Wireless Bypass

Mobile backhaul is the transport of wireless traffic from the cell site to the switch, or mobile tower. As more and more consumers use the internet and download apps from their cell phones, backhaul traffic backs up and slows down service.  This not only aggravates customers, it causes network congestion and overtaxes operators. The solution to this backhaul traffic overload is increasing backhaul capacity. Already, many wireless providers have upped their backhaul capacity. Clearwire is increasing its backhaul capacity 250% or more,T-Mobile USA is upgrading to fiber backhaul, and Verizon Wireless is planning on increasing its backhaul capacity using Verizon Global Wholesale.  The challenge is increasing backhaul capacity without overstepping the budget. Hopefully, advances in wireless technology will eliminate the problems we’ve been seeing with backhaul and create a plausible alternative.  Already, AT&T is planning to try an enhanced fiber-optic backhaul connectivity that will hopefully boost their 3G service and help the development of their future long term evolution devices.

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Though the topic of net neutrality has been hot in the past few weeks, no one seems to be getting anywhere on the topic. The big question—Who, if anyone, will regulate broadband internet service providers, has yet to be answered.

Most recently, Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski defended his plan to impose regulations on broadband ISPs in front of the financial services subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. He backs his plans despite the recent court ruling stating the commission lacked the authority to regulate.

Genachowski is trying to get around this court ruling by classifying broadband internet as a common carrier service (putting it in the same category as phone service, which can be regulated by the FCC). Was Genachowski going too far by trying to outsmart authority? The answer to this is unclear, but we do know that it caused a fair upset among many members of the board.

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The internet market is saturated with social networking sites and it takes something truly unique to stand out.  Foursquare is a relatively new site that brings a whole new aspect to keeping up with your friends.  Unlike many others of its kind, this social network doesn’t focus on what you are doing but where you are and where you’re going.  When you arrive at a building, whether it be a restaurant, movie theatre, or grocery store you check in using your mobile phone.  This site offers applications for many of the popular smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry and Droid.  Foursquare users without smartphones can still participate through text messages.  Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve all come to understand how essential wireless internet is when at work, for checking email, and keeping up with friends on Facebook.  But, what about driving a car?   As oil supplies dwindle and environmental efficiency becomes an increasingly important topic, many car-sharing companies are emerging.  One of the better known of these businesses is Zipcar.  When you become a member of Zipcar you can reserve a car of your choice from a location of your choice at the time you need it.  You then simply unlock the car, drive it as you need and return it when you’re done.  This system is environmentally friendly because it reduces the amount of cars on the road, the amount of miles each person is driving, and many of the vehicles are hybrid cars. Read the rest of this entry »

The universe of wireless internet technologies has really come an incredibly long way since the first cell phones were equipped with web navigation capabilities back in the early 1990s.  Since then, successive revolutions within this field of modern telecommunications technology have riveted the wireless internet-using population, opening up new possibilities that many of us wouldn’t have been expecting for another 10 or 20 years!  Among the most significant strides forward to be made in recent years have been the arrival of fourth generation mobile standards, the ability to use wireless signals from stationary locations and the increasingly reliable, non-patchy nature of wireless networks in the nation’s principal urban (and increasingly suburban) communities. Read the rest of this entry »

If you ask wireless internet users what they are looking for most, you’ll probably find one answer continuing to pop up: great service in all places from one provider.  It sounds simple, but it has been by no means easy to get such service from an internet provider.

What would it take for total wireless access to happen?  First of all, there would have to be the network which can get it all done, especially on the mobile front.  Wired networks obviously can’t, since there are going to be places which are almost out of bounds where people will need to use the internet on the road.  The latest wireless networks cannot cover entire states yet, but they can cover entire metropolitan areas with high speed internet. Read the rest of this entry »

There are always different factions within the tech-loving community.  On one hand, you have the text message and Facebook lovers who need to communicate 24/7 and whose life seems to be a big social network.  On the other hand, you have the businessmen and women who need to stay on top of the latest information so they can close the big deals and never be out of the loop.  Other factions include the newshounds and sports junkies.

So who can get the most out of wireless internet and who is winning so far? Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone has a different idea of what wireless internet can do for him or her on a daily basis, but many people are not seeing the potential to go from morning to night with a strong wireless signal.

Are you missing out on what you can do with wireless internet?  Here are some ideas on going from daybreak to midnight with your connection:

Morning: Sneak out to your backyard with a laptop before anyone in your house wakes up.  Get your late or early emails out of the way and see what lies before you at work.  On your way to the office, keep your head clear by watching the news stream live onto your smart phone or laptop.  If you’re watching the kids, let them stay occupied with a movie on your laptop while you’re dealing with a traffic jam. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re getting online these days, chances are you are using some sort of mobile technology. And while a lot of people might count their cell phones and mp3 players as the devices that they go to when on the road, the fact is that the absolute best way to get online is always your own computer. You’re just not going to be able to send important emails if you are typing away on a touchscreen, and it’s not going to be feasible to do serious web sleuthing if  you are getting jostled around on the subway. You need a good balance of wireless internet and the right technology to make sure that you get the most of your time on the road.

Here are five reasons that using wireless on a computer is a whole lot better than thinking you are pulling one over by sitting there trying to write an email from your mobile phone or music player.

#1 – A laptop isn’t that much of a limitation. With the new types of wireless including connections that you can take anywhere, there is no longer the trouble of trying to figure out where you are going to get a network connection for your laptop. This means you can be practically anywhere, and still be online. Read the rest of this entry »