Slashdot Mirror
Project Rainbow - 802.11 Across the U.S.
rakerman writes "IBM, Intel and a number of wireless services operators are considering building a wireless data network across the U.S., according to the New York Times."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
...I'll finally be able to surf for pr0n and read slashdot in traffic? Now all I need are tinted windows....
Who did what now?
Damn, I'm going to have to buy a whole assload of chalk now!!
id like my phone to work everywhere first!
if they cant do that how are they ever going to do this?
I want 2D games back.
Sure it would be cool to have the long promised everywhere, everywhen connectivity. But aside from the technical issues (e.g. what version of the standard), it's difficult to see us getting anywhere close to the point where enough people are willing to plop down the requisite amount of monthly $$'s to make this viable.
Pick a number: $50/month, $100/month? How much are you willing to pony up for patchy wireless internet connectivity primarily in relatively heavily populated areas? Consider that even broadband penetration seems to have plateaued to a large degree in the areas where it is available. Not everyone's willing to pay $40-$50/month for better computer access.
Good...
They should be worried about getting a real 3G cell network off the ground first.
Then we can do all those things with more flexibility than what is mentioned in that very short "article."
802.11, 11b and 11g are 2.4 GHz. 11a is 5 GHz.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
Across the WHOLE US? Or across major metro areas?
I've got some users that could really USE true border to border access (petroleum tank inspectors) but since live access= digital cellphone coverage, there's a BUNCH of the state that's unreachable via cellphone.
Meaning we've got to add a LOT of logic to the custom apps to handle dead zones.
Now, if coverage were limited to cities with more than 60 people (and could be, at $100 per basestation) that'd be a Very Good Thing.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
Most of the posts here seem to assume this means wireless connectivety everywhere. Such is *not* the case. The article states that the players in this network will put access points in airports and other public spaces and will not try to provide access to peoples homes.
In fact this doesn't seem to be so much a 'Wireless Network' as a bunch of access points connected to the Internet. Not what I was hoping for when I saw the subject line.
What I want is a nationwide variant of the Ricochet network. Anyone remember them? They used light-pole mounted units that acted as wireless routers, letting them provide access anywhere by routing the packets through the air to the closest wired router. It worked pretty damn well (if slow). I used it here in Seattle for a couple of years and being able to check my email while stuck in traffic alone made it worth the cost. The fact that I had Internet connectivety pretty much everywhere else was just gravy.
A similar scheme can work with 802.11 devices, given cheap hardware and proper software. Many groups are already working on this. Here in Seattle there is even a group trying to set up a non-profit community network this way -- http://www.seattlewireless.org
If such home-brewed networks were to spread across the country we could tie them together via the Internet, or even via leased lines between cities. Now that sounds like the kind of thing I would like to see! No way anyone could ever control that...
Jack William Bell
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
What kind of recipes do your parents have that need a firewall to keep safe?
Just think, put a web site in the trunk of a Porsche and whenever the MPAA or RIAA come to shut you down, take off down the road.
:)
Then you can watch yourself live on Worlds Wildest Police Chases via your wireless connection while serving up countless bootleg MP3s & DVDs
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
What will scare me is when big companies start taking up all the wireless 'channels'.
I live on the edge of a pretty heavy commerical district. Company decides to set up a wireless lan on the channel I use for mine. There is really nothing I can do about it; either switch channels (despite the fact that I was there first) or keep using my channel and cause the potential for both our networks to interfere with each other. However, if my laptop happens to see some of thier network traffic as I walked from one end of the house to the other, somehow I'm a criminal.
What I see in the future is, companys sets up nation-wide lan. Decide amoung themselves how to divy up the channels, get their lobbyists to go to congress and tell them 'We are running a business, there are private individuals who are broadcasting that interfere with our business'.
Suddenly, my WAP is illegal. It interfers with a company, I get fined by the FCC.
The Internet is generally stupid