Danish broadband operator Butlernetworks has built Denmark’s first national wireless broadband network using equipment from Israeli vendor Alvarion. Butlernetworks’ WiMAX offering targets small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as large corporations and has already connected over 1,000 businesses. The infrastructure is built with Alvarion’s BreezeAccess VL WiMAX kit which lets technicians access information and file reports from the field. It features non-line-of-sight operation, a range of more than 30km and maximum capacity of 54Mbps, and is suitable for providing triple-play services for both business and residential subscribers.
(Denmark)
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
US developer of advanced mobile technologies and mobile data products Qualcomm has unveiled a commitment to invest EUR 100 million in European companies offering technologies and services that enhance the global wireless communications ecosystem. Qualcomm Ventures’ investment strategy will focus on European small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups which can serve the 3G (WCDMA) business case in Europe. In addition, Qualcomm Ventures will provide these companies with strategic guidance, advice in enhancing and protecting their innovations, support in standardising their technology, and help getting faster access to global markets. The company’s first direct equity investment in Europe is in Streamezzo, provider of rich media solutions, platforms and service for mobile communications.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
The ZoneFlex range is based on carrier-class technology, but simplified to cater to the needs of businesses that have only one or two IT staff, according to Ruckus’s marketing director, David Callisch. The range is a continuation of the company’s existing portfolio, which has until now targeted wireless carriers for deployment in their consumer offerings.
“We have taken the functions most appropriate to SMBs and put them into the system, as opposed to forcefeeding them a pre-built solution,” Callisch told ZDNet.co.uk on Monday. “The problem we’re trying to solve is, for the SMB guy, he’s got essentially two options. One is going with a high-end system like Cisco or Aruba, but those systems are very complicated and costly and need dedicated IT staff — the SMB doesn’t have that. Their other option is going to PC World and buying a bunch of consumer access points [APs], which is inexpensive but riddled with problems. That’s where the opportunity lies.”
Ruckus has also added what it calls “smart Wi-Fi capabilities” to the ZoneFlex range. A smart antenna-array tries to find the best possible signal path to a client by focusing the radio-frequency energy and automatically changing that direction on demand and in real time. “What that gives you is extended range,” said Callisch. He added that Ruckus’s APs have two to three times the coverage of enterprise or consumer APs. This capability has been particularly useful in the company’s consumer-oriented APs when delivering IPTV, he suggested.
The company also claims that automatic client security is included in the system. “The IT guy doesn’t have the inclination to type in encryption keys all the time,” explained Callisch. “We built a way to have the system automatically configure clients with a unique 64-byte encryption key. You only have to enter your username and password, then the system downloads an applet to your laptop and configures all the wireless settings. That key is unique to each user and gets tied to their device, so if the user is fired, that record gets expunged from the database.”
One ZoneFlex AP, the 2925 desktop model, is immediately available at a list price of £131 through Ruckus’s UK distributor, ACAL Networks. The 2942 model, an industrial enclosure AP, will follow in July priced at £177. Both of these are 802.11a/b/g APs. Ruckus will subsequently release three versions of its ZoneFlex controller, for six (£600), 12 (£1,000) or 25 APs (£1,750).
In the third quarter, the company will add 802.11n APs with meshing capabilities. Callisch indicated that these APs would be more affordable than those next-generation Wi-Fi devices available today, and claimed they would enjoy the same extended range as other Ruckus APs. He also confirmed that they would be software-upgradeable in line with potential changes to the 802.11n standard as it reaches its final ratification in 2009.
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Small businesses in this country are struggling to get to grips with advanced new mobile technologies, despite the advantages they offer, according to the latest findings of the Mobility 2006 research project.
This was among the key conclusions of a study conducted by World Wide Worx as part of its Mobility 2006 project, backed by FNB, Virgin mobile and Verizon Business. In the first phase of the project, entitled: “The impact of mobile technology on SMEs in SA 2006″, 1 152 SMEs were interviewed on their deployment and usage of mobile technologies. The findings reveal that SMEs are at a great disadvantage to large corporates in their ability to make new mobile technologies work for them.
More than half of SMEs, or 53% of respondents, felt they were advanced in their usage of common mobile technologies, like laptops and cellular phones. However, less than a fifth - only 17% of respondents - believed they were advanced in their usage of more complex technologies, like wireless networking and mobile broadband technology.
“We have only seen the start of the adoption of cellphone banking services by SMEs. The challenge will be for banks to design and offer services to SMEs that will give them access to the same services and functionality that big corporates currently have, but at an affordable cost,” says Len Pienaar, CEO of FNB Mobile and Transact Solutions.
Underlining the findings of the SME phase of the research, it was found that only 17% of SMEs who use mobile technologies were using wireless broadband services like 3G and MyWireless, and most respondents did not intend to change their connectivity habits in the next year.
“This emphasises a phenomenon we have come across in related research, which shows that SMEs are resistant to change and require a strong educational approach in any effort to sell new technology to them,” says World Wide Worx MD, Arthur Goldstuck.
It is expected that the next phase of the study, on corporate use of mobile technologies, will show that large organisations are dramatically more advanced in their use of mobile technologies. Preliminary data suggests that they are able to leverage these technologies to give themselves a competitive advantage over those who are at only a basic level of use.
These findings will be further explored at the Mobility 2006 conference in Johannesburg on September 14, which will also see the release of research into consumer usage of mobile technologies in SA, he adds.
“Corporate SA is embracing mobile and wireless technologies at a rapidly increasing pace, but small business is being left behind as the options become too complex and the choice too bewildering,” says Goldstuck, who will present the core findings of the SME and corporate phases of Mobility 2006. “We will address the key question of how the technology can be leveraged to ensure the benefit flows through to all.”
“As we have seen with consumers, whatever mobile service is offered to SMEs, it has to be easy to register for and simple to use,” concludes Pienaar.
Source- http://www.mybroadband.co.za
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Denmark’s first WiMAX network built
