Gartner Projects More Than 71,000 Public Wireless Hot Spots in 2003
The number of public WLAN hot spots will to grow to 71,000 in 2003 from about 1,200 in 2001, according to a Gartner report released this week. Retail outlets including coffee shops, gas stations and restaurants made up the majority of hot-spot locations in 2002. Gartner predicts these outlets will continue to lead the industry through 2005, when the projected number of worldwide hot spots reaches 151,768. Gartner research shows companies are installing WLANs for internal needs and then creating virtual LAN segments they can sell to offset costs.
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Intersil, Vixs Team on Wireless Video
Chipmaker Intersil and start-up Vixs announced Monday that they will work together to help developers improve the transmission of video over wireless networks. The companies plan to share technology to create a single set of chips and software that can be used in new wireless consumer products. In a sign of the willingness of companies to work together to develop this new class of products and give a much-needed boost to PC and consumer-electronics sales, 17 companies announced an alliance last week to draft guidelines to promote home networking of wireless and other consumer products.
Read the full story on: CNET News.com
Fujitsu and Nokia Team Up for Mobile Services
Fujitsu and Nokia this week announced a deal to jointly develop and market mobile enterprise services targeted at corporate clients. The companies will develop services and packages using Nokias range of business terminals and platforms, and tap Fujitsus capabilities in consulting, systems integration and managed services. There are three main strands to the packages and services the companies will sell: streamlining business processes with mobility, enabling mobile access to corporate resources, and remote working for mobile workers.
Read the full story on: The Register
Bluetooths Day Finally Arrives
IT shops should take note of the strong native Bluetooth support built into Microsofts upgraded handheld platform, now called Windows Mobile for Pocket PC. In the wake of Microsofts announcement, Hewlett-Packard and other Pocket PC vendors promised to build Bluetooth support into their handhelds based on the upgraded platform. That platform also features improved 802.11 capabilities such as auto-detection of wireless networks. Some of Palms enterprise-level handhelds already support Bluetooth and Texas Instruments recently said its future mobile chipsets will combine both technologies.
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IAnywhere Extends Exchange, Notes To Wi-Fi Networks
IAnywhere Solutions this week released software for extending Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange to Pocket PC, Palm and other mobile devices via Wi-Fi networks. The Pylon family of products for Lotus and Exchange provides both server and desktop synchronization of data moving between the handheld devices and corporate databases. The Pylon desktop product includes support for document and spreadsheet attachments.
Read the full story on: Internet Week
AT&T Wireless Plans Job Cuts
AT&T Wireless Services, the second-largest U.S. wireless telephone company by revenue, on Wednesday said it will cut more jobs as it works to improve profit margins and consolidate operations into Washington state and the New York area. “We want to get to industry-leading margins,” said Mark Siegel, spokesman for the Redmond, Washington-based company. “This effort is primarily about re-engineering the business. We expect the impact to be in the low single digits.” In the first quarter, the company posted a profit of $135 million compared with a loss of $178 million a year ago, easily beating analysts expectations, as revenue rose 9.3 percent.
Read the full story on: Yahoo! News