Ed Sutherland

Until recently, when companies talked of managing Wi-Fi networks, discussion centered on controlling the infrastructure – the access points and switches at the heart of an enterprise WLAN. A relatively new industry proposal  — 802.11v — aims to broaden Wi-Fi management to include the growing number of laptops, PDAs and IP phones  connecting to your […]

Although mobile WiMax has captured most of the headlines, and a series of trials by mobile carriers highlights the future of wireless broadband, fixed WiMax “remains the technology’s bread and butter through 2009,” according to a report from Visant Strategies. While 802.16e, the mobile WiMax standard, could reportedly be ratified as early as the end […]

Yet another power struggle has erupted over control of 802.11n, Wi-Fi’s high-speed next-generation standard. Chipmakers caught flat-footed by the success of pre-standard products are poised to launch a counter-offensive, effectively delaying ratification by up to six months, industry sources tell Wi-Fi Planet. An alliance, composed of number one Wi-Fi chip producer Intel and second place […]

Networking gear maker Alvarion and satellite broadcaster DirecTV are distancing themselves from reports that the two companies are in negotiations over the possibility of providing WiMax to subscribers. “We are exploring WiMax opportunities, but we are not in negotiations,” Bob Marsocci, DirecTV’s Vice President of Communications, tells Wi-Fi Planet. Recently, Reuters reported that Alvarion “is […]

Countless companies have written a blizzard of press releases on the nexus of Wi-Fi and inexpensive telephone calls. One of the most intriguing comes from the tiny Florida firm Y-Tel International. How does a three-man firm “catapult itself into the for front [sic] of the emerging VoIP industry,” according to its press release? Wi-Fi Planet […]

Clint Chaplin, the  newly-announced chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance, finds himself thrust onto center stage and a bit unaccustomed to the spotlight. The appointment “was kind of sudden,” says Chaplin, former technical head of the industry group. The naming of Chaplin follows the recent resignation of Bill Carney, appointed last June by the Alliance. Chaplin […]

Are Wi-Fi freeloaders reality or myth? Can the image of Wi-Fi zombies connected to the Internet, yet disconnected from their neighbor, be reversed? Faced with headlines questioning the wisdom of free Wi-Fi hotspots, two researchers are on a quest to reshape the image of Wi-Fi users. “A survey and complete study of hotspot users is […]

Intermec, an RFID patent holder at the center of many legal battles, recently took time from its tug-of-war with Symbol Technologies to discuss the future of Wi-Fi. Unlike its competitors in radio tagging and location, Intermec doesn’t expect Wi-Fi to become a prominent player. Throughout our interview with Dan Parks, Intermec’s director of wireless product […]

Imagine watching cable while silently receiving a broadband Internet connection or using VoIP applications as your pager works—all from the same pipe. While much of wireless is blasting out a signal heard next door or down the street, a small Florida company thinks it could quietly compete with UWB, Bluetooth—even WiMax. xMax, a 900MHz wireless […]

Wait long enough and everything old becomes new again. 5G Wireless Solutions says it is adopting a cellular-like philosophy touting a 4 km range for its campus-wide and municipal Wi-Fi base station. High-profile competitors, however, dismiss the claim as old hat. Two-year-old 5G Wireless Solutions markets a line of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint “last-mile” 802.11b/g base stations […]

Is 802.11n, the Wi-Fi technology promising to push wireless traffic to 100Mbps, already outdated? “There is a common opinion throughout academia, industry and business that the current wireless technology fulfills neither current nor future demands,” according to those behind the Wireless Gigabit with Advanced Multimedia (WIGWAM) project. This German-led consortium of corporate and university researchers […]

Is the wildly popular Skype VoIP software ready to take on a significant role in the enterprise? With at least a quarter of Skype downloads destined for enterprise laptops, according to figures from mobile computing security provider Fiberlink Communications Corp., the recent partnership between Skype and Fiberlink is responding to a “train barreling down the […]