Other panelists were: Piers Bearne, managing director, Rock Media; Pierre Trudeau, co-founder and chief technology officer, Colubris Networks; and James Woudhuysen, professor of forecasting and innovation, De Montfort University.

There was no charge to attend. Further information can be found on the spiked-IT events page.

[This talk is not to be cited without authorisation.]

Introduction

[Comments in brackets prepared but not delivered.]

I will address the element of the event setup that asks:

“Are the advantages of this technology for business innovation fully understood, or consistently promoted? This seminar aims to demystify wi-fi, appraise its potential for what it is, and point to what it could be.”

Situating the network in the real world

WiFi is one of the first Internet-related technologies that brings together the network and the real world. It situates the network in the world, as an enhancement to it. It can even bring geography into the network. These concepts were fatally missed during the first Internet boom, where we focused on the Web browser, on the PC, on the fixed, desktop computer. I missed the rise of WiFi too, and first became aware of it when I purchased a new Apple PowerBook in 2000, and it offered builit-in WiFi (named AirPort).

Example: at WiFi-enabled tech conferences these days Macintosh users can see other Macintosh users (and some Windows users) who have their IM clients running. Thus, you can find people you didn’t know were at the conference, ‘see’ who is in the room with you, share and post notes on talks, and make requests from people.

Some key features ignored

There are a number of features that are key to WiFi, some of which are less appreciated than others:

• It facilitates cheap, easy and rapid network setup
• It can allow for access to the network when one is mobile, and when one is moving
• It can allow people to move easily between spaces, including between colleagues and teams, while retaining ‘presence’ and ‘status’ on the network
• Also supports access to and filing of data by people working in the field, eg: Westminster Council employees
• Can be used for locating people, or perhaps things[i]
• It supports many activities, including voice, and can be used to create new telephony models, [or intra-organisational phone networks]
• It can enable devices, for instance in the networked the home, and particularly around entertainment [and security]

A half-hearted rollout

The public WiFi rollout in the UK has been half-hearted. According to JiWire, London is one of the most ‘WiFied’ city in the world, and it is good to see it in McDonald’s. But the reality is that:

• Hotspots are scattered and hard to locate. [Why not in street furniture, such as bus ticket dispensers, and telephone kiosks[ii]?]
• Signup is complex, and login painful
• Plans are expensive and billed by time, not data transfered [(and plan monitoring is non-existent)]
• Until recently roaming between providers has barely existed, though now provided by BT Openzone and T-Mobile in UK, SBC Communications and Sprint in US, Boingo internationally[iii]. [“Perhaps chief among those is a lack of comprehensive roaming agreements... It was the cell-phone industry’s ability to provide such coverage that eventually fostered the phenomenon of a cell phone in every pocket.”[iv]]
• Technical support is inept, [and advice on challenges such as sending email from a public IP address almost non-existent]

Ideally, we shouldn’t have to look for or consciously login into a WiFi network. [Example of my working pattern between clients and cafes.]

Competing technology myths and truths

Most discussion of competing technologies wiping out WiFi are journalistic puff. The characteristics of WiFi, GPRS, 3G, and WiMax are very different and each is suited to different situations. WiFi has been embedded by having an open architecture, being a standard and being backward compatible, through (investment in) infrastructure and peripheral technologies, economies of scale of production, and adaptability.

As Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital has put it “802.11 is to wireless communications what the x86 is to computing and what Ethernet is to networking”. [He adds that people who promote the weaknesses of the standard are merely writing the feature list for future innovation on top of the standard which people will already be implementing.]

There are clearly areas the WiFi specification needs to address, not least low latency handoff between cells[v]. If such features can be incorporated appropriately WiFi could eat into GPRS and 3G usage, according to Gurley[vi]. To the extent they co-exist we need technologies that can seamlessly move devices between these network protocols.

Sub-standards

It is great that WiFi is a standard. But the choice and implementation of standards has been hampered by industry dynamics. We had 802.11b, ‘a’ and ‘g’ in quick succession. Products were released before the standards process had been completed. The work on the same wavelength as microwave ovens, and interfere with Bluetooth headsets! [And WiFi really got going because a minnow of a computer company introduced it in its laptops. The same company has been the most effective proponent of WiFi in home entertainment. What were and are the industry ‘leaders’ doing?]

A more appropriate technology

WiFi is an example of a Western developed technology that is not ‘appropriate’ technology, but that is more than appropriate for making data and voice connectivity cheaply available in the developing world. As I noted in my article on spiked reviewing the first World Summit on the information society, [in which I noted that “There is no meaningful digital divide yet”][vii]. An example: WiFi is being used in parts of Africa by RuralSat to distribute satellite Internet access.

Conclusion

WiFi will continue to be a success because it is now cheap, embedded, standardised, flexible, and easy to use. [Though industry needs to working on making it easier to use, as per my comments in ‘A half-hearted rollout’.]

We need some thorough-going and imaginative research into roles of WiFi, and related technologies, in the real world. For instance, the Proboscis Urban Tapestries project, funded by France Telecom R&D and others [not directly by H-P as I suggested].

More intelligent industry behaviour, not focusing on one platform or protocol[viii]. People don’t care about protocols.

I would also propose a government- and industry-backed initiative to install, Minitel-style, WiFi based telecommunication and information devices in every home in the UK. (New Labour, with its preference for supposed free-market competition, managed by Ofcom, would hate this.) From that base we could really find out what the potential of WiFi is.

Other ideas not discussed

• Locality: nearfield communication[ix]
• Need to compose requests offline
• Role of adaptation
• Security: Guy Kewney on an overblown panic[x]
• ‘Cognitive radio’[xi] Dr Joseph Mitola, Mitre Corporation
• Discuss role of change in UK government regulation?

And in the context of ‘A half-hearted rollout’:

• Credit to Intel for the Centrino
• TeleGeneration approach/municipal networks, eg: Philiadephia/Open Planet and Oplans
• Driver of instore back office-point of sale communication
• Tony Smith in The Register: “it’s time to start reaching out to potential customers rather than lazily waiting for them to come to you”[xii]

Discussion

[I have notes on the discussion, along with the other panellists’ introductions. Please email me if you would like me to write them up.]

Reference

See my article ‘Wi-Fi in the real world‘ Nico Macdonald, The Register, 10/02/2004. Reporting on the realities of using WiFi in London, based on my itinerant activity during BT OpenZone’s Wireless Broadband week. Concludes that “it’s time to go beyond our shock that this technology works at all, and get practical about how we can make it truly available and really facilitate its use”. (Documented in Spy: Communication.)

Other relevant articles

‘Vonage offers VoIP mobile phone’ Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 5th January 2005. Good analysis of prospects for WiFi mobiles.

‘3G Phone Rival Calling Collect’ Nov. 30, 2004. Cambridge Silicon Radio, a British company, has launched a range of single-chip Wi-Fi designs aimed at mobile phones and other pocket devices... Voice calls, in other words, will crowd out data, making the throughput unacceptably slow. [James Collier, technical director and co-founder of CSR] believes that incorporating higher-speed, lower-cost Wi-Fi will get users addicted to data services where slower, more expensive 3G will fail... Unlike in the United States, where cell phones are typically locked into a single network operator, in Europe most customers can choose any phone they want... And Wi-Fi’s appeal may even extend to making voice calls over private wireless networks. http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,65820,00.html

‘Gaps remain in Wi-Fi security’ Alan Stevens, IT Week, 07 Oct 2004 http://www.itweek.co.uk/comment/1158627

‘Untangling ultrawideband’ The Economist, Sep 16th 2004. Consumer electronics: Which technology will prevail in the battle to banish the spaghetti behind your TV and computer?

Special report: Wi-Fi’s growing pains, Business Week, February 18, 2004

‘The future in 3G’ James Woudhuysen, 5 September 2003 http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006DF01.htm

‘Wi-Fi, Li-Fi, and Mi-Fi’ Michael Schrage, Technology Review, July 2003 http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/schrage0703.asp

‘The wireless city’ James Woudhuysen, IT Week, 2003

‘The Next Big Thing: 802.11b?’ in Above the Crowd by Bill Gurley 20/11/01. The history of technology has proven again and again that if a certain open architecture gains escape velocity there is no turning back. The cost declines brought on by ramping unit volumes alone are enough to thwart any competitive threat. Wi-Fi has all the makings of a disruptive and explosive technology: huge growth, a strong value proposition, multiple and expanding uses, industry standardization, and global standardization. http://news.cnet.com/news/persarchive/0,11016,0-1270,00.html

Above The Crowd ‘The Rise of Open-Standard Radio: Why 802.1’ J. William Gurley, 2 Feb 2004. I believe that 802.11 is remarkably under-hyped relative to the massive impact this seemingly simple standard will eventually have on the entire wireless communications sector. ¶ One clear lesson in the history of technology and business is that once an open standard gains critical mass, it is extremely hard to derail... Once customers invest in a standard, they are likely to purchase more and more supporting infrastructure... Customers are no longer tied simply to the core technology, but also to the numerous peripherals and applications on which they are now dependent. [Benefits of collective R&D efforts and economies of scale. [Examples of x86-based chips and Ethernet. And development of unexpected uses of each.] [From vertically integrated strategy to common standards.] Simply put, 802.11 is to wireless communications what the x86 is to computing and what Ethernet is to networking. [WiFi will become so cheap it is embedded in more things, and will be considered to be ‘free’.] [Shouldn’t underestimate the importance of backward compatibility in increasing switching costs, or possible performance evolution.] [People who] promote the weaknesses of the standard are merely writing the feature list for future innovation on top of the standard [which people will already be implementing]. There will be numerous doubters and numerous challengers [to 802.11], but they will all succumb to the inescapable power of the first true “open-standard radio.” http://news.com.com/2010-7351-5153319.html

‘Businesses, Big and Small, Bet on Wireless Internet Access’ John Markoff, November 18, 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/18/technology/18WIFI.html

Endnotes

[i] ‘WiFi software tracks you down’ October 18, 2002. “The company even predicts some networks could be used solely for location purposes, as opposed to shuttling data.” http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-962587.html

[ii] ‘Verizon Plans to ‘Wi-Fi’ Pay Phones’ May 12, 2003 http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2204901 and ‘A Wi-Fi Payoff from Pay Phones?’ Business Week, January 30, 2003. About conversion of public payphones in Canada to Wi-Fi access. Free trial revealed some unexpected behaviour from customers.

[iii] SBC Communications and Sprint have announced a deal that will give the customers of each company access to the other’s Wi-Fi hot spots around the country. Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2004 http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109355865756102395,00.html

[iv] Special report: Wi-Fi’s growing pains: ‘Before Wi-Fi Can Go Mainstream’ Business Week, February 18, 2004 [paid subscription required]

[v] Synposis: Information Technology ‘Wireless Lookout’ Technology Review, April 2005. Fast handoff for Wi-Fi networks. [paid sub may be required]

[vi] ‘802.11 & Cellular: Competitor or Compliment?’ Bill Gurley, 6 Jan 2003. Argues that open standards and the economies of scale of the PC industry have driven WiFi to the point where it has taken a chunk out of the potential market for 3G applications (in airports, hotels, coffee shops, etc). Believes that WiFi is more competitor than complement to 3G. May be archived at: http://news.com.com/2017-1072-0.html but see ‘Analysts: Wi-Fi Complementary to Telecoms’ June 16, 2003 http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2222271

[vii] ‘ICT wusses’ Nico Macdonald, spiked-IT, 28 January 2004. With its low-key focus on the developing world, the World Summit on the Information Society suffered from a poverty of ideas. http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA381.htm

[viii] Wi-Fi Internet Access Is Hot, But Its Profit Potential Is Tepid’ 9/12/02. Notes that analysts “are arguing that Wi-Fi and cellphone technologies may end up working together to spur demand for such services and cut the costs of delivering them”. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/technology/09WIFI.html

[ix] ‘Talkative future for every gadget’ 21 March, 2004. Philips, Nokia and Sony are banding together to create a basic technology that will help gadgets automatically connect with each other... [Discusses Phllip’s Near Field Communications project.] Simply putting two NFC devices together will get them talking to find out how they can swap data. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3549663.stm

[x] ‘Hotspot paranoia: try to stay calm’ Guy Kewney, The Register, 24th January. [I]n a world where most PC users still don’t use spyware blockers and distributed denial-of-service attacks routinely use hundreds of thousands of compromised PCs to bring down major web servers, and where viruses and worms are distributed over ordinary dialup accounts, the risk of being hacked at a Wi-Fi hotspot is infinitesimal by comparison.

[xi] ‘How the radio changed its spots’ The Economist, Dec 4th 2003

[xii] ‘Wi-Fi in the real world - pt. 2’ Tony Smith, 19/02/2004 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/35693.html

[xiii] ‘Verizon Could Spark ‘Me-Too’ Wi-Fi’ May 14, 2003. Consumer WiFi will be taken for granted, not a service that can be charged for. Rollout of a WiFi network could be achieved for very low investment if the telcos collborated. http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2206601