Community Wireless: Approaches

Communiqué
"This site is all about how people use computers to communicate. It's about telepresence, social software, free software and a free Internet." Based in Sauble Beach, Ontario, Canada N0H 2G0

Bell Canada tests WiFi demand with hot spot pilots December 13, 2002
As part of the Bell AccessZone pilot, the company will convert a number of payphones in Toronto and Montreal into wireless Internet access points. The company will also install a number of access points where payphones are not present.

Automatic Networks:

Watch This Air Space. ( Jun 20, 2002 The Economist)
…"four emerging technologies that show much promise: smart antennas, mesh networks, ad hoc architectures, and ultra-wideband transmission. Smart antennas are already in use and mesh networks are starting to appear, while ad hoc architectures and ultra-wideband are still largely restricted to the laboratory. But each challenges existing ways of doing things; each, on its own, or in combination with others, could shake up the wireless world."

Devices that connect themselves could change networking. ( May 2002 )
As they make their way into more and more systems, self-organizing networks will do no less than transform the way we relate to everything from our computers to our appliances, making them, if not smarter, at least more helpful. "I think [the networks] will turn up in all sorts of creative ways," says MIT's Hawley. "The result is going to be a radical simplification of the way we interact with the stuff around us."

The Internet Amenity March 2002
Our company tried to build a high-speed wireless Internet service that could be accessed in cities throughout the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. We were going to do it using unlicensed portions of the spectrum and with wireless network equipment that employed a hot new standard called 802.11. And we were going to charge no more than $50 a month.

What many people don't realize, however, is that this visionary network is increasingly up and running today. And it doesn't even require any new technology, business models or significant investment. Indeed, if there is a single difference between the Broadband2Wireless mission and the reality of this new ubiquitous network, it's that the real wireless Internet doesn't cost $50 a month&emdash;it's free. All that's required, really, is openness.

Return on Investment for Office WLANS: ( January 9th, 2002 )
A 45-minute productivity gain equates to company cost savings that depend on the person's cost per hour. At $50 per hour, the savings will be $37.50 per person-day. A smaller company with 20 users will save $750 per day, $15,000 per month, $180,000 per year, and so on. After including wireless LAN costs of $40,000, you should see a positive ROI in about three months! Even if you factor in the cost of new laptops for everyone, you should still see a positive ROI in less than one year. added Febuary 1, 2002

Ronja: Ronja is an Open-Hardware optical datalink that connects two PC's point-to-point. Ronja's design is licensed under the GNU Public License: you get all the necessary documentation and construction guides free. The construction costs are minimal; it's probably the cheapest wireless system ever. The operation is very reliable and immune to interference. added January 4th,2002

MIT Oxygen Project: Enabling people "to do more by doing less," that is, to accomplish more with less work. Bringing abundant computation and communication, as pervasive and free as air, naturally into people's lives.

Wireless Networking Mini-Tutorial ( Updated November 13, 2001 )
Wireless LANs are slowly but surely starting to take hold in homes, small businesses and corporations. An 802.11b Network Interface Card (NIC) costs about $100. When you compare that to the cost of wiring up a cubicle and the inflexibility of that wired connection, it is easy to see why people are gravitating towards wireless LANs