Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (52491)	8/15/2002 1:11:37 PM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Slacker, Eric mentioned: To say that "cellular is an evolutionary dead end" is a biiiiiiiiiiig stretch, IMO. However, you mentioned ... This could end up being Mike's first handset.... Now that would be a really, really biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig stretch. :) Except that ... I've been using handsets since I was old enough to talk on a phone. I have three in my home. Two of them are connected to a cord which in turn is attached to a telphone which is wired into the wall outlet. The third handset is not attached to the telephone even though the telephone is wired into the wall outlet. You won't be surprised that the one handselt that is not fully wired doesn't work as well as the other two, and is allowed in my home only to pacify my wife. :) --Mike Buckley

To: slacker711 who wrote (52491)	8/15/2002 4:39:22 PM
From: paul_philp	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

Slacker, Hey, this post is a little unfair. You are comparing the way WiFi is today to the way 3G will be tomorrow. With the current tornadic uptake of WiFI I think we will see much investment and innovation. I would not be surprised if WiFi coverage and 3G coverage are similar in three years, with 802.11a or 802.11g as the WiFi standard. Right now, I don't favor one over the other. I just think the outcome is not certain. Of course, if the FCC can figure out a way to free up enough spectrum to make spread spectrum possible, all bets are off. Paul

To: slacker711 who wrote (52491)	8/23/2002 10:16:53 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Wi-Fi is great at local area networking. Although HotSpots and public coverage areas are growing, Wi-Fi will never be able to serve the wide area networks that some advocates dream about. For one thing it has limited range - it was designed for limited range local area networking. OK, there will be improvements that will increase the range to almost double what it is now but that will be with the use of higher power devices (200 mw) that won't be very practical for use in PDAs and laptops. Power management will help but not enough. The other problem is that the channel allocation and addressing scheme of 802.11 is very limited. CDMA used in 1x 3G systems was designed to allow a large number of users. But CDMA cellphone use is low bandwidth so having lots of users was Ok. And with CDMA the noise floor is increased as users increase, causing the cell size to be reduced. CDMA just wasn't designed for broadband data. A lot of people are excited about 802.11b. That is just the start. 802.11g will be a significant improvement and already there is talk about an extended version that would use some of the features planned for IEEE 802.16a/b WirelessMAN to extend the range and make it more robust. But wait a minute, the WirelessMAN standard is intended to solve the range and capacity problems of 802.11. The Wireless Metro Area Networking standard is expected to be ratified by the end of this year. Give it another six months and it will probably make it. With 802.16 there will be several improvements that will make it possible to provide wide area networks that are more easily set up to serve as wide area networks than 802.11 which even hackers have a difficult time stretching into wide area service. All the hype about 802.11 isn't entirely without merit. In fact, 802.11 is a seminal event similar to the use of the first graphics displays in PCs - it helped to create a revolution in the way people used them and that created more revolution/evolution in hardware and software and personal habits. It would be a bitch to be using the Internet on an ASCII screen!