Complementary Technology - 3G and 802.11x

[alexander]

I wanted to open up the discussion on the topic of 802.11x networks complemeting 3G technologies. Wireless carriers have invested billions in spectrum and equipment upgrades and really need to look at 802.11x as well. I invision a time in the near future where wireless users will be able to access corp. info while in the office from a wireless access point then roam outside the bondaries and pickup a carrier 3G GPRS(GSM) or 1XRTT(CDMA) signal. For now it's coverage vs. data-rate. There's going to be a big gap between wireless-LAN and 3G coverage areas. But advancements in distance from a wireless access point are being made and only time will tell how far one would be able to travel away from a wireless access point before losing a signal.

Looking forward to others comments.

[esutherland]

Wireless carriers are embracing 802.11 as a great marketing tool for 3G. You go to your office and spend the day working on a wireless network, become used to the features and will seek out 3G for their phones outside. Same way you'd spend the day on your Ethernet connection at the office or on campus and would grow to detest your dial-up connection. In walks broadband for the home.

As for coverage, WLANs are spreading like a spider's web. You leave your 802.11 corporate connection, drive down to the pizza parlor and hook into the 802.11 "hot spot" run by a neighborhood group. You drive to your friend's home which once had terrible coverage but is now served by a microcell. You go somewhere else and a mesh network is in place. You then return home to log onto the Internet from your 802.11 connection. At this rate, wireless service will become another faceless commodity like cable service or electricity or gasoline.

Ed

[MoleStrangler]

I posted an answer on another board on this site. ETSI (the European version of the FCC) have a standard called HyperLan/2 which they are now altering to be compatiable with 802.11a. But more interesting is that within the standard it caters for roaming between a wirelessLAN (aka. 802.11a) and 2 & 2.5G cellular networks.

At the moment 802.11a is not allowed in the EU (then end of the year, maybe) because of this HyperLan/2 standard that will be compatiable with 802.11a (5.2GHz).

So roaming between LAN and WAN technolgies hass been worked on for sometime. The standard in on my machine in the office so I cannot give you any details.

GPRS is not what the companies say it is anyway. Not much speed increase really.

They are crippling 2.5G so that the big speed increase will come from subscribing to the 3G technology and not jumping from 2G (GSM) to 2.5G (GPRS). Its the only way the Euopean telcos can pay for the huge licence fees, they are worried that 2.5G is good enough for most people in the street and they will not see any advantage with paying for 3G and will stick with 2.5G.

The telcos must give the consumer a compelling reason to go from 2.5G to 3G, if they do not they run risk of losing £billions.

[kgrr]

Molestrangler,
FYI: The FCC is radio governing body like the Radio Authority or Oftel, and ETSI is a standards body like ITU, IEEE, ANSI, or IETF.

Konrad Roeder
http://www.springswireless.com

[McBeanburger]

Check out siliconinvester for a similar discussion:

http://www.siliconinvestor.com/stocktalk/subject.gsp?subjectid=51577

Regards

McB