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To: Lee who wrote (148883)	12/9/1999 4:28:00 PM
From: rudedog	Respond to of 176387

lee - Also, why would office complexes go to wireless connectivity when the max speed is 24 MB/s and they can currently get fast ethernet at 100 MB/s? Especially when most work is done at a desk? Maybe some applications are getting confused? There is actually a good answer to this, but it's a little long winded. I'll try and give you some of it and if it is incoherent it's because I have just absorbed a great deal of information on that subject and have not sorted it out yet. The current LAN backbones in most companies are 100MB ethernet and gigabit fiber, with some gigabit ethernet making inroads. But in the new "connected world" that is just a little section of freeway. The big pipes going between companies are one current bottleneck. But at the desktop, the requirements of most users are well satisfied by much less than 10MB Ethernet - except perhaps for people doing graphics development. The average number of users on a 100MB backbone is 25 - so they are clearly happy with, on average, 4MB of available bandwidth. To top it off, average utilization of those pipes is less than 30%, much of that in today's world being some kind of web traffic. So a wireless strategy which allows a user to take a laptop and roam the campus, while never losing a full-up ethernet link that's probably faster than what he has at his desk, is a big advantage. I have tried it and once you go there you will never want to go back to being tied by a wire. I have already ordered 11MB wireless lan stuff for my house. But it's the next step, when those pieces are a routine infrastructure component, that really is exciting. A variety of lightweight handheld and other peripheral components become possible, if those components don't have to do the whole job of connecting to the internet and providing services. PC enabled devices in a form factor like Palm or Aero, or like a small cell phone, or like a pager, but with the combined connectivity of a PC and cell phone, and access to the full range of productivity tools, become possible at very low price points. This not only makes a much more productive office possible, but hugely reduces the infrastructure costs for providing IT support and maintenance. PCs take on a somewhat different role as an enabler for that technology. That may be a little incoherent but it is compelling, and big parts of that world will start rolling out early next year - some are already available.