The media talks about wimax more and more often every day. Last Sunday, Ariadna de El Mundo, the weekly supplement of the Spanish paper, included an extensive article about this new technology titled “With wimax, connection for everybody” (”Con wimax, cobertura para todos”). And we can tell that Miguel Ángel Criado, the author, had researched this blog.
A public-private coalition in Cincinnati (USA) supports the installation of wi-fi hotspots for poor people. This supportive access points, of which 20 are already working, are managed by volunteers and funded by private donations.
Fon is revolutionising the wi-fi sector According to Expansión, the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese phone companies have teamed up to share their wi-fi aerials and compete against Fon. The three operators will allow their clients paying broadband services to connect to any of their hotspots.
The Argentinean company Ertach has installed two webcams interconnected through wimax in two roadside inns in Mar del Plata and Pinamar. They are two tourist areas where telecommunications infrastructures are very limited.
Wi-fi is especially recommendable to offer Internet connection in those rural areas where cable can’t reach. That’s why the North American NGO Wireless Networking in the Developing World has published a free book explaining the installation process of this kind of infrastructures in remote areas. The guidebook comes with a wiki and a mailing list.
Vodafone has come to an agreement with KubiWireless (Boingo partner in Spain) in order to put its 220 Spanish hotspots at its clients disposal. With this strategy, Vodafone users can access 3G where wi-fi is not available, and use wi-fi where they can. However, to be honest, KubiWireless doesn’t work that well, as we gather from the fact that currently it counts on the same amount of hotspots as a year and a half ago.
According to Jiwire, Spain is the eleventh in the list of countries with the higher number of wi-fi hotspots, that includes 100.000 access points from all over the world. The Basque country has 99 of the 1.186 that have been found in Spain, which practically means a 10%.
This isn’t our threat, but Lakehead University (Ontario, Canada) vice-chancellor’s, who has forbidden the use of wi-fi in the campus to avoid health problems. It seems that the head of this University believes that, in a few years time, we’ll start to suffer the consequences of wireless connections, that he even compares with asbestos (which was considered harmless until not long ago).
Wi-fi will be everywhere. Since they help to differentiate products and services, all kinds of companies and organizations are installing wi-fi networks. And the most outstanding ones are those related to transports:from gas stations and airports, to ferries or Renfe trains.
The Austrian operator WiMAX Telecom has been offering for a few days now phone services via ‘WiMAX Fon’. According to their press release, they offer the cheapest prices in the whole country: 9,90 euros per month, which include the first 120 minutes of national calls.