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Introduction Luckily, the time span for making the Internet more 'mobile' won't be quite as drastic. More and more movies are depicting the Internet as a superfluous, omnipotent, ubiquitous part of everyday life; as the Internet weaves itself into this lifestyle, companies are looking for ideas and innovations that will make money and put them ahead of the competition. With the telephone, AT&T seemingly developed a monopoly; in the developments of the wireless web, the playing field is wide open. Wi-Fi versus Cellular Phone Connections On UNC's campus, students are afforded the opportunity to engage in a Wi-Fi enabled network. Laptops with wireless cards can access this seemingly ubiquitous network. Hotspots are areas with Wi-Fi capabilities; the range or span of these areas are limited by the strength of the supporting hardware's signal. UNC's campus is not one big hotspot; in fact, there are several areas on campus where you can't get a signal; a signal will only be strong near a wireless router or signal booster. UNC is only a microcosm of the hopeful or potential wireless customers at large. Unfortunately, UNC only provides service to employees and students of the University. It doesn't provide a set of rules or guidelines for the average non-affiliate. If the Wi-Fi is to truly become ubiquitous, the need to have multiple hotspots spanning multiple areas that users can go to without having to worry about being disconnected is apparent. However, as we have seen with organizations such as UNC, a signal may be available but users may not have rights or privileges to get access. This is primarily one of the major reasons why Wi-Fi will not rival
cellular phones for some time. Just like ground lines in the US, home
phones dominated the market for a while until cellular become more
supported. Who's Ahead of the Game Along with a large customer base comes an environment or testbed for many new and exciting products. A small company is testing a PDA capable of switching protocols (Wi-Fi to 3G). Security and Wi-Fi Until Wi-Fi becomes industry grade, many businesses will tend to stay away from its full and complete integration. One might ask, well, what then makes it attractive? Simple - it's open, unregulated and free. No need to pay royalty fees. Multiple vendors/persons can write Wi-Fi applications for profit or personal use. Its openness maintains some of the benefits of 'open source software'. A larger group of eyes is quicker to point out problems and potential areas of attacks, and in the process, solutions are posed and problems are fixed. Until these groups of eyes can effectively point out all the problems, other solutions will remain mainstream. |
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