Security Watch | Matt Hines » New wireless technologies offer almost ubiquitous data access

April 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)

New wireless technologies offer almost ubiquitous data access

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As I sit here in Palm Springs with my ubiquitous EVDO connection, next to a pool in the sun I really think that Wi-Fi is going to go the way of ISDN. And by ISDN, I'm not just picking on that one technology, but all of those technologies that had such great promise but didn't get ramped up in time before another, better tech, came around. And I'm not saying that EVDO doesn't have its own problems (which I go into in a minute) but it is really cool to be able to be in any major market pulling down data. I'm pulling down data at a fairly snappy rate of 700K right now thanks to an overly expensive Verizon Wireless connection.

While EVDO technology is inherently more secure than using Wi-Fi, I know it has its issues, which we'll no doubt hear more about as it becomes more popular for wireless connectivity.

And I've had problems with EVDO, not with connecting to the service, but specifically with the fact that I haven't been able to get a connection faster than roughly 250K or so downstream for some months in the SF Bay Area. No matter where I was the connection wasn't as speedy as the commercials would have you believe. Don't get me wrong, I do like the truly anywhere ability to connect, but I wouldn't mind kicking the speed up a notch.

I finally go sick of this fact after one of my business partners in Chicago gloated about his multimegabit connectivity. So I marched into a Verizon Wireless store, proved my point several times over with my laptop just not getting the speeds so advertised and was given a Kyocera KPC650 PC Card with a small external antenna (the image on the left) to replace my PC5740 with integrated antenna. Right off the bat I noticed a speed difference, at least in this laptop. And the Kyocera seems to run cooler as well, which helps with the burn scars I have on my lap thanks to the PC5740.

I've also heard that several speed improvements are coming to Verizon’s EVDO marketplace. Requiring only a firmware update to existing EVDO cards this update will kick speeds up to the megabit range...

Additionally

I would think that San Francisco would have been better served by an 802.16 (WiMax) deployment rather than what they're getting with WiFi (although upgrades seem possible). After all, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is looking into deploying WiMax technology for its riders shortly. By the time Google implements, 802.11n may very well be available as well. But, of course, the Google/Earthlink alliance obviously wouldn't offer they type of bandwidth these newer technologies offer.

Posted by Victor R. Garza on April 22, 2006 11:28 AM

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