Gowex users get free Wi-Fi in Brazil

Gowex has signed a roaming agreement with Oi, a Brazilian operator (and the second largest carrier in South America). Oi will be providing Wi-Fi service during the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Thanks to this bilateral agreement, GOWEX and Oi users will benefit from the thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots that both companies have created around the world. The Oi Wi-Fi network will cover Brazil’s major cities and include more than 100,000 hotspots, allowing Gowex customers who are in Brazil to benefit from free access. Likewise, Oi customers can now enjoy Wi-Fi access in cities where Gowex has a presence. These cities include Madrid, New York, Buenos Aires, San Francisco. Gowex has roaming agreements with AT&T, PCCW and Deutsche Telekom.

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Introducing Chanalyzer Pro with Cisco CleanAir®

WiFiNovation's insight:

n case you missed it at Cisco Live 2013, we just released Chanalyzer Pro with Cisco CleanAir® today, and are excited to tell you about this new development! With today’s announcement, Cisco users can expect enhanced spectrum analysis and ongoing application improvements when using the new tool.



With this new application, you can see and troubleshoot RF interference without leaving your desk! This time-saving feature is only available with Chanalyzer Pro with Cisco CleanAir.

Using CleanAir-enabled access points, you can connect remotely with a CCF file using the router’s NSI Key, or from your Cisco Prime administration page. You may be familiar with Spectrum Expert, but the new Chanalyzer is so much better

For example, unlike Spectrum Expert, Chanalyzer fully supports Cisco’s WSSI module, and data can be collected from Cisco CleanAir Access Points in either Local, Monitor, or SE-Connect modes. Chanalyzer also provides an easy way for you to prepare findings into a spectrum analysis report that can be exported to PDF — and you still don’t have to leave your desk!

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Don’t deploy 802.11ac without thorough RF planning

802.11ac adds more elaborate channeling structure and new techniques to raise wireless data rates. 802.11ac is slated to arrive in two Waves – Wave-1 this year and Wave-2 next year. While the decibel level in the market is raised to prematurely hasten the 802.11ac upgrade cycle, the reality is that this is just the beginning of Wave-1. Many people may not see justification to jump on Wave-1 due to a myriad of practical, network engineering, and interoperability issues that Wave-1 faces. Also important is the fact that Wave-1 lacks the complete feature set of 802.11ac and new radios will be required when Wave-2 hits with those features. All this points to Wave-2 next year to be realistic timeline for large scale network upgrade to 802.11ac.

In any case, increased complexity of channelization and MAC in 802.11ac will result in increased complexity of RF planning over and above 802.11n. Improperly planned networks can result in undesirable side effects such as co-channel interference and slow talkers, which can take away the advantages that the new 802.11ac features have to offer. Also, the 802.11ac network will be expected to deliver higher capacity and increased reliability than the incumbent. As a result, it is only natural that concrete benchmarking with what-if analyses will have to be done prior to investing in the network upgrade. The cost of 802.11ac APs will also be higher - at least in the beginning. Accordingly, overprovisioning is undesirable.

- See more at: http://blog.airtightnetworks.com/dont-deploy-802-11ac-without-thorough-rf-planning/comment-page-1/#comment-161484

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Free Wi-Fi is a Win-Win for Retail Marketers and Customers

| Retailers have long battled the dual pressures of online shopping and congested marketing channels just to get people to walk through their door. Now showrooming has moved the war inside the stor...

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Long Beach parks get free Wi-Fi

The city of Long Beach, California has been busy setting up free Wi-Fi service in its parks as it has done with its public libraries. The city has spent $16,000 on Wi-Fi access points for the parks and encourage people to use the Wi-Fi service not just for email and web browsing, but to report vandalism and graffiti.

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Convenience or security: You can't have both when it comes to Wi-Fi

Why do I always have to use the VPN? It’s a pain. It’s slow; not like when I’m at the office. I don’t need the aggravation.

Telling employees, friends, and family members to avoid open (unencrypted) Wi-Fi networks is a particularly difficult sell. So I’ve been trying a different approach. Instead of only offering explanations, I’m showing what can happen if a security measure is ignored.

It’s been hard, but I’m making progress, thanks, in large part, to someone who ironically likes it when people use open Wi-Fi networks. It makes his job easier.

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Wi-Fi Alliance announces 802.11ac certification program

The Wi-Fi Alliance is finally kicking off a certification program for routers, adapters, and other wireless networking gear based on the IEEE 802.11ac draft standard. The organization has a strong track record when it comes to ensuring that networking products will be interoperable even when the standards they’re based on have yet to be finalized, so this is a positive development.

As it did with the 802.11n wireless networking standard, the IEEE is taking its sweet time to ratify the 802.11ac standard. In fact, the responsible working group isn’t expected to finish its work until November, and final ratification isn’t expected until February 2014. That lengthy timeline hasn’t stopped manufacturers from shipping 802.11ac gear, of course; products based on the draft standard have been on store shelves since August 2012. But buyers haven’t had any assurances that those products will work together.

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WiFi Alliance update its certified list

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices carry the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo and are available through major electronics retailers. Choosing Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products allows you to mix and match devices from different manufacturers, makes setting up your network quick and easy and lets you choose the latest and greatest features and applications.

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The Samsung Mega becomes the first officially certified 802.11ac Wi-Fi device

The Wi-Fi Alliance this week kicked off its certification program for the latest and greatest Wi-Fi technology, 802.11ac, and Samsung was the first in line to run its mobile devices through the paces. Three variants of the new Galaxy Mega smartphone, as well as the Galaxy S 4 Active and one unidentified handset with the model number SCH-P729, were the first smartphones to get the official Wi-Fi stamp of approval.

You may be wondering why certification is just starting now. 802.11ac devices have been making their way into the market all year, preceded by chipsets and routers in 2012. But this is just the way the Wi-Fi industry works. As Alliance Marketing andProgram Management Director Kelly Davis-Felner pointed out, there have to be commercial devices available before they can be certified.

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Google's giant balloons beam Wi-Fi from stratosphere

The first person to get Google Balloon Internet access this week was Charles Nimmo, a farmer and entrepreneur in the small town of Leeston who signed up for the experiment. Technicians attached a bright red, basketball-size receiver resembling a giant Google map pin to the outside of his home.

In a successful preliminary test, Nimmo received the Internet for about 15 minutes before the 16.5-metre-wide transmitting balloon he was relying on floated out of range. The first thing he did was check the weather forecast because he wanted to find out if it was a good time for “crutching” his sheep, or removing the wool around their rear ends.

Nimmo is among the many rural folk, even in developed countries, who can’t get broadband access. After ditching his dial-up four years ago in favour of satellite Internet service, he has gotten stuck with bills that sometimes exceed $1,000 a month.

“It’s been weird,” Nimmo said of the Google Balloon Internet experience. “But it’s been exciting to be part of something new.”

In recent years, military and aeronautical researchers have used tethered balloons to beam Internet signals back to bases on Earth. Google’s balloons would be untethered and out of sight, strung out in a line around the globe. They would ride the winds around the world while Google ground controllers adjusted their altitude to keep them moving along the desired route.

Ground stations about 60 miles apart would bounce Internet signals up to the balloons. The signals would hop backward from one balloon to the next to keep people continuously connected. Solar panels attached to the inflatables would generate electricity to power the Internet circuit boards, radios and antennas, as well as the onboard flight-control equipment.

Each balloon would provide Internet service for an area twice the size of New York City, or about 780 square miles, and because of their high altitude, rugged terrain is not a problem. The balloons could even beam the Internet into Afghanistan’s steep and winding Khyber Pass.

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Project Loon - Google+

Project Loon - Balloon-powered Internet for everyone. - Introducing the latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access.

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CableWiFi Alliance Offers Access to More Than 150,000 WiFi Hotspots, Creates Largest WiFi Network in the U.S.

Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks today announced their combined WiFi network has exceeded more than 150,000 hotspots in major cities across the nation. The network, which has tripled in size since first announced last year, enables high-speed Internet customers from one company to access hotspots operated by their and other service providers. As the largest WiFi network in the country, this is yet another example of cable industry innovation designed to connect consumers and their devices to the very best entertainment, content and information, inside the home and on-the-go.

When traveling outside their home markets, high-speed Internet subscribers of the participating companies can look for the “CableWiFi” network service set identifier (SSID). Through a simple sign-on process, they can connect to a WiFi access point using the same credentials they use to join their own providers’ WiFi network. Once they authenticate their device, for added convenience users will be able to have their devices auto-connect to a “CableWiFi” hotspot when they are in range.

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Smartphones Will Account for Nearly Half of Wi-Fi Chipset Shipments in 2018

The growth of 802.11ac and 802.11ad will occur in very different ways. 802.11ac will explode into devices, including smartphones, from the start while 802.11ad will see a more modest and staggered growth. 802.11ac is being pushed into smartphones by key carriers' device requirements that are in sync with 802.11ac hotspot plans for more robust Wi-Fi offloading.

"The push towards 11ac adoption overpowers the minor additional cost of dual-band 802.11n/802.11ac chipsets that will be used in smartphones," states ABI Research's director Philip Solis. "Perhaps surprising even to industry insiders, we will likely see 2X2 802.11ac implementations in smartphones in a few years."

The proportion of various 802.11ac-enabled products will remain relatively consistent from 2013 to 2018, with smartphones making up 40% of those in 2013 and 46% in 2018, where over 3.5 billion Wi-Fi chipsets with 802.11ac will ship. The Wi-Fi Alliance is just about to start certification of products using the protocol, yet its shipments have started and are already on track to distribute hundreds of millions this year. 802.11ac finally pushes Wi-Fi more towards the 5 GHz spectrum which is cleaner and permits for the much larger channel sizes that allow for greater speeds and capacity.

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Juniper Research : Wi-Fi, Small-Cell Offload/Onload Approaches

Almost half of data traffic generated by mobile phones, tablet PCs and other 3G-4G connected devices will be offloaded to Wi-Fi and small-cell networks this year.

That's according to a new report from Juniper Research, which says that's equivalent to 10 billion movie downloads, or 9,000 petabytes per year being offloaded.

The report found that while operators were benefiting from much needed relief on their over-stretched networks, they were potentially losing money on the lost data. In response, they are actively partnering with existing Wi-Fi networks and launching their own carrier grade Wi-Fi solutions. In addition, 4G technologies such as LTE along with other wireless technologies are enabling operators to provide new services and next-generation connected devices such as smart glasses, the study found.

“While a 4G connection need not necessarily mean more data usage, consumers are in fact adapting to faster speeds and more data services, which could lead to more data usage," said report author Nitin Bhas. "This increase in user demand for services in turn creates new opportunities within different economic sectors including commerce, energy, health and education, completing a cycle of demand."

The report noted that as operators implement NGH (next-generation hotspot) and hotspot 2.0 specifications, they will be able to provide users with a seamless authentication and access experience similar to that of the cellular network.

Look for mobile-data traffic generated by wireless phones and tablets to exceed a whopping 90,000 petabytes by 2017. North America and Western Europe will have the highest offload factor throughout the forecast period, Juniper said.

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Juniper Research : Wi-Fi, Small-Cell Offload Approaches 50%

Almost half of data traffic generated by mobile phones, tablet PCs and other 3G-4G connected devices will be offloaded to Wi-Fi and small-cell networks this year.

That's according to a new report from Juniper Research, which says that's equivalent to 10 billion movie downloads, or 9,000 petabytes per year being offloaded.

The report found that while operators were benefiting from much needed relief on their over-stretched networks, they were potentially losing money on the lost data. In response, they are actively partnering with existing Wi-Fi networks and launching their own carrier grade Wi-Fi solutions. In addition, 4G technologies such as LTE along with other wireless technologies are enabling operators to provide new services and next-generation connected devices such as smart glasses, the study found.

“While a 4G connection need not necessarily mean more data usage, consumers are in fact adapting to faster speeds and more data services, which could lead to more data usage," said report author Nitin Bhas. "This increase in user demand for services in turn creates new opportunities within different economic sectors including commerce, energy, health and education, completing a cycle of demand."

The report noted that as operators implement NGH (next-generation hotspot) and hotspot 2.0 specifications, they will be able to provide users with a seamless authentication and access experience similar to that of the cellular network.

Look for mobile-data traffic generated by wireless phones and tablets to exceed a whopping 90,000 petabytes by 2017. North America and Western Europe will have the highest offload factor throughout the forecast period, Juniper said.

WiFi News's insight:

Mobile Data Offload & Onload: Wi-Fi, Small Cell & Carrier-Grade Strategies 2012-2017 costs £1,750 from Juniper Research. There's also a free Whitepaper: Data Offload ~ Connecting Intelligently (registration required).

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Wireless Mobility Changes Everything for enterprise operations

The need for mobility spans the entire spectrum of enterprise operations. It’s gone from a “nice-to-have” option to a critical business requirement. From the front office to the distribution center and all points in between, industrial mobile technology creates the foundation on which successful, profitable businesses are now built.

Today, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, logistics providers—and virtually every other link in the supply chain—are taking a hard look at their current communications capabilities. Investing in the right mobile solutions now can be a significant competitive differentiator as operational environments become larger, more complex and more reliant on operations-critical, real-time information.

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Webinar June 13: Performing site surveys for location-based apps

WiFi News's insight:

Date: Thursday, June 13, 2013 Time: 11:00AM Pacific Time Length of webinar: 45 minutes



Jim Geier is the founder and principal consultant of Wireless-Nets, Ltd., an independent consulting firm assisting organizations with the development and deployment of wireless networks. His 25 years of experience includes the planning, analysis, design, implementation, installation, and support of numerous wireless network-based solutions for enterprises, municipalities, hospitals, universities, airports, warehouses, and product manufacturers worldwide. Jim is the author of more than a dozen books, including Deploying Voice over Wireless LANs (Cisco Press), Wireless Networks: First Step (Cisco Press), Implementing 802.1X Security Solutions (Wiley), and Network Reengineering (McGraw-Hill). He is the author of numerous tutorials and other publications and has developed and instructed dozens of training courses on wireless networking topics. Jim has been active within the Wi-Fi Alliance, responsible for certifying interoperability of 802.11 (Wi-Fi) wireless LANs. He has also been active with the IEEE 802.11 Working Group, responsible for developing international standards for wireless LANs. He served as Chairman of the IEEE Computer Society, Dayton Section, and Chairman of the IEEE International Conference on Wireless LAN Implementation. Jim’s education includes a bachelor's and master’s degree in electrical engineering, with emphasis in wireless communications.

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TP-LINK introduces the Archer C7 802.11ac WiFi router

TP-LINK shows off its Archer C7, a new WiFi router with 802.11ac support.

TP-LINK, a global provider of networking products, today announced the AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router, Archer C7, the first in a family of next-generation routers that support the 802.11ac standard, to deliver faster data transfer rates of up to 1.75Gbps.



TP-LINK’s Archer C7 operates over both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to give users two dedicated networks to ensure lag-free throughput for work or entertainment. Devices processing simple tasks, such as sending e-mails or web browsing, can operate on the 2.4GHz band while those that process bandwidth intensive tasks, such as online gaming or HD video streaming, can leverage the 5GHz band – all at the same time.



The Archer C7 features three detachable external 5dBi antennas to serve the 5GHz band and three internal antennas that serve to 2.4GHz band, reducing co-channel interference. The combination helps users maintain high speeds across greater distances anywhere in a large home or office.

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First look: Cisco 802.11ac module for the AP3600

Last year Cisco launched their 3rd modular Access Point, the 3602 featuring 3 Spatial Stream 802.11n, dual radios, and CleanAir support. One of the much touted features was the introduction of a ‘future-use’ modular slot across the back of the Access Point (now called Adaptive Radio Modules ). This was to future proof your investment and at the time, Cisco took a lot of heat for this modular future proof approach to investment protection. Sometime after the Access Point was launched, Cisco announced that there would be at least two modules available, one being the WSSI module (for full time monitoring of off channel events) and the 802.11ac module (to support the yet-to-be ratified 802.11ac standard).

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The next frontier of wireless tech? Your body

The military has for decades used sonar for underwater communication. Now, researchers at the University at Buffalo are developing a miniaturized version of the same technology to be applied inside the human body to treat diseases such as diabetes and heart failure in real time.

The advancement relies on sensors that use ultrasounds -- the same inaudible sound waves used by the navy for sonar and doctors for sonograms -- to wirelessly share information between medical devices implanted in or worn by people.

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802.11ac (Wave-1): Network Engineering Insights

Have you noticed all the buzz on 802.11ac especially now that Wave-1 has arrived? | How could you not! 802.11ac is the new Wi-Fi standard and it has new techniques to increase the wireless data rate above the existing 802.11n standard.

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Ruckus Wireless combines Wi-Fi and small cell (3G/4G/LTE) on one Access Point

Ruckus says carriers are just starting to take a look at the product, with the first deployment in Europe. “We’ve done some work with Telefonica in the [United Kingdom],” said David Callisch, VP of corporate marketing at Ruckus. “They’ve put our box all over Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, those kinds of places, and it’s just Wi-Fi to start. And they want to kind of see how things play out before they start to add the small cell module. And it might be ours, it might be somebody else’s. But they want that one device to be able to put as much technology and electronics in that one device as they can.”

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La téléphonie africaine, en avance sur l’Europe et les États-Unis

«En l’espace de cinq ans, le marché de la téléphonie mobile en Afrique a explosé, le continent recensant aujourd’hui environ 650 millions d’abonnements, chiffre qui le place devant l’Union européenne et les États-Unis. De plus, le débit de la bande passante est aujourd’hui 20 fois plus élevé. Cette explosion de la téléphonie mobile transforme véritablement la vie des Africains», relève-t-on.



L’agriculture, le changement climatique, l’éducation, les services financiers, le gouvernement, la santé, les TIC, la compétitivité, la facilitation du commerce et l’intégration régionale sont des secteurs qui ont largement profité de cet outil de communication dans la plupart des pays d’Afrique.



Une commerçante des vivres frais exerçant à Libreville explique qu’elle n’a plus besoin de se déplacer pour échanger avec ses fournisseurs sur les modalités d’achats de sa marchandise. «Avant que je n’achète un téléphone portable, je devais souvent voyager pour aller chercher les produits dans les plantations près de Mouila ou dans le Woleu-Ntem. Avec le téléphone, je discute désormais avec mes partenaires sans me déplacer. On fixe les prix et les transporteurs nous livrent la marchandise sur place ici à Libreville.», a-t-elle raconté avant de dire que cela représente pour moi un bénéfice. «J’économise par exemple sur l’argent du voyage que j’aurai du faire», mai aussi le temps et la fatigue.

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France Télécom : Orange et China Mobile sur la même longueur d'onde dans les services mobiles sans contact

L'opérateur français Orange et son homologue chinois China Mobile ont signé un protocole d'accord visant à accélérer la commercialisation de services mobiles sans contact (dits "NFC"), grâce à l'intégration dans leurs services respectifs de protocoles techniques standardisés basés sur les cartes SIM. Les partenaires pensent que les services NFC devraient être un moteur de croissance majeur pour l'industrie des télécoms dans les prochaines années et jugent qu'une coopération entre opérateurs est cruciale.

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The growth of mobile commerce: infographic (IMRG Stats in UK)

According to IMRG stats, 7.7% of visits to UK e-commerce sites came from mobiles in 2011, accounting for 3.3% of all purchases.

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« Hardware » : la France n’a vraiment pas grand-chose en magasin

C’est très paradoxal. Dans le secteur du "hardware", le matériel "high-tech", la France dispose de quelques pépites que même la Siliconvalley nous envie. Ainsi de la start-up Sculpteo, qui a annoncé, mardi 11 décembre, une levée de 2 millions d’euros auprès du fonds Xchange. L'augmentation de capital est certes modeste, mais importante à l’échelle de cette toute jeune société (fondée en 2009), d’une vingtaine de salariés seulement. Sculpteo propose au grand public –et aux professionnels - d’imprimer des petits objets en 3D (des "mugs", des protections d’iPhone, des bijoux, des vases…) sur une imprimante installée dans la vallée d’Harau, au cœur des Pyrénées. « C’est du made in zone rurale » se félicite son cofondateur, Clément Moreau, ingénieur centralien. La société a été récemment couronnée d’un prix au "Consumer Electronic Show" (CES), le plus grand salon mondial de l’électronique grand public, qui se tient à Las Vegas.

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