Working Anywhere

Video Conferencing Is Green

A story in today's Ottawa Citizen highlights lots of facts and figures about why Video Conferencing is such a good idea for businesses. Another story on CNet's Asia news site pretty much says the same thing.

Little Wireless Network In San Diego Hillside With The Right Big Idea

Yesterday i wrote about the ridiculous approach companies like Earthlink took to bring WiFi to the communities that already have plenty of broadband.

Here's an example of what I consider the right approach. Ramona, CA is in the deep suburbs of San Diego county. It's a bucolic part of the county, more rural, than true suburbia and the people who live out there choose to for a very good quality of life.

Some smart technology folks banded together and started a wireless network for themselves. As time passed, demand increased to where now 400 users are on a shared 50 megabit pipe, but the service is delivering 3-4 megabits all the time. They don't allow web servers to run, which is smart, and they seem to be growing.

It's not WiFi. The technology they are using is very similar to what Covad is delivering now wirelessly in the Orange County, Los Angeles and Bay Area. It's a combination of fixed point to point and point to multipoint spectrum. As the company adds more radios the coverage only increases. Once they reach a WiFi router the distribution works just like MuniWiFi. Add in some Meraki or FON access points and the community gets even more coverage in my view.

Way to go Sky Valley Networks. I need to take a drive to Ramona!

A New Way For Public WiFi

Let's face it, the business model that Earthlink and a few others took for Muni WiFi sucked wind in most places. San Francisco still doesn't even have a test site. Chicago is wireless-less while other cities that pursued a different plan like Minneapolis all have seemed to at least deploy. I'll admit in Philadelphia Earthlink is up and running, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that network get taken over by Comcast or Verizon at some point down the road at the request of the city, once Earthlink says No Mas.

For the past two years I have been both a champion for Muni-WiFi and at the same time verbally critical to those in the industry for the approach that was taken by the big players.

Going into markets where broadband was available was the wrong model. Creating systems that work only two stories high, and barely penetrate walls deeper than the first window basically created a service that I have dubbed "Homeless Wireless." Even in the city of my birth, unless I'm outside getting on the Feather by Earthlink network inside the city's finest restaurants is such a challenge, and is so consistently inconsistent, I end up using my 3G cards from either AT&T, Verizon Wireless or Sprint.

Too much money was spent seeking to make the networks end to end, city wide. Instead the cities should have been taking the approach of the creation of hot zones that really worked, and the system builders should have looked at communities where broadband wasn't broadly available.

That's why I'm actually intrigued by the move in New York City that CBS made this week. Leveraging their already installed asset, a network of outdoor billboard, the media company has in affect created their own advertising network within a 20 block radius. That means if you want access, you watch CBS sold commercials, see CBS content, but then get access to the Net.

This is a brilliant idea. With one move, CBS has bypassed the carriers, circumvented the municipality and because WiFi is in unlicensed spectrum, basically become free of the FCC for what they broadcast over the network. They have in effect made their billboards worth much more than anyone else's.

Skype Journal on Yugma

Jim Courtney has an extensive review of the new version of the Skype enhanced Yugma which works with more than just Skype.

Between this and Unyte for Skype, it sure looks like Skype is becoming the collaborator's platform for ease of use and low cost compared to WebEx.

WebEx needs to begin to look outside themselves for options to be "better" otherwise Cisco will find that investment may be their first "bad" move.

Boingo Buys Sprint's WiFi Business

Sprint wants you to use WiMax or EVDO, but they don't care about WiFi. In what is a great move for Boingo, the L.A. based company has acquired eight more airports, giving them the exclusive wireless rights.

Since we all know territory establishes control, and there are how many million of 802.11b/g ready PC's this gives Boingo, one of the most reliable operators out there (just fly through O'Hare and see) a large number of the major USA airports, thus putting them head to head with the "free" airports model.

As a regular traveler its much nicer to have a 1 meg plus connection from Boingo versus the paltry sub 128k connection I get at San Diego International, or the 256 found in Las Vegas. In Phoenix where the service is also free I was only able too eek out a 68k connection.

With Boingo the airports get a company which has a revenue model and current technology leadership. With free WiFi the airport subsidizes and has to pay for the bandwidth and the upkeep, but plays into the hands of the mobile operators who offer PICO cells to improve coverage for EVDO and HSDPA by renting out storage cabinets.

Don't be fooled. This is a game all about money, not about access, but for Boingo it gives them the upper hand and for those of us who travel, the Boingo name on a WiFi network is a welcoming sign.