Wi-Fi

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February 20, 2013
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FCC Wi-Fi Spectrum Proposal

FCC proposes freeing up more Wi-Fi spectrum on the 5GHz band

By on February 20, 2013 at 11:55 PM.

FCC proposes freeing up more Wi-Fi spectrum on the 5GHz band

In a move that’s sure to cheer everyone who likes having more unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum, the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday announced that it wants to follow chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to free up a 195MHz chunk of spectrum on the 5GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use. The FCC says that freeing up the new spectrum will “provide access to additional contiguous spectrum with consistent technical requirements, allowing unlicensed devices to use wider bandwidth channels, leading to faster speeds.”
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mobile
February 4, 2013
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FCC Free Government Wi-Fi

Wireless carriers prepare to fight FCC plans for free Wi-Fi [updated]

By on February 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM.

Wireless carriers prepare to fight FCC plans for free Wi-Fi [updated]

Given carriers’ past efforts to quash municipal Wi-Fi plans, it isn’t any surprise that they aren’t big fans of a Federal Communications Commission plan to deploy a free Wi-Fi network across large areas of the United States. The Washington Post reports that the FCC has proposed creating “super Wi-Fi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month,” and carriers are extremely unhappy about it. It isn’t exactly hard to understand why, since the Post writes that the new free Wi-Fi networks will be used “to make free calls from their mobile phones via the Internet” and “could even use the service in their homes, allowing them to cut off expensive Internet bills.”

UPDATE: Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica has found that the premise of the Washington Post’s entire story is completely faulty. Essentially, the Post took the FCC’s old plans to open up spectrum on the 600MHz band for unlicensed use and decided this constituted a new plan to create a free Wi-Fi network that people could use to replace their carriers. But as Brodkin puts it, we’ll get free super Wi-Fi from the FCC when unicorns come to life.

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Internet
January 10, 2013
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FCC 5GHz Wi-Fi

FCC plans to free up large block of prime spectrum for Wi-Fi

By on January 10, 2013 at 8:36 PM.

FCC plans to free up large block of prime spectrum for Wi-Fi

Good news for everyone who’s tired of shoddy Wi-Fi connectivity in crowded cafes: the Federal Communications Commission is here to help. As CNET reports, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski made an important announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday when he discussed plans to free up 195MHz of spectrum on the 5GHz band, a move that will significantly boost Wi-Fi performance and ease congestion on crowded networks. The reallocation of spectrum on the 5GHz band would also represent “the largest block of unlicensed spectrum that has been made available for expansion of Wi-Fi since 2003,” CNET writes. The 5GHz band is currently being used by numerous federal government agencies, although Genachowski expressed confidence that the FCC can work with others in the government to get the spectrum free for unlicensed use.

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science
November 15, 2012
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Wi-Fi Technology Breakthrough

New technology could actually make Starbucks Wi-Fi usable

By on November 15, 2012 at 11:03 PM.

New technology could actually make Starbucks Wi-Fi usable

Researchers at North Carolina State University have come up with a breakthrough technology that could actually make the Wi-Fi hotspot at your local Starbucks perform well. As IDG News reports, the new WiFox protocol was designed specifically for public Wi-Fi hotspots that suffer from degraded performance while being used by several different devices at once. Specifically, the new technology “monitors [Wi-Fi] traffic and implements a ‘priority’ mode when a router is in danger of being overloaded of traffic,” thus clearing Wi-Fi congestion and reducing packet loss. The researchers found that WiFox boosted crowded hotspot performance by between 400% and 700% overall, depending on how many users were in a particular area.

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mobile
October 24, 2012
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Super Wi-Fi Certification Program

Breakthrough wireless tech to combine LTE, Wi-Fi data streams

By on October 24, 2012 at 7:40 AM.

Breakthrough wireless tech to combine LTE, Wi-Fi data streams

Why settle for using either LTE or Wi-Fi when you could use both? That’s the question that researchers at several major universities have tried to answer by developing a new wireless technology capable of opening up more bandwidth by delivering the best of both wireless worlds. According to Technology Review, the new wireless tech has been developed by “researchers at MIT, the University of Porto in Portugal, Harvard University, Caltech, and Technical University of Munich” and is able to “seamlessly weave data streams from Wi-Fi and LTE” to deliver data more efficiently. More →

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Internet
September 17, 2012
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JetBlue to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi starting early next year

By on September 17, 2012 at 11:05 PM.

JetBlue to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi starting early next year

JetBlue In-Flight Wi-Fi

JetBlue (JBLU) is looking to keep its customers more entertained than ever before while traveling. According to a purported internal memo obtained by The Verge, the discount airline will soon partner with ViaSat (VSAT) to offer free high-speed Internet access across its entire fleet. Initial tests are said to be very fast with 10 Web pages loading in an average of 1 minute and 18 seconds, almost eight times faster than an unnamed competitor. The company will offer in-flight Wi-Fi for free until at least 30 planes have been equipped with the technology, and then the service will reportedly remain free for only “basic email and browsing” purposes. JetBlue will begin rolling out its high-speed wireless networking in the first quarter of 2013, the memo stated. More →

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mobile
September 3, 2012
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How one company is putting ‘Super Wi-Fi’ on the fast track

By on September 3, 2012 at 6:55 PM.

How one company is putting ‘Super Wi-Fi’ on the fast track

Super Wi-Fi Certification Program

Wi-Fi has been one of the most useful technologies developed over the past couple of decades and it’s about to get even better now that manufacturers will be allowed to create devices that run on the former television “white space” spectrum that lets signals travel farther and penetrate more deeply into buildings. And to help speed up the adoption of this so-called “Super Wi-Fi,” wireless technology company Spectrum Bridge has announced a certification program for wireless OEMs that want to zip through the Federal Communications Commission’s rigorous certification process that the commission put in place to make sure that “Super Wi-Fi” devices don’t interfere with television broadcasts being run over adjacent spectrum. Spectrum Bridge’s full press release follows below. More →

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mobile
July 11, 2012
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Select New York City payphones to become free Wi-Fi hotspots

By on July 11, 2012 at 10:05 PM.

Select New York City payphones to become free Wi-Fi hotspots

Wi-Fi Hotspots

A small group of New York City payphones will soon be getting a new lease on life through a pilot program that will transform the old phones into Wi-Fi hotspots, GigaOM reported. The hotspots, which will be ad-free and open to the public, will initially be available at 10 payphones throughout three of the city’s boroughs. The payphones feature “military grade” antennas that can provide service up to 300 feet away, and installation is being provided free-of-charge by Van Wagner Communications. New York is planning to eventually expand its hotspot program to more of the city’s 13,000 payphones, and the ongoing cost and maintenance will be provided by the payphone companies. It was previously reported that New York was planning to revive roughly 250 old phone booths with 32-inch Internet-ready “smart screens.” More →

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mobile
June 11, 2012
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HTC One X users report iPhone 4-like ‘death grip’ for Wi-Fi

By on June 11, 2012 at 8:25 PM.

HTC One X users report iPhone 4-like ‘death grip’ for Wi-Fi

HTC One X Wi-Fi Death Grip Problems

The HTC One X may be one of the spiffiest new Android devices so far this year but some One X users are reporting that design flaws are impeding their ability to connect to Wi-Fi. As Dustin Karnes at Android Guys reports, an Xda-Developers member called bigoliver has found that the One X can potentially have several Wi-Fi related problems that will either adversely affect the device’s battery life or render it totally incapable of connecting to Wi-Fi networks. More →

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Legal
April 24, 2012
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Apple’s iPhone and iPad violate one Motorola patent, ITC rules

By on April 24, 2012 at 2:15 PM.

Apple’s iPhone and iPad violate one Motorola patent, ITC rules

The International Trade Commission on Tuesday ruled in favor of Motorola Mobility in its patent infringement claim against Apple. The Cupertino-based company’s iPhone and iPad were found to be in violation of Motorola’s Wi-Fi technology patent, however they did not infringe on three other patents that Motorola asserted against the iPhone-maker. “We are pleased that the ALJ’s initial determination finds Apple to be in violation of Motorola Mobility’s intellectual property, and look forward to the full commission’s ruling in August,” Motorola told CNET in a statement. The ruling is preliminary and still must be approved by the ITC’s six-member commission. More →

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Tablets
March 23, 2012
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Only 6% of iPad app sessions use 3G or 4G data [infographic]

By on March 23, 2012 at 3:35 PM.

Only 6% of iPad app sessions use 3G or 4G data [infographic]

Apple’s new iPad has already seen massive success, selling over 3 million units in less than four days of availability. The tablet features an updated A5X chip, a beautiful Retina display and 4G LTE connectivity. Due to the blazing fast 4G speeds on Apple’s iPad Wi-Fi + 4G models, it is estimated that half of all new iPads sold will be LTE enabled. Analytics firm Localytics has countered previous reports, however, stating that only 6% of all iPad sessions using apps with its tracking software installed connect to the Internet through a cellular network. The firm found that 89.7% of all iPads are Wi-Fi only, while 8.8% were 3G-enabled and 1.5% included 4G. Users with iPads equipped with 3G use cellular data 45% of the time, while users with 4G devices only utilize LTE 36% of the time. Localytics compiled its connectivity report using data collected between March 16th and March 21st, and the company’s infographic can be found after the break. More →

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Tablets
March 22, 2012
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Half of all new iPads sold will be 4G LTE enabled, UBS says

By on March 22, 2012 at 5:10 PM.

Half of all new iPads sold will be 4G LTE enabled, UBS says

In a recent report, an analyst for global financial firm UBS predicted that sales of Apple’s new iPad tablet will be split 50/50 between Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + 4G models. “With an HD screen, faster processor and higher-resolution camera, we believe this device will drive demand for faster connectivity,” UBS senior analyst John Hodulik said in research note. Due to Verizon’s superior LTE coverage, Hodulik believes the carrier has a definite edge over AT&T when it comes to selling the device. GigaOm reported on Thursday that previous generations of the iPad were split 60/40 between Wi-Fi-only and 3G models, although it is unclear if users’ tablets were actively subscribed to a carrier’s network. More →

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mobile
February 2, 2012
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Wi-Fi security hole discovered in multiple HTC devices

By on February 2, 2012 at 12:25 PM.

Wi-Fi security hole discovered in multiple HTC devices

HTC has acknowledged that some the company’s handsets contain a security hole involving the handling of certain data requests while connected to a Wi-Fi network. Security researchers Chris Hessing and Bret Jordan discovered the vulnerability, which could use the android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE permission to create a command to view all Wi-Fi credentials while connected to the network. The researchers discovered the flaw in September, however over the past few months they have worked with HTC and Google to patch things up before going public. The hole could have been used to transmit information to a remote server using the Internet access permission. Read on for more. More →

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