Guardian Unlimited | Online | Tune into the wireless
“Wireless LAN is a threat,” he says. “It is a high-performance, low-cost radio technology that has very low unit costs and comparatively low operating costs. It’s really cheap stuff.
“From the cellular operators’ point of view, there is nothing more nauseating: they spent countless billions to buy into the 3G mobile data future, and suddenly out of nowhere comes this upstart data networking technology that seems to be shaping up as direct competitor. And I think it will be in this crucial business user segment. It’s going to hit them where it hurts.”
The same article mentions a SFO based company that has a single wireless access point serving all of downtown San Francisco: we’ve already seen a few homebrew solutions like the Pringle can antenna extending the range of wireless base stations. Now we have Intel and AMD building 802.11 capability into motherboards. Why would I want to hook up my phone to my computer to surf the net or grab my mail when the computer is already networked?