Wireless Blog

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. " Developers of embedded systems are juggling more projects in 2008, and reporting that meeting schedules is their biggest task, the 2008 Embedded Market Study from Tech ...

LONDON and VANCOUVER, Canada - ' O2 and Sierra Wireless today announced the world's first commercial launch of the Sierra Wireless CompassTM 885 USB Modem on the O2 network in the UK.

Venture Beat’s Anthony Ha says the San Francisco free WiFi network, using Meraki access points, is quietly moving forward with its plans to blanket the entire city in free WiFi.

In fact, the company just crossed a big threshold — Meraki says more than 100,000 people have used its Free the Net service. That number is more than double the 40,000 users that Google and Sequoia backed Meraki was reporting at the beginning of the year.

Residents is some areas of the city can ask Meraki for free repeaters to spread that network even further. (See the map of Meraki coverage below.) Meraki even provides free wireless to some of the city’s affordable housing developments, and plans to expand in that area, too.

Unlike Earthlink, Meraki isn’t seeking the city government’s financial support or approval. The company runs local ads as part of its Free the Net service, but only as an experiment. Meraki says it isn’t making any money from those ads.

Sadly, it’s hard to imagine that every city can get free WiFi as a loss-leader for projects elsewhere. But Biswas says Meraki is seeing healthy growth for its pay product too, particularly in emerging markets like Latin America and Africa. As an example, he says Meraki created a wireless network for a village in Chile in just five days.

Mike Boyd’s Meraki network in Portland, Oregon, was built in just two hours. It is providing free WiFi for 100,000 people at the Waterfront Blues Festival, over the July 4th weekend.

Mike used a Motorola WiMAX client for the backhaul, with three outdoor Meraki repeaters. One Meraki repeater was placed on the very top of the Credit Union stage (above). Another repeater was placed at the booth of First Tech Credit Union, a festival sponsor.

KINK.fm, one of the event sponsors, allowed Mike to put his little Meraki/WiMAX basestation on the roof of their guest trailer. For the most part, everything self-configured. Plug and play.

The Motorola CPEi 150 modem discovered the nearest WiMAX backhaul automatically, then the three Meraki repeaters synched automatically to each other. It was built in cooperation with Portland’s Personal Telco Project, a 501(c) 3 non-profit that supplies ad-free hotspot service to homes and businesses, with more than 100 active hotspots, shared by individuals and small businesses.

By 11am today (July 4th), Mike Boyd reports 78 users have downloaded 524 mb already — an hour before the music begins.

July 4, 2008 - Wi-LAN Inc. , a leading technology innovation and licensing company, today announced that it has amended its Complaint in action No.

Cellphones are among the most popular consumer products and an online auction taking place to open up competition in Canada's wireless industry is eventually expected to help consumers.

In a move that could give a welcome, if short-lived, boost to consumer electronics makers and retailers, consumers up and down the West Coast are snapping up headsets that let them talk on cell phones while driving -- and stay in compliance with a law that took effect in California and Washington state on July 1.

Demand for hands-free headsets has been so robust that the Verizon Wireless store in San Mateo, Calif., added a whole new section for the devices, says store manager Aari Jethmal. "The shelves have been cleared and restocked and cleared and restocked." Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone, is the second-largest U.S. mobile-phone provider, after AT&T.

Sales Boost Expected

The law, which stipulates penalties for driving while talking on a handheld cell phone, is a boon for Plantronics and other makers of headsets that use so-called Bluetooth wireless connectivity. "Historically Bluetooth headsets have been a low-margin product, so they would need to drive significant product to move the bottom-line needle," says Avondale Partners analyst John Bright, who has an "outperform" rating on Plantronics shares. "Luckily California is the largest state and a heavy cell-phone usage state, so it certainly bodes well for heavy volume."

On June 26, Bright raised his estimate for Plantronics' June quarter earnings by a penny, to 35 percent a share, in anticipation of the law taking effect. That's a cent higher than the average of Wall Street estimates. The shares have gotten little apparent lift since the law kicked in, slipping to 21.05 on July 2, from 22.32 on June 30.

Plantronics expects a sales boost in California for the second and third quarters, says spokesman Dan Race, though he didn't provide specifics. "We're seeing good interest in our premium products," Race says.

Other Bluetooth manufacturers poised to benefit include Motorola; GN Netcom, maker of...

Anyone fond of creating their own applications within a open source environment will soon be able to get mobile.