Month: October 2006

Today I read about the new son of Google. It’s a search engine, -obviously- based on his parent, but with lots of new features. In fact, you can’t realize that it is a Google creation until you check the privacy link in the front page.

First of all, this search engine is supposed to be unbiased, which means that the search results are not filtered, modified or organized based on any personal, commercial or political scopes.

Second, there are lots of things you can do with the results. You can drag each result higher or lower in the page, you can see more results without reloading, plus more comfortable and simple navigation options.

This is one neat example of WEB 2.0, where web applications are more and more reflecting the responsiveness of a local application. I believe that it is a response to the live.com search engine lately launched by Microsoft, which showed this certain “interactiveness” but this time Google is showing Microsoft how things should be done.

I think that the best way to appreciate it, is checking it out for yourselves, so just follow this link searchmash.com and happy surfing!

Today I want to post you some quotes of US carrier Sprint CTO about WiMAX and the current multibillionaire investments to migrate the cell-phone networks to mobile WiMAX.

“A lot of people are real enthusiastic about having an ‘Internet anywhere’ experience,”

“WiMax creates a 10-fold improvement in the price-per-bit,”

“That is made possible by the fact it uses a wider channel.”

“We talked to one consumer Electronics Company about putting WiMax in a TV set, and with another about putting it in printers. Once you do that, you can then deliver other services over that [WiMax] network.”

Sprint’s plan is to have 100,000 points of presence enabled with WiMax service by the end of 2008.

Taken from:
Techworld.com
Why Sprint says WiMax is 4G
Mobile chips and lower costs wil drive it.
By John Cox, Network World

British Telecom, known as one of the world pioneers of the FMC (Fixed-mobile convergence) movement, is speculated to get now into the WiMAX game.

“British regulatory body Office of Communications (Ofcom) is due to open up spectrum in the 2.5GHz to 2.69GHz band in January 2008. Auctions are expected to be held late this year or early in 2007. These frequencies are prime WiMax ranges.”

It’s known that BT has been running some WiMAX tests on gear from Navini Networks Inc. in Birmingham.

“Sources expect BT to go aggressively after that spectrum.”They have to,” says one industry figure. “Otherwise Vodafone owns everything.””

BT’s bet on FMC involved a partnership with Vodafone in order to offer their users roaming between their WiFi hotspots and the UMTS Vodafone network. What would an introduction into WiMAX mean for BT?

PROS
– Independence of any partnership to offer services, creating owned networks;
– Establishing itself as a mobile communications company;
– Become a cost-advantageous competitor in the mobile telephony market;
– Offer services that no other mobile operator can offer and competitive prices.

CONS
– Betray its partner Vodafone;
– Creation of a fierce competence and turbid market which could reduce profits.

In my opinion, WiMAX is a clear plain bet that BT will pursue. The partnership betrayal would be though decision and could affect the relationship with other partners/providers so it has to be managed carefully. At the end, cell phone companies will definitely avoid to be drawn out of the market. Aggressive reactions and government intervention would be expected.

This information, as a speculation, has to be confirmed and I will post on it as soon as I get to know.

“The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”
William Gibson

Today I woke up with a scenario in my head where I could travel all around the world being able to contact my friends and family, watch TV, listen to music, transfer files, contact my customers, pay my bills, look for maps, read the news, go shopping, take pictures, record videos, read books, play some games, pay my drinks, no matter where, no matter when with one single device.

Well, the future is here! One device, one network, one standard. The device is called PDA, the network is Internet and the standard is WiMAX.

Today, I saw the announcement of NXP (the world’s 10th biggest chip maker):
“The design is extremely small and it can live off battery power. There are companies working on similar integrated chips, but we’re already in mass production,” said WiMAX Marketing Manager Ruud van den Brink.

This chip fully supports 802.16e, which is the IEEE WiMAX standard for mobility. Hand-off/Handover is fully supported, so you can move freely with your portable device without loosing connection.

Imagine a massive adoption, like the GSM adoption in Europe, where you could move from different countries “roaming” your internet connection and using all the services mentioned above. Imagine just having to pay your internet access and being able to get in contact with other people for free.

Well, there are right now entire cities covered with WiMAX, there are right now the mobile devices to connect to these networks. All the content is out there: books, internet banking, web shops, YouTube (now Google’s), internet radio, Skype, etc… It’s just distribution missing, and when it is about technology, it is fast! So start making some savings because these devices are not cheap but they worth every cent you pay.