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Thursday, July 03, 2003
Ng: Bumps on road to wireless Internet
By Wilson Ng
WIRED DESKTOP
TABLET PC. For the last few weeks, I have been playing around with my tablet PC. It is really a great tool, foremost because of its extended battery life. The new generation of tablet PCs, as well as most of the new notebook computers using the new Intel Pentium M processor, or Centrino technology, have one great advantage that previous notebook users do not have—on average, the batteries last twice as long. From a normal two hours, these notebooks or tablets can run for four to five hours.
These four hours (or the extra two hours) are a big, big difference. Ten years ago, the battery of the cellphone lasted only for eight hours of normal use. There was no problem with this, except that if you were a heavy user, you would run out of batteries before the end of the day.
Now I don’t even bother to turn off my cellphone at night. Since the batteries last four or so days, sometimes, I don’t even bother to bring chargers now when making trips to Manila or elsewhere where I am expected to stay only a day or two.
For notebooks, it really is great that at the end of the day, if I need to bring it home, I don’t have to bring the adapter. When I attend meetings and need to take notes, I don’t have to look for an outlet in the conference room. If I load a DVD or VCD to watch in the notebook, at least I will get to the end of the movie before I run out of battery.
The other equation of course is Wifi or wireless network. You can turn on your computer now at Ayala mall or Marriott Hotel, or in the airport, and you can instantly be connected to the Web. And that is really the gist of the Centrino ads that say get unwired. After all, what is the use of getting connected wirelessly if you still need to look for an electric outlet?
The true essence of being unwired is that you have enough battery power and connectivity to do what you want to do almost anywhere (or at least where there is a Wifi hotspot). There are now thousands of wireless hotspots all over the world, where you can get instantly connected.
However, the technology is still not so seamless.
Unlike the cellphone that you can turn on anywhere and will instantly recognize you, the hotspots are still mountains of isolated spots. That means if you turn it on at the Singapore Airport, you may need a different kind of access. If you turn it on at Starbucks, then you might need a different kind of access and probable payment scheme. Whenever you turn it on, you have to negotiate with the hotspot provider how you can get into the network, and different providers will have to be paid differently.
Globe Telecom, one of the leading providers, is starting to introduce hotspots.
Unfortunately, they have been hit with technicalities, especially in Manila. Unlike the rest of the world, Manila has the rare distinction of having the freely available 2.4 gigahertz frequency given to Meralco, and therefore this cannot be used properly for other purposes. That is why the National Telecommunications Commission is having a second look at all this Wifi issues and restraining it.
However, that means we here in Southern Philippines will be the first to really use this technology. Globe has also promised that its DSL (digital subscriber line) subscribers will get seamless connectivity. And just like the GSM, it will instantly recognize you in all the other hotspots. I really look forward to this!
(Wilson welcomes comments at Wilson@esprint.com.)
(July 3, 2003 issue)
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