions.
I think the public atl-large has gotten the message that WiFi is all the rage. It seems that everybody is buying a device (or devices) that are WiFi-capable. No one wants to stay tethered to one place anymore just to surf the web.
Despite the proliferation of smartphones and other wireless devices that can do it all--telephone, e-mail, web browser, camera, text messaging, streaming video, downloading of music, and so on--it seems that many of us have more than one device to perform one or more of these applications.
As you might surmise, it's been another busy week here at The Wireless Report. Take a moment to view what we believe are the most important stories over the past seven days. Enjoy!
OK guys, if you've dreamed about fathering a child, you better get off your cellphones.
With each passing day, more people are doing away with their landline phones and switching to their cellphones as their primary means of communication. 
With the ongoing spat between Broadcom and Qualcomm still in progress, both companies have said that they have been victorious in recent court proceedings there -- apparently -- the results were so unclear to both companies that neither wanted to take a spill and admit loss.
If you already subscribe to cable TV, internet access, and landline phone service from the same provider, would it be much of a stretch for you to add wireless service to your bill?
With WiMAX becoming the talk of the global town in terms of soon-to-be wireless broadband everywhere, the collective wireless broadband industry expressed, um, utter dismay that XM Radio's land-based repeater systems were operating at 
Wireless service providers are certainly happy to know that their customers are increasingly purchasing more of their products, which translates into higher monthly bills, which means more revenue into their bottom lines.
A new study from 
Looks like shareholders of 
As the clock turns away from summer into the fall, the news from the wireless world still remains sticky hot. Check out these five blazing stories from the past week. Enjoy!
The U.S. Army has developed and recently demonstrated a new wireless system that provides a communications infrastructure in the event of a breakdown in fixed communications in the event of a major emergency.
