HOUSTON BUSINESS REVIEW

COST-EFFECTIVE IT: WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES
By Richard Sonnier

Houston Business Show Commentator Richard Sonnier, of the Information Technology Services firm Nimble Services, provides weekly information on our show about information technology issues. Mr. Sonnier can be reached at 281.445.4800 x 250 or via email.

This week I will discuss new high speed wireless networking technologies.

New Wireless Technologies

The next wave of wireless is being deployed now and these technologies are focused on speed. Sprint and Verizon are rolling out EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) that will increase data speed to 10 times the current cell phone networks. This is just like upgrading from dial up to cable modem or DSL at home. Your next cell phone will be able to browse the Internet at near the same speeds as your desktop PC.

Although not available for mobile use, WiMAX is now available from a company called ClearWire in Jacksonville, Florida. ClearWire was founded by Craig McCaw, who is a giant in the wireless industry having founded the company that became AT&T Wireless. Intel is backing WiMAX as well. This technology can bring DSL or cable modem speeds to an area covering 30 kilometers. The raw performance of WiMAX is amazing up to 70 times EV-DO.

Beyond WiMAX, researchers at Rice University are developing a new wireless network that is a 200 times EV-DO performance for non-mobile users. In the coming weeks, I will review this research in greater detail.

Wireless Business Vision

While I cannot predict which of these technologies will win and become the standard, I think we can see how the winners will be used in your future business network. I believe over the next few years we will integrate the networks. Today, we have notebook computers or PDA's with wired Ethernet and WiFi wireless LANs. Adding in the existing low speed wireless data over the cell phone network and we can stay connected to our network resources more than ever. However, the connectivity has gaps. You still have to disconnect for periods of time.

The future is "Always Connected," just like your cell phone is always connected to the telephone network. In the Always Connected network you are connected to the Internet and your data by the fastest available access. In the office, your computers uses a wired connection or the wireless LAN for the fastest performance. As you leave the office for lunch, your PDA switches to the EV-DO network. Arriving at the restaurant, your access increases 10 times by switching to the restaurant's wireless LAN. Going home for the day, you use the EV-DO network on the commute and switch to the WiMAX network at home. The future is simple, seamless connectivity to your resources.

In October, I attended the Information Technology Venture Forum hosted by the Rice Alliance, CITI, and Houston Technology Center. Over the next few weeks I will discuss some of the new IT being developed in Houston.