The networking giant’s new UK supremo, Phil Smith, talks to Dave Bailey about the impact collaborative tools and rich media content are having on the internet, and explains how new networking innovations are helping to combat climate change

Networking giant Cisco posted a set of first-quarter financial results last week showing an eight per cent increase in sales, but with profit down 0.2 per cent year on year. The firm recently announced Phil Smith as its new UK and Ireland vice president and chief executive. He has been with Cisco since its birth in 1984 when it employed 12 people ­ a figure that has since grown to more than 65,000 worldwide. Computing talked exclusively to Smith to discuss the challenges faced by the supplier.

How do you see the current financial turbulence affecting Cisco?

Phil Smith: Our game plan for the downturn will be centered on the increasing role we think intelligent networks will play in all forms of communication and IT, with the top objectives for Cisco being: next-generation company and next-generation customer relationships; collaboration technologies/Web 2.0; datacentre and virtualization; video; and globalization.

Given your focus on collaboration technologies, what is your view of how firms should deal with systems such as Facebook?

Phil Smith: The new generation of collaboration technologies has posed a big management issue, rather than a technology one. Systems such as these need to be deployed and built around this generation of workers ­ if you ban Facebook, you’re cutting off a whole community at the knees.

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Tags: , Wireless-N, 802.11n

Mobile devices using a new radio band for free wireless service would not cause significant interference with cell phones employing a nearby band, the Federal Communications Commission has concluded from its tests.

The band was once used for microwave links between carrier facilities; but in 2006, citing the lack of any FCC plan at the time for assigning the spectrum, M2Z Networks proposed using it for a combination of free and paid wireless services that would reach 95 percent of U.S. residents. The startup proposed paying the government 5 percent of its revenue rather than going through a traditional license auction.

Last year, the government rejected M2Z’s plan, but FCC chairman Kevin Martin is now circulating a proposal that would set rules for an auction of the spectrum.

T-Mobile took issue with the FCC report, saying the agency based its conclusions on assumptions not used when the tests took place. M2Z, not surprisingly, praised the report.

“There is no longer any need for American consumers, the public interest, and the FCCs regulatory process to be held hostage” by carriers, M2Z said in a statement.

via PC World Dec 2008

Tags: Wireless-G, Wi-Fi, Wireless-N

Passengers flying on V Australia’s new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft might soon be able to use GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) mobile phones and data-capable PDAs during flights the same way they use them on the ground during trans-Pacific flights. The only obstacle in the way at present is approval by Australian and U.S. government and regulatory agencies. Panasonic Avionics is providing the technology behind this AeroMobile service, which will let passengers send email, SMS, and other data communications.

Tags: Wi-Fi

Clearwire and Sprint have apparently reconsidered their decision to abandon a joint WiMax venture. Last fall the two companies ceased work on a network build-out that would have brought wireless connectivity to even remote parts of the country. Now, with a recent infusion of cash reported at $2 billion from Intel, a major WiMax supporter, the partnership between the two service providers is back on.

Tags: Wi-Fi

Beginning this spring, more than 7,000 Starbucks across the U.S. will offer AT&T Wi-Fi service. For existing AT&T broadband and U-verse customers, this means free Wi-Fi when visiting a Starbucks store.

Starbucks cardholders will be eligible for two hours of free Wi-Fi per day at participating stores, and all other Starbucks customers will be able to purchase two-hour installments of Wi-Fi time for $3.99 or monthly access for $19.99.

Intel unveiled a new-look Wifi-enabled Classmate PC at IDF. It is designed to provide schools with a low-cost educational platform.

The company was accused last year of undermining the One Laptop Per Child project to produce $100 laptops for schools in poor countries by offering first-generation Classmate at below-cost price to gain market share. It later joined the project.

Elonex is selling an educational mobile in the UK for just £99.

Wimax mobile Freedom4, the company formerly known as Pipex Wireless, has applied to Ofcom for the right to offer mobile Wimax services. In a joint venture with Intel, the company has already begun a rollout of fixed Wimax services.

News via PCW