Good Day, BWIA is a light compendium of news, items of interest, irreverent commentary, and occasional light analysis relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (including WiMAX, public access Wi-Fi, etc.).
Well, if you're reading this, you're also returning to your normal routine after Christmas. As I expected, there's not much significant BWIA-related news this holiday week. While I do plan to take most of this week off and try to catch up on some long-overdue things-to-do in the aftermath of a recent surgery and recovery, I can't not write, at least a little. I've been mulling over some predictions / trends for the coming year, so I thought I'd share some of them.
These predictions / trends are in no particular order of emergence or prominence, and I don't know how many there will ultimately be over the next couple of days.
Cloud Computing Drives Broadband Wireless Internet Access While most of the news about "cloud computing" has been about the growing functionality of Google Apps and their potential threat to Microsoft's lucrative Office applications software business, the cloud computing trend is much, much bigger than that. Witness the ongoing success of salesforce.com, NetSuite, and 37 Signals. What this signals to me is that the overall value of small, and medium business Information Technology is beginning to shift from installed hardware, software, and associated maintenance to relatively low (in comparison) monthly fees, but much more emphasis placed on reliable Broadband Internet Access. In this era of less and less reliability (real world experience) of wireline Broadband Internet Access, that means redundant forms of Broadband Internet Access - entire businesses are being built upon this trend.
The Rise, And Eventually Obvious Superiority Of Mobile WiMAX Right now, Mobile WiMAX is mostly a promise of "better things to come", and in these early stages, mostly a losing comparison to the very widely deployed "competition" of wireless telephony Broadband Internet Access - HSPA (GSM systems) and 1xEV-DO (CDMA systems). But in 2008 and beyond, we'll start seeing just how superior Mobile WiMAX is to wireless telephony Broadband Internet Access - faster, more efficient, more cost-effective, and especially the incredible diversity of devices designed for the efficiencies of a wireless system designed specifically for Broadband Internet Access instead of for voice with Broadband Internet Access retrofitted as an afterthought - with the resulting lack of efficiency and cost-effectiveness in providing Broadband Internet Access.
The Second Wind of Metropolitan Wi-Fi Networks The pullback of EarthLink from its Metropolitan Wi-Fi Network initiative has cast a pall on the overall concept of Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks. But I'm convinced that the perceived lack of success of Metropolitan Wi-Fi Networks is a combination of not-quite-good-enough technology (repeat often - omnidirectional antennas radiate poorly in all directions) and resulting poor business models for networks that use such not-quite-good-enough technology. I believe that there is a "second wind" coming for Metropolitan Wi-Fi Networks that will be cost-effective and driven by more-than-good-enough technology that includes 1) full use of, for user access, the more than 500 MHz of license-exempt spectrum now available in the 5 GHz band, and 2) use of beamforming and MIMO, including 802.11N technology adapted for Metropolitan Wi-Fi Neworks.
More predictions / trends tomorrow and Friday.
Clearwire Modem Weather Report - Hollywood Hill, Woodinville, Washington - Alternating 3 and 4 Bars. It's a bit nippy today and we may see a reprise of yesterday's brief White Christmas snowfall in the Seattle area, which appeared, and then disappeared in the space of six hours or so.
By Steve Stroh
Fine Print / Boilerplate / Acknowledgements / Credits / FAQs
(Last updated 2007-11-06)
This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
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