BANGALORE, INDIA: Nokia Corporation, as part of its services strategy in India, today announced that it is planning to set up a joint venture with HCL Infosystems to sell mobile value added services and ...
Nothing kills innovation like having to reinvent the wheel. Imagine how dull your diet would be if you had to build a new stove and hammer out a few cooking pots every time you wanted to test a new recipe.
Wireless backhaul solutions provider Ceragon Networks Ltd. has received follow-on orders for its advanced FibeAir all-indoor trunk solution from a leading mobile operator in southeast Asia.
Oregon’s first commuter rail line opened Friday, with free WiFi. Some 15 years in the making, TriMet’s Westside Express Service (WES grand opening) will provide weekday rush hour service between the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville. Travel time along the 15 mile route between Beaverton and Wilsonville is 27 minutes.
Besides free WiFi, each WES car can seat up to 80 people with spaces for two mobility devices and two bikes. Tickets cost $2.30
The diesel trains are unique in that the locomotive is integrated into the passenger vehicle. They made by Colorado Railcar Manufacturing in Fort Lupton, Colorado.
The company’s financial difficulties were well documented by Les Zaitz in the Oregonian. The commuter railcars were finished only after TriMet seized control of the private company earlier this year. Agency officials said they took the unprecedented action after discovering that contract payments meant for TriMet’s cars had been diverted.
But the Wi-Fi works great. I checked it out yesterday on the maiden voyage using my Wi-Fi enabled Android phone. I got a strong signal from the two SSIDs (WES1 and WES2). Unfortunately, my Android batteries died shortly after getting onboard, so I didn’t get a good opportunity to check it out.
The Westside Commuter Rail (WES) uses a ruggedized mobile router system called the Cira (Cellular Internet Routing Appliance) designed by Eugene, Oregon-based Feeney Wireless. It uses EVDO for the backhaul.
The CIRA mobile router has been battle tested in New York City taxicabs. Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT) provides New York City taxicabs with credit and debit card processing, media and advertising content, text messaging, interactive passengers maps, GPS and electronic trip sheets.
In other news, WiFi Rail is installing WiFi on BART trains in San Francisco. Bay Area Rapid Transit has a 20-year agreement with WiFi Rail to provide Wi-Fi access throughout the BART transit system and on all BART commuter trains.
The company installed a demonstration network on 2.2 miles of the BART Hayward test track and in the four downtown San Francisco stations. During the year of testing, more than 15,000 consumers registered and used the system more than 85,000 times, including live streaming video from the trains, proving the utility of the network.
Unlike other transit Wi-Fi projects Wi-Fi Rail doesn’t depend on satellite or cellular backhaul. The BART model uses “leaky coax” in the tunnels, backhauled by fiber-optics. Tests on moving trains - at over 65mph - have demonstrated upload/download speeds over 15 Mbps.
The goal is to outfit the 104 miles of track and the 43 stations by the end of 2011, said Cooper Lee, CEO of Wi-Fi Rail, the startup based in Sacramento County that will provide the communications system.
Once fully complete, subscribers will be charged about $30 a month, $9 a day, $6 for two hours and $300 for a year’s subscription, Lee said. The service will be offered at reduced rates until the entire system is up and running. BART riders may be able take advantage of free Internet access - but with a catch. Access will be cut off after 3 1/2 minutes and the users will have to endure 30 seconds of ads before being able to surf the Internet.
WiMAX may provide faster, cheaper backhaul for WiFi on trains and buses. Without the ads.
At Clearwire’s Launch Party in Portland this month my friend Nigel Ballard (left), helped make the light rail cameras happen.
Creating the live train camera network was easy. WiMAX-enabled Netbooks (with cameras) pointed out the train window. Done. Motorola’s tiny USB WiMAX dongle, provided the connectivity directly to and from nearby towers at the Clearwire demo. No access points on the trains were needed.
Yesterday, after the commuter rail trip, I jumped on Portland’s MAX train to head back home…but I was dying for a pizza. I wished for a “pizza-to-go touch screen”.
Maybe that’s the next big thing for commuters. Fast food.
SonoSite, Inc. , the world leader and specialist in hand-carried ultrasound for point-of-care medicine, announced today that its new SonoGT Global Target technology is now available on SonoSite's award-winning, ...
NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Friday became the first mobile phone company to automatically ban customers under 18 from accessing suspicious Internet dating sites as the government attempts to crack down on "deaikei" ...
Cisco System launched a major green initiative Tuesday that includes free software to help customers use their networks to automatically turn off computers and network gear at night and whenever they aren't ...
Comcast Corp. is testing a free wireless Internet service for its cable subscribers in parts of New Jersey, following in the footsteps of a fellow cable operator.
Portsmouth, N.H., residents will be able surf the Web in more places and faster as the city kicks off the second phase of its free local Wi-Fi project.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Jan. 30 /CNW/ - AtomPark Software Inc. , a software developer, announces the public release of its Bluetooth broadcasting software application Atomic Blue Sender 1.20 - a marketing solution ...
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