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.

Next-generation collaboration technologies use a significant amount of internet bandwidth ­ do you think the web could become overloaded?

Phil Smith: The debate about whether the internet will become overloaded has been ongoing for years now. The statistics speak for themselves ­ the footprint of the average internet user is now one terabyte. This is a huge amount of data and when you add in factors such as increasing amounts of video streaming, the vast uploads of user-generated content, software-as-a-service and the number of devices offering access to the web, this figure will continue to expand. In reality the solution will come from a variety of areas both structurally and technologically, and either way it will require a sustained collaboration between governments, the providers of technology and the ISPs.

What is the current state of Cisco’s telepresence offering?

Phil Smith: It’s kind of what we’d always assumed videoconferencing would be like ­ high image quality, near zero latency and no really painful setup requirements. It is all scheduled via Outlook, and firing up the system involves pressing a touchscreen. Indian chain Taj Hotels has telepresence rooms and it charges about £250 per hour. We have about 270 rooms deployed in-house, and we’re getting 40-50 per cent utilisation, where traditionally we would be looking at low single figures. We have logged the number of meetings in these rooms at 144,000, which we estimate has saved us between $230m (£146m) and $240m. Energy costs are always going to be high, and more firms are setting environmental targets, although I am not sure that this actually changes their behaviour in all cases.

Cisco has invested in environmental initiatives, one of them being the Connected Urban Development (CUD) programme ­ could you explain what this is?

Phil Smith: CUD is focused on what we can do with current digital capabilities to improve the way that cities actually operate, given their massive greenhouse gas footprint globally. Can we be smarter with technology and use IT as a separate utility? We kicked off with three pilot cities ­ San Francisco, Seoul and Amsterdam. The aim was to build something with these cities using technology to make them more environmentally friendly and then use this as best practice. Since then we’ve added four more cities ­ including Birmingham.

CUD looks at fundamentally changing the way that cities deliver services to residents. By looking at how traffic flow is managed, for example, CUD uses IT to improve efficiency, and in turn, help cities reduce carbon emissions. Think about public transport ­ it’s not just about getting it all to run on biofuel. It’s about making it a better and more efficient way to travel so that more people want to use it instead of cars. Buses with wireless internet access or specialist information to tell waiting passengers of their whereabouts are examples of how this works.

Source: Computing. London

Tags: , 802.11n, Wireless-N

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-N, Wi-Fi, Wireless-G

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

More companies are begin bidding on a section of the 700MHz spectrum that had previously been used by analog TV. This auction, however, has engendered much more media interest than past FCC auctions, in part because of the spectrum’s features but also because of the companies participating in the sale.

The section of the 700MHz spectrum the FCC is auctioning off is composed of five different blocks. Of these, the A, B, and E blocks are further divided into smaller regional areas. These sections of the spectrum are of most interest to regional carriers hoping to fill out their networks. Unlike the other blocks, the D block is being sold as a single, nationwide license, however, there is one caveat: The spectrum must be given up to public safety officials in times of emergency. Allen Nogee, a principal analyst at In-Stat, explains that this makes the license most attractive to a big operator that can use other spectrum if the D block has to be given up.

The most attention, though, has been paid to the C block, which is divided into 12 regions. The C block is valuable because it has much stronger penetration than traditional cell signals and because of the FCC’s acceptance of open access rules that Google fought for, assuring that the spectrum will be open to essentially any type of device from any manufacturer.

Nogee believes only a handful of the 100-plus bidders are serious competitors for the C block. Of them, Verizon, Google, and AT&T are at the top of the heap, with Verizon having the best chance of winning. The company new policy of glasnost, after a long period of Soviet-style suppression of its network, going so far as to strip features from handheld devices, suggests a serious change in its business model.

Verizon appears to be moving toward building market share by opening its network to an array of devices. While Google will take part in the auction, it may have already gotten exactly what it wants. The company generates revenue primarily through advertising, and whether it wants to spend the money to build up a wireless network is unclear. Nogee thinks Google would be hard-pressed to create a national voice or data network and believes the company is not particularly interested in being in the service business. Instead, it would be happy to get as many devices as possible on the spectrum to drive adoption of the company’s search engine and online apps.

AT&T recently purchased spectrum in the 700MHz band from Aloha partners for $2.5 billion, so instead of competing for the C block, the wireless giant may fill out its network by purchasing smaller, regional licenses. Nogee also thinks AT&T might be interested in the D block; since the company already owns some of the 700MHz spectrum, it can give up the D block in times of emergency and continue to operate.

Regardless of who wins the C block auction, it will be some time before consumers benefit from any change. Building the necessary infrastructure will take several years, and hardware manufacturers will have to design devices that can operate on the network. The winning bidder, however, must provide coverage to at least 40 percent of the population within four years, and at least 75 percent of the population within 10 years.

The biggest benefit will be the potential for nationwide wireless broadband, giving customers an option other than DSL or cable. Also, since the spectrum will be opening up internationally over time, there is the possibility the C block could provide worldwide coverage.

Revised 700Mhz band plan for commercial services

Via: MAXIMUM PC, March 2008

Atheros Shrinks Wi-Fi Wireless Networking Chips So They Can Fit In The Tiniest Applications

Atheros Communications said in the fall that its tiny Wi-Fi chips would be used in a range of exciting new applications. It revealed at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January that its chips are used in the award-winning Eye-Fi SD memory cards. The cards have a built-in wireless networking antenna that lets them automatically upload digital camera images to networked computers or even Internet photo sites such as Flickr. The Atheros ROCm mobile WLAN chips in the Eye-Fi cards are able to get wireless reception even through the metal casing of digital cameras. Eye-Fi cards will be used in a variety of cameras, including models from Nikon.

If you visit Chicago and you want public Wi-Fi access, you’d better go to Starbucks. Once hailed as one of the pioneers of the citywide municipal Wi-Fi movement, Chicago reevaluated its original $18.5 million plan, citing market conditions, and will redeploy the project in the next year or two. On the heels of Chicago’s announcement, Philadelphia and New York have also reported problems getting their Wi-Fi programs off the ground. In fact, MuniWireless.com has downgraded its growth estimates for the industry from 108 percent to 35 percent. One cited reason is the difficulty of making wireless providers live up to the pricing promises the local government has made to its citizens.

Municipal wireless has become a political football,says Craig Mathias, a Wi-Fi expert at market research firm Farpoint Group. City governments have put a lot of constraints on vendors, in some cases requesting free access for every citizen.

One element that may have kept city residents away is how the pricing model was devised. For most cities, access is free at a very low bandwidth (often 500 kilobits per second). Then you pay a monthly fee for higher bandwidth, which subsidizes lower-income residents. Many residents already have home networks with faster connections and newer technologies, such as 802.11n.

But there is one emerging technology that could salvage municipal wireless: WiMAX. It’s a more robust technology that covers a larger area with relatively few towers, as opposed to the hundreds of access points municipal Wi-Fi requires. (Mountain View, California, has about 380 of them.) Analysts say WiMAX is coming, but there have been no successful rollouts in the U.S. yet, so costs are an unknown. Greg Goldman, CEO of Wireless Philadelphia, is not convinced that WiMAX is ready for prime time. WiMAX will encounter the same obstacles and challenges as Wi-Fi in a dense urban environment, he says. It’s still extremely new and is, today, cost-prohibitive.

Meanwhile, as the United States waits for WiMAX to achieve mass adoption, a few cities have already made good on the Wi-Fi promise. In Minneapolis, U.S. Networks built a public-safety network (with the city as a primary customer) and a public-access network covering 60 square miles. In August, when the I-35 bridge collapse killed seven people, cell service went AWOL, but Wi-Fi kept working. Nevertheless, signal reaches only about a third of the city and can be weak. It appears that even the cities that are ahead of the Wi-Fi game still have a long way to go