PETER LEWIS ON TECHNOLOGY
The FORTUNE Weblog
A look at gizmos, gadgets, and the issues that affect consumers in the age of digital technology.
FORTUNE.com
By Peter Lewis
Wi-Fi Nation
Friday, December 6, 2002
fortune.com
I've not been a big fan of Tablet PCs, the new, pen-enabled portable computers made possible by Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system. The devices I've seen so far, with the notable exceptions of ones from Toshiba and a Texas company called Motion, which is teaming with Gateway, have been too heavy to carry anywhere, too expensive, too limited or too dorky for me to carry around all day.
But something happened yesterday that changed my mind: The announcement of a new company called Cometa Networks, which plans to install more than 20,000 wireless broadband Internet access points -- or hotspots -- around the country within two years. Cometa's goal is to provide residents of the 50 largest metropolitan areas with wireless Internet access points that are no more than a five-minute walk away, or, in the 'burbs, a 5-minute drive.
Why should such a vaporous announcement make me change my mind about Tablet PCs?
It's the wireless broadband Internet access, of course. Wireless networks have been around for years, and they've really taken off since the ratification of the 802.11b protocol in 1999. Already, the savvy laptop user can use public wireless hot spots at major airports, hotels and coffee shops to tap into the Internet or log on to the office network remotely. Thousands of consumers are setting up 802.11b wireless networks in their homes, allowing family members to share a high-speed connection without being tethered to a power cord. Businesses are setting up wireless networks around their campuses, allowing employees to wander around without losing access to critical information. (In many cases, the wireless networks are being shared by non-employees as well. "War driving" is a popular geek sport in some places, as would-be hackers drive around sniffing the air for vulnerable wireless connections they can share.) The major players in the wireless Internet industry have endorsed a common standard, called Wi-Fi, which seeks to guarantee that all vendors of 802.11 equipment, from chipsets to access cards to routers, make interoperable and compatible devices.
Cometa is not the first attempt to set up nationwide wireless access points. But considering the heft of its backers -- AT&T, IBM and Intel -- it legitimizes the whole wireless Internet idea in the same way that IBM's original PC legitimized the whole idea of personal computers.
It won't be long now until all the major phone carriers also jump on the Wi-Fi bandwagon. They can't afford -- literally -- to sit out a market opportunity that could, in a few years, be nearly as large as the cell phone market.
Phone companies have spent billions of dollars to roll out the new, so-called third-generation wireless phone services -- basically, high-speed voice and data services delivered to special handsets. But consumers have been slow to embrace 3G in the places where it has already been introduced. The new handsets cost too much and there are no really compelling applications to persuade them to move up from today's mobile phone services.
With Wi-Fi, people can use the equipment they already have -- laptops and notebook PCs, maybe Tablet PCs -- to access services on the Internet that they already use every day. People can check e-mail, browse the Web, send and receive files, and so on.
If the phone companies don't get on the 802.11 bandwagon quickly, complementing their bets on 3G, they risk losing out on one of the bigger telecom market opportunities of the new decade.
It won't be long now before Wi-Fi wireless Internet capability is a standard feature of every new portable computer. Already, some of the more advanced handheld PDAs are Wi-Fi-ready, able to tap into hotspots with the proper adapters.
Wi-Fi networks have now reached critical mass, more than a decade since the first 802.11 protocols were established. A decade from now we'll think back on how we used to go to the Internet, instead of having the Internet come to us, and we'll chuckle the same way we do when we run across an old 2,400-baud modem.
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In Switzerland, a company called Cellenium said it has equipped 100 Coca-Cola vending machines with a wireless communications system that allows vendors to remotely check to make sure the machines are functioning properly and are well-stocked. Today, Coke machines in Switzerland. Tomorrow, basically all of the world's major appliances and machinery. |
