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at a speed of up to eleven million bits per second but also does so with no wires.
American Airlines has installed the MobileStar service in their Admirals Club
lounges. For a modest fee you can have high-speed access, no hassles with
dialing, and sit anywhere in the lounge that you want. The multi-megabit speed is
between your Notebook and the “gateway” in the hotel or airport lounge. The
actual speed you experience will depend on how many users you are sharing
with and the speed of the connection between the hotel or lounge and their
Internet Service Provider. But it is almost always far better than the old way of
using a dial-up connection. It also eliminates the wires and provides encryption
so that another user or hacker is not able to eavesdrop on your activity. A new
version of the wireless technology, called 802.11a, will be launched in 2001 that
will be approximately 1,000 times faster than the 56K speed that comes with
PC’s today. This will put wireless in clear contention to be an alternative to the
high speed networking cables that are being put into virtually all new office
buildings and upscale new homes.
But then there is the power receptacle. Battery life is going to improve for our
Notebook computers and cell phones, but until it does we still need to charge our
batteries when we stop by the airport lounge between flights. It is great that we
can connect to the Internet in a simple wireless manner and enjoy the high speed
but where is the power receptacle to plug in and charge the battery? Sometimes I
think that hotel and airline executives don’t travel. I have been in lounges in the
workstation area, the place for PC users, which have no power receptacles.
Some hotels have gotten more with the program and now have an RJ-11 and a
power receptacle right on the desk in the room. That is progress but now that I
have my PC plugged in where do I plug my cell phone charger?
There is another wireless technology, called Bluetooth™, which will also have a
big impact and potentially revolutionize our personal connectivity beyond just our
PC and provide wireless operation for virtually any kind of device. Bluetooth is a
technical specification for small form factor, low-cost communication between
mobile computers, mobile phones, telephone headsets and other portable
handheld devices, plus connectivity to the Internet, all using radio waves. The
initial version of Bluetooth will have a range of operation is approximately 30 feet
but a later version will take it to 300 feet. Bluetooth is being driven by leaders in
the telecommunications, computing, and network industries, including 3Com,
Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Toshiba, and over 2000
associate and adopter companies.
Bluetooth will eventually help us all perform everyday tasks in extraordinary ways
using wireless technology. You will be able to walk into a room where your PC is
and your Palm Pilot or other PDA in your pocket will detect the PC and then
automatically unlock the PC, log you in with your password, decrypt your files,
open up your applications, and automatically synchronize data between the PC
and the PDA. When you step away from the PC it will automatically be secured,
preventing unauthorized access.
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