In other words, hotspots aren't just for coffeehouses anymore. Hotels, convention centers, fast food restaurants and cafes, airports, bookstores and even campgrounds are getting lit up. Although there are questions regarding the best provider-side business model, aggregators are wrapping extensive coverage into attractively priced and configured packages, and enterprise IT managers can buy the hardware needed to build a wireless hotspot for a couple hundred bucks. Where's the downside?
To root out the best coverage and access, we sent out an RFI asking Boingo Wireless, Deep Blue Wireless, Gric Communications, Hotspotzz, iPass, Surf and Sip, T-Mobile, Toshiba and Wayport to supply our fictitious McDonald and Seifert Engineering firm with the means to give mobile employees easy access to company resources.
Even though, as an aggregator, its pricing was on the high side, Boingo got the Editor's Choice nod thanks to its wide connectivity. We also liked its flexible rate plans and top-notch client software. Overall, we're optimistic on the future of the hotspot market and see few drawbacks to jumping in--the cost of entry is low, and payoffs can be as rich as a tall toffee-nut latte with extra whipped cream.
Although Wi-Fi hotspots and 3G wireless are sometimes viewed as competitors, most service providers recognize that coexistence is the more likely scenario for the future. Some holdouts still exist, of course: Irwin Jacobs, CEO of cellular industry giant Qualcomm, predicts the demise of hotspots once 3G, with its promise of multimegabit data rates and coverage equivalent to cellular voice, becomes widely deployed. His logic is simple: Why have two wide-area wireless data services when you can have one that does it all?
Jacobs' prediction is unlikely to come true, though, because Wi-Fi systems are becoming so inexpensive and are garnering a groundswell of industry support, extending even to major cellular phone manufacturers, such as Nokia. These vendors view integration of the two technologies on a single device as a logical extension of the multimode phones we use now. Today, 2.5G (GPRS and CDMA 1x) and Wi-Fi integration means two chipsets. Tomorrow, it's reasonable to expect that chipsets will support multiple standards, including 11a, 11b, 11g, GSM/GPRS and CDMA, in various combinations.
The multimode radios of the future will facilitate new opportunities and present new challenges, including the development of interservice roaming standards so users can wander between networks transparently. The end result may be what some academics refer to as a "wireless grid," suitable for yet-to-be-developed forms of distributed communication and commerce.
Pending 6GHz spectrum availability, faster speeds, and private wireless access use drive FWA forward.
The new HPE Aruba 730 series Wi-Fi 7 access points tout high performance, enhanced security, location tracking capabilities, and more.
Verizon is demoing crowd analytics technology that uses 5G along with AI and mobile edge computing to give stadium operators insights into the flow of fans throughout a venue.
