Simply put, 4G is what comes after 3G. Today's wireless broadband networks are powered by 3G - short for third-generation -- technology. In the U.S., that means HSDPA/UMTS and CMDA EVDO radio technologies. These are currently used by AT&T/T-Mobile and Sprint/Verizon, respectively. The 3G standard was devised by the 3GPP2 organization. The same and other standards bodies are working to finalize what 4G -- or fourth generation -- wireless networks will include. The standard has not been finalized.

Let me repeat that: The standard has not been finalized. Without a finalized standard, technically speaking, 4G hasn't been defined and doesn't exist. Any company claiming to offer 4G products and/or services is not telling the entire truth (hell, it might even be misleading consumers).

Fourth generation wireless networks are to be IP-based, and must meet the IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) Advanced criteria.

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Posted by Dal at 11:07 AM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to WiMax

That’s an interesting strategy for Skype, which runs on an almost-free-to-use model. Service upgrades and Skype “credits” – in which users pay a fee of 2.1 cents to use Skype to call landline and mobile phones – generated more than $700 million for the company last year, and that’s just the consumer space. Imagine what penetration into the business market could mean for Skype financially.

The question, however, is whether Skype is ready for corporate primetime. On its site, Skype points out that it does not support 911 and other emergency calling services and should not be used as a person’s primary phone service. Rather, Skype can be used as a complementary service.

Also, the quality of service with Skype calls may not be as high as landline or even other IP-based calls, leading to latency issues or dropped packets. Of course, that has everything to do with the bandwidth limitations of the corporate network, but would a company want to risk its image on the possibility of a less-than-optimal calling experience with its clients?

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Posted by Dal at 03:04 PM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Skype

It's not just Google who has taken the leap into consumer appliances. Just the day after the search company launched the Google TV, Cisco has announced trials of a consumer version of its TelePresence videoconferencing system according to a Reuters report. The company has also announced that TV channel ESPN will be using Telepresence to transmit World Cup football from South Africa.

In January, the company announced that it would be running trials of a home Telepresence system with Verizon in the US and, later in the year, France Telecom.

According to Cisco, simplicity will be the key to the new system. "You would just plug it into your television," Robert Lloyd, Cisco's executive vice president told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco." The company gave a sneak preview of the new Telepresence terminals at its Cisco Networkers event in Cannes in February.

The system will retail at around $500, a far cry from the six-figure sum that businesses expect to pay but probably higher than was expected. In February, Marthin De Beer, Cisco's vice president of emerging technologies said the system would be "affordable for the middle-class family, they're not for the rich."

Analysts, however, have questioned the cost of the system, with simple videoconferencing being readily available. "Five hundred dollars sounds like a boatload of money for that. Particularly since Google and Apple already has video chat," Daniel Ernst, analyst at Hudson Square Research told Reuters. 

Source:  Network World

Posted by Dal at 11:14 AM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Cisco

Ah, Congress. It's really amazing how the folks in charge of regulating the technology industry basically aren't allowed to use it. Two years ago, we wrote about concerns among some in Congress, that using YouTube violated House rules. Later that year, a slightly misguided flare-up occurred when folks realized that the rules also forbade the use of Twitter (the misguided part was an attempt to turn it into a partisan thing).

Eventually these things got sorted out, but basically, it appears that Congressional reps can't use certain new technologies without first getting those technologies approved.

Posted by Dal at 03:59 PM | Direct Link | TrackBacks (0) Posted to Skype