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Canadian Telcos Agree on WiFi Hotspot Standard
Jucius Maximus writes "As reported by Globetechnology, Canada's cellphone providers have agreed to create a common standard for their subscribers to connect to the Internet via public "hot-spots." The agreement became necessary because Canada's cellphone providers offer four different and incompatible connection technologies. The carriers will continue to vigorously compete with each other, both for customers and Wi-Fi hotspot locations, the CWTA said in a statement."
first post ahaha i am fucked
"Hot spot" -- a place where the radiation level is high. Oh I know, nothing has been proved, but then, smoking was harmless for decades, too.
Does everything include nothing?
You suck
Canada - Savage Wasteland of the north, or model for the future?
I am a filthy pirate.
While Standards do not really promote competition, standards make it easy for laypeople to access the 'Net. As a Verizon subscriber, and as a "alaunt" member, I would like nothing more than to see the Alaunt run beside us in battle. All Glory to Those who Came First.
Anyone know if it is difficult to deal with the Canadian immigration office? Ethnically I'm from scandinavian country but I've lived all over Europe. I'm single, got a PhD in physics and was a founding member in a small IT business until I sold my shares a few years ago.
Canadian cellphone carriers rally around Wi-Fi
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
Canada's cellphone providers have agreed to create a common standard for their subscribers to connect to the Internet via public "hot-spots."
The 12-million people who own cellphones, personal digital assistants or any wireless device and subscribe to Bell Mobility (with Aliant Mobility), Microcell Solutions (Fido), Rogers AT&T Wireless or Telus Mobility will be able to use all Wi-Fi hot-spots operated by any one of those companies.
The plan is to create "a common identity" in which Wi-Fi subscribers would be recognized by the other companies' hot spots and would have to pay for on-line time only to their own carriers.
"It will work just like Interac," said a spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, referring to debit and credit cards working at any automated teller machine regardless of where the customer has an account.
The agreement became necessary because Canada's cellphone providers offer four different and incompatible connection technologies.
The carriers will continue to vigorously compete with each other, both for customers and Wi-Fi hotspot locations, the CWTA said in a statement.
"Wi-Fi is a natural extension to the ubiquitous wireless voice and data services offered by the licensed public wireless carriers across Canada," CWTA president and CEO Peter Barnes said. "By developing standards of service and interconnection, the carriers will ensure Canadians have secure and convenient access to Wi-Fi hotspots without requiring new network identities or billing arrangements."
Common standards introduced by the national Canadian cellphone carriers would help to eliminate the development of redundant authentication and billing methods and will lead to consistent, simplified access, the group said.
The announcement is a step toward the development of standards and cross-carrier roaming capabilities for Canadian Wi-Fi users and wankers like michael. It is also expected to pave the way for future interoperability between the carriers' wireless data networks and their Wi-Fi hotspots.
The carriers said they expect to have standards and agreements in place by the end
of the year, and have them operational in 2004.
"Much like the Canadian inter-carrier messaging agreement provided a tremendous boost to adoption of text messaging in Canada, today's announcement is expected to significantly increase the adoption rates of Wi-Fi in Canada," Mr. Barnes said.
I'm not Seth.
These guys may have interoperability going for them but they'll definately have a pitched battle for all the good locations. I can see the regular locations making some good profits off how greedy these Welcos as they toss more and more money at companies for lucrative locations. My advice to any potentials is to not sign extremely lenghty contracts so you can have a bidding war every few years.
Security Focus is offline!
I just hope that Rogers isn't the one who develops the network layout. I get to deal on a daily bases with what they have done with the cable internet, and man does it suck.
I wonder if they'll roll Wi-Fi into a service offered to their highspeed internet customers? Small extra fee, but you'll be able to access the internet without being at home. This would be great for the business guy who's doing meetings all over town constantly.
Zro . two
"I come from Canada...they say I'm slow....eh?"
canada has internet? Didnt they just get power last week?
Posting an article about Canada when Slashdot's being read mostly by the eurotrash, kiwis and aussies.
Does anybody remember a T.V. show called "Space: Above and Beyond"? It was pretty derivative and was cancelled after one season, but it did have one thing going for it... All the evil government conspiracies back home were tied to an evil megacorp named Telus... Telus just happens to be the dominant Telco in my province, and yes, they are EVIL.
You should see my bill. Enron should have taken lessons from Telus's billing department when it comes to creative accounting. I pay twice what I agreed to pay in the five-year cellphone contract I unwittingly signed in suspicious smelling red ink. I have no clue why, and they aren't about to tell me.
My cellphone inexplicably dies in my basement while other cellphones on other providers get crystal clear reception. I regularily receive phonecalls at 3AM from people who say things like "What the @#$%!! Stop calling this number you @#$#tard!" or "Hello? Hello? STOP CALLING ME YOU PERVERT!" Of course, the number displayed from these calls is my own, which makes it somewhat difficult to know who I should stop being woken up by calls from at 3am. Is there an evil prankster at work, or are Telus' phone-lines possessed by a minion of the Dark one who relishes the creation minor annoyances? Perhaps it's the same minion who came up with Britney Spears and reality TV...
Maybe your cellphone has been cloned. That would explain the huge bills and these calls. Have you ever asked for a listing of the calls made with your phone?
BOO! TERRO
Moderators, please pay attention:
Michael's a Jerk! "quotes": The announcement is a step toward the development of standards and cross-carrier roaming capabilities for Canadian Wi-Fi users and wankers like michael. It is also expected to pave the way for future interoperability between the carriers' wireless data networks and their Wi-Fi hotspots.
Parent is a troll that goes arond claiming the stories been altered, when it hasn't.
Please mod him down (offtopic) to discourage him.
It seems interesting to me that to really tap into the market, different companies are uniting in Wi-Fi. But, on the other hand in the "Instant Messaging" market, it seems that the companies have thrived by dividing the market amongst themselves ... why does "uniting" work in the Wi-Fi market, while "dividing" work in the IM market ...
Looking at the quote from the article (on top of this comment) it seems that the driving force to common standards in Wi-Fi is to eliminate the development of redundant authentication and billing methods viz. that it is about money.
It makes me wonder if the IM packages became "pay only" would it lead to a set of open and common standards in the Instant Messaging market to eliminate the development of redundant authentication and billing methods. I don't think that many people would relish having to pay for five different IM's .... Personally, I think free is better than not free - but I couldn't help noticing this relationship of money and dividing/uniting ..
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
If so, it's either a myth, or so damn hard to find that it isn't worth the trouble. Much easier and just as effective to stick your finger in her ass.
What? You hate a company that uses endangerd animals in their advertising campaign? Why, I should report you to the PETA.
You've been caught out, just give up. Better luck next time.
Mods, Please mod this post, parent, grandparent and great-grandparent as 'offtopic'. Thankyou.
Does anybody remember a T.V. show called "Space: Above and Beyond"? It was pretty derivative and was cancelled after one season,
Derivative (or inspired, however you want to put it) off of the longest-running WWII-based TV series, Combat! from 1962.
My journal has hot
Damn! I was waaaay too drunk yesterday.. It's fucking misery now when I think about what I have said to people yesterday when drunk... FUCK! I really screwed up. Never gonna drink alcohol again!
Canadian cellphone carriers rally around Wi-Fi
By JACK KAPICA
Globe and Mail Update
Canada's cellphone providers have agreed to create a common standard for their subscribers to connect to the Internet via public "hot-spots."
The 12-million people who own cellphones, personal digital assistants or any wireless device and subscribe to Bell Mobility (with Aliant Mobility), Microcell Solutions (Fido), Rogers AT&T Wireless or Telus Mobility will be able to use all Wi-Fi hot-spots operated by any one of those companies.
The plan is to create "a common identity" in which Wi-Fi subscribers would be recognized by the other companies' hot spots and would have to pay for on-line time only to their own carriers.
"It will work just like Interac," said a spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, referring to debit and credit cards working at any automated teller machine regardless of where the customer has an account.
The agreement became necessary because Canada's cellphone providers offer four different and incompatible connection technologies.
The carriers will continue to vigorously compete with each other, both for customers and Wi-Fi hotspot locations, the CWTA said in a statement.
"Wi-Fi is a natural extension to the ubiquitous wireless voice and data services offered by the licensed public wireless carriers across Canada," CWTA president and CEO Peter Barnes said. "By developing standards of service and interconnection, the carriers will ensure Canadians have secure and convenient access to Wi-Fi hotspots without requiring new network identities or billing arrangements."
Common standards introduced by the national Canadian cellphone carriers would help to eliminate the development of redundant authentication and billing methods and will lead to consistent, simplified access, the group said.
The announcement is a step toward the development of standards and cross-carrier roaming capabilities for Canadian Wi-Fi users. It is also expected to pave the way for future interoperability between the carriers' wireless data networks and their Wi-Fi hotspots.
The carriers said they expect to have standards and agreements in place by the end of the year, and have them operational in 2004.
"Much like the Canadian inter-carrier messaging agreement provided a tremendous boost to adoption of text messaging in Canada, today's announcement is expected to significantly increase the adoption rates of Wi-Fi in Canada," Mr. Barnes said.
Enjoy your moderation.
I read Slashdot once every few days, and regardless of what day I read it, here you are posting some moronic crap. Get a fucking life, you dork.
Go outside, get some fresh air and realize that there is more to life than karma and airing your dirty laundry via journal entries.
Parent is a troll... Said text is not really in the grandparent post.
And I couldn't get though to the site.
How about the studies supposedly linking cell phone radiation to immune system deficiency? There are more parts and particles in the body that can be disrupted than just DNA.
Not saying cell phone radiation is harmful, but I am saying I don't know yet and I'm glad research is still being done (if it is).
Thanks for clearing that up :) Now all I have to do is prevent the photons from disrupting my molecular dna bonds and I'm safe from cellphones? This is wonderful news!
Sorry, just couldn't help myself...
You know what...YOU are fscking dork. No change that. You are an asswipe. A dirty, filthy, shit-smeared and dripping off asswipe. That's how insignifcant you are, you mindless twit.
I'm ekrout. I'm a girl. Read my journal
Because these companies are scrambling to get in as many good locations as possible, there will inevitably be an increase in the number of "hot spots" across the nation. Access points will appear in locations they never thought of before. This will make it easier to find a good wireless internet connection and improve the value and versatility of owning a wireless device.
10 Bits= $.25
100 Bits= $.50
110 Bits= $.75
1000 Bits= 1 byte
European NRENs are already doing this on an international scale. With credentials from participating local university students and employees can already log on to the WiFi hotspots of other participating universities and research institutions in both their own and other countries.
The authentication mechanism is based on IEEE 802.1x and uses a RADIUS backend to enable cross domain authentication. Currently this is in operation (machine translation) between the Netherlands, Portugal and England, and Croatia is next.
SURFnet is also working (machine translation) with local hotspot operators in the Netherlands to make sure Dutch students can roam their networks as well. Initially this will offered as a free service fro students.
I would have expected the number to be no more than 5 or 6 million, personally. There are, after all only 30 million people in total, and this includes infants and elderly people that are somewhat cautious about new technology (my gramma was one of them before she passed away last year at 99).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Nearly two years ago the Canadian cell companies got together and created a text message centre to allow interoperation of their text messaging services. Now, I can message a Telus, Fido or Rogers customer from anyone of the competing services.
The Wi-Fi move is just another logical step. We have three competing national companies in a market that really only seems able to support two profitably. This is a reality of a country with a small population covering a large geographic area.
I just wanted to chime in with the fact that I LOVED Space: Above and Beyond
It was cool, whereas i am not.
Thank the Lord SciFi occationally reruns it.
s'wut i sed.
Actually, we're second in the world for broadband per capita. Even though we're also the second largest country in the world.
;-)
Betcha didn't know that, eh?
This is Canada. Lotsa cellphones not quite as many guns as the USA. Judge for yourself. ;-)
BTW: I don't have any actual statistics, but then again 73% of all statistics are made up anyway.
There are indeed about 30 million people in about 13 million households in Canada...and being I was born and raised here I can tell you that the majority of households have a cellphone here (both in the city and in the surrounding rural communities)--and it is very common to see a family where there are two or more (parents give their teenagers cellphones for emergency use and/or to keep tabs on them). I've seen kids as young as 10-12 on cellphones and some of my own relatives in their 80s have them as well. Yep--I think 12 million could be a reasonable estimate.
I've also had extended stays in the US, and I's have to say that with the exception of large metropolitan areas that overall per-capita cellphone usage is slightly lower in the US than in Canada (and from what I've heard western Europe and Asia outstrip us both by far).
This is just personal observation so if anyone has data to prove or disprove my observation let me know...
PS...and the comment about the elderly being cautious about new technology--overall that is a false assumption. I have found personally (and recently read a study on the subject) that the demographic most resistant to adopting new technology are those from 40 to 65 years of age (oddly enough although women of that age find high-tesh stuff intimidating, it is men of that age that are more resistant to it). After retirement people tend to become MORE willing to try out new technology. I have an aunt who I never imagined would learn to use a computer take to it like a fish to water--and she didn't so much as press a key until she was in her 80s.
According to whom ? American per capita usage is about half that of canada, and a quarter to a third that of Korea.
You forgot the difference in cost of living
g in.shtm l
According to this link:
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/webpages/livin
The cost of living in Toronto is 75% of the cost of living of Chicago. Although there are lower salaries, the cost of living is less since people live in the "inner cities" in Canada so services can be concentrated instead of distributed like U.S. cities. And the Canadian "inner cities" are actually safe for women and children, even at 11pm (unlike american cities).
After years of deciding between GSM and CDMA (and I think we had a TDMA provider...) I'm glad that won't be a problem this time around. I'm definitely glad that they're not choosing some proprietary protocol... so at least getting a wireless card will remain as easy as hopping into your local computer store.
Now the first question I have, is how much is this going to cost? Data rates on the cell-networks were ridiculously high for non-necessary useage... hopefully it won't be the same with WiFi.