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Beyond
the Ides of March
by
Mark Sedenquist
Information
about wireless communication options continues to swirl about
the Web with dizzying rapidity. With rare exception, I learn
of another trade organization or media source that is performing
some role in the wireless world every time I log on. I am
not sure if this is simply because of my continued gradual
ascent on my own personal learning curve of knowledge or there
is some mystical golden goose that is working overtime. I
do know that I owe a debt of gratitude to fellow Dashboarders-in-training
like Chris Hammack, Craig Smith and Bill Nunnery who pass
on ideas and links to the Road Wirer from time to time.
Chris
alerted me this week to the “Berst
Alert” column written by Jessie Berst at the “ZDNet Anchor
Desk” that encouraged me to take another look at the latest
claims of potential wireless services being made by the huge
satellite consortiums. (The ZDNet
has some remarkable news resources and the articles are always
informative and entertaining). I have been following the news
releases detailing the progress made by the producers of satellite
communications since early 1996 with the hope that one of
these systems would allow us to meet the guidelines of true,
reasonable cost, two-way wireless communications via the Internet.
The product services of the Iridium
and GlobalStar
systems are not a particularly good match, although I am looking
forward to the release of the GlobalStar network to the public
later this year because of the improved handset choices provided
by Qualcomm.
Beyond
Iridium and Globalstar, the rest of the field does not seem
to have changed much since 1996, with the exception of some
musical chairs being played among some of the company partners.
The single biggest consistency is that none of these providers
will be ready to deliver services to mere mortals until at
least 2003.
The
Web sites of some of these operations have improved and are
worth a look. The mega-buck enterprise partially funded by
Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, Teledesic, Inc. is supposed to
be an “Internet in the Sky” and it will include 288 Low Earth
Orbit (LEO) satellites. SkyBridge, another mega-humongous
consortium that includes Alcatel and Loral Space Systems has
a very silly, (short on information) website at www.skybridgesatellite.com.
I
couldn’t find the Web site for the Motorola broadband satellite
project known as Celestri, (a combination LEO and GEO satellite
array), but there are at least five more satellite systems
in the works from mega-companies like Hughes Network, (Spaceway);
Lockheed Martin, (Astrolink) and Loral Systems, (Cyberstar).
As
you may remember, Megan and I are giving serious thought to
outfitting the Phoenix One with the appropriate receivers
and transmitters to allow us to use the second generation
wireless technologies of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Global Systems for
Mobile Communications (GSM). One more firm that produces the
necessary hardware to enable this form of data communications
is Antennas
America, Inc. based in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. One aspect
that sets this company apart is that it produces “covert antennas”
that can be mounted under the dashboard or in the trunk and
still allow access to the CDPD and GSM networks.
In
case your interest in wireless communications is “fixed” on
Fixed Wireless Broadband technologies, (supposed to be able
to provide equal or better speed and capacity than hard-wired
systems in localized areas), check out the Wireless
Communications Association’s Web site.
Mark
Sedenquist
Pasadena, California
March 15, 1999
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