The post President Obama says Google will bring Wi-Fi to Cuba | Radio spectrum belongs to humanity. Not companies. appeared first on Wi-Fi Now USA.

How important is Wi-Fi these days? Well, try taking away someone’s Wi-Fi for just a few hours, and you’ll find out. But here’s the difference between Wi-Fi and nearly everything else wireless: It belongs to all of us.

That’s because the radio spectrum used for Wi-Fi is free for anyone to use. Now – regardless of what mobile industry lobbyists may tell you, Wi-Fi works and will continue to be the cornerstone of Internet access for decades to come.

According to SaveOurWiFi.org, Wi-Fi contributes $200 billion in economic value to the US economy alone every year. That’s without costing a cent in license fees or royalties. How did this happen? We owe a lot to a couple of brilliant folks who – about 25 years ago – set the airwaves free and got to work on creating a wireless tech for everybody.

Today, Wi-Fi is everywhere. The evolution of Wi-Fi has been more explosive than any other technology out there. And it’s not only about Europe & the US, of course. In Latin America, India, and across the emerging world: For many people, mobile is luxury. But Wi-Fi is a necessity.

So the big question is where we go from here. Setting ‘junk bands’ free for unlicensed use was an experiment that started 25 years ago. The results is a revolution in how we access the Internet.

Would it make sense then to make more radio spectrum available for everyone and anyone to use? I think yes. In fact, I believe – like the water we drink and the air we breathe – that radio spectrum belongs to humanity, not to companies.

25 years of Wi-Fi proves that spectrum can be shared and doesn’t need to be reserved for billion-dollar companies to purchase. Now, we’re of course not going to start sharing more spectrum just like that. Our systems of regulation are deeply entrenched. But we do need to start looking at how to make more unlicensed spectrum available.

It’s a question of priorities – and here are the choices we have: Carry on as we’ve always done. Or set more airwaves free for the benefit of people everywhere creating another massive economic surplus.

And remember this: There is no shortage of technology. We can share spectrum very efficiently if we want to. But we will need to want to do it.

/Claus.

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Only 90 miles off the coast of Florida, Cuba is possibly the most Internet-starved country in the world. But after 50 years of isolation, the future looks a lot more connected for millions of Cubans.

This week President Obama announced “that Google has a deal to start setting up more Wi-Fi and broadband access on the island.” The President’s statement came in an interview with ABC News on Monday (see the Reuters news item here). That’s pretty much all we know officially right now – although Google has also commented on their plans in this blog. Google is a lot more low-key about the prospects of Wi-Fi and broadband on the island, at least officially.

Now – there’s a bit of history to this story, too. It is rumoured that Alphabet (then Google) Chairman Eric Schmidt offered the Cuban government free Google Wi-Fi in July of last year (see the news report here) but that the offer was rejected by the Castro government at the time. Eric Schmidt & Alphabet reputedly have very strong connections to the White House including the President. And as US-Cuban relations are beginning to warm, the pieces may be falling into place for Google to enter the pristine Cuban market.

All of this is of course a delicate political balancing act and nobody knows how much Internet access the Cuban government will allow. But the Cuban government’s grip on public access to information does seem to be loosening. Last year the government allowed 35 public Wi-Fi access hotspots to be deployed, and the results have been astounding. Cubans have been flocking to the new hotspots, and the black-market price for scarce hourly Wi-Fi vouchers quickly went to ten dollars instead of the standard two bucks.

Here’s a quick telecoms market perspective on what could be happening in Cuba: The population of Cuba is about 11 million, which a bit more than New York City, but of course Cubans on average are not exactly wealthy. It’s still a sizeable market and no doubt – if relations continue to improve – Cuba represents a huge opportunity for wireless companies and service providers wishing to expand.

If Google manages to get their Wi-Fi project off the ground, Cuba could be the first market in the world to get public Wi-Fi everywhere before anything mobile broadband – for example 4G – arrives. It’s interesting to speculate what would happen if this were the case. How would a market like that react to Wi-Fi First and 4G second? We may very well find out in the coming years.

The good news overall – of course – is that the future looks a lot brighter for the long-suffering Cuban population. We’re hoping that they’ll get their Wi-Fi sooner rather than later.

/Claus.

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The post NOKIA braces for Wi-Fi market entry | Wi-Fi NOW DC: Register while tickets last! appeared first on Wi-Fi Now USA.

That’s the big question after Nokia released it’s first ever full line of carrier Wi-Fi solutions at this years’ Mobile World Congress. This is not the first time Nokia’s infrastructure division is trying it’s hand at carrier Wi-Fi. The company has for a couple of years partnered with Ruckus. But this time, it’s different.

The new Nokia Wi-Fi solution was launched as part of Nokia’s new ‘AirScale’ portfolio and includes APs, a controller (that Nokia calls ‘cloud-based’) and LTE/Wi-Fi Aggregation (LWA) functions. According to Head of Nokia Mobile Broadband Marketing Kai Sahala Nokia’s new Wi-Fi pitch is mostly targeted towards existing carrier clients. Detailed information on Nokia Wi-Fi is still fairly scarce, but you can read more about it on Nokia’s website here.

Above: The Nokia AirScale Wi-Fi portfolio. Source: Nokia.com

The good news – from a Wi-Fi industry perspective – is that Nokia seems to be getting serious about Wi-Fi. The acquisition of Alcatel Lucent has given the company a strong position in Wi-Fi (and fixed) core networks, and with AirScale Wi-Fi the end-to-end Wi-Fi proposition is now complete, at least in theory. Another big plus in our view is that Nokia is now also pushing LWA, which is much more Wi-Fi-friendly than LTE-U and LAA.

How well Nokia will do against Wi-Fi competitors with a 10-year head start is still an open question. Wi-Fi is in many ways less complex than licensed wireless but the new AirScale Wi-Fi products will still need to prove performance & operability in practice.

For a complete update on all things Wi-Fi don’t miss Wi-Fi NOW:  This years’ No. 1 Wi-Fi event in Washington DC. Register now while tickets last!

/Claus

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The post Meet the CEO behind Fon’s 18 million hotspots | Wi-Fi NOW DC Early Bird expires THIS WEEK! appeared first on Wi-Fi Now USA.

Vodafone Germany announced yesterday that they’re testing a new app that will connect users to the best wireless network including of course Wi-Fi hotspots. The test is ongoing in three cities and will use connectivity technology from Chemring with Cisco providing the policy engine part. This is – to our knowledge – the first major field trial of a Wi-Fi offload type solution by a Tier 1 operator in Europe.

Late last week Boingo Wireless released new numbers for their Wi-Fi offload service delivered to Sprint: 22 million Sprint customers have thus far accessed Boingo’s Wi-Fi network, and Boingo says it expects that number to grow to 40 million. Sprint customers have been connecting seamlessly to Boingo’s Wi-Fi network across the US since early last year. Boingo also hinted that they expect another Tier 1 US operator to offload traffic to Boingo Wi-Fi some time during the first half of this year.

So what’s next for mobile/Wi-Fi convergence? I’m pretty sure that the technology to do this (mostly on the device side) will not be standards-based, but rather app-based. And that means that it’s anybody’s game – if you can get it out there. Possibly the best app I’ve ever seen to this end is called Speedify. Speedify aggregates Wi-Fi & cellular data streams by means of a VPN and it’s totally seamless. Watch our interview with Speedify’s founder & CEO Alex Gizis below.

Meet Boingo, T-Mobile, and Speedify at Wi-Fi NOW the conference in DC this April 19-21! Go to this link to register now.

/Claus Hetting

The post Is Wi-Fi offload making a comeback? appeared first on Wi-Fi Now USA.

Find out what’s next for Fon in my interview with Fon CEO, Alex Puregger. We’re at the MWC Networking Garden – and please excuse the bad sound quality in this interview. To be safe, we texted this. But it’s still well worth watching!

/Claus

The post Wi-Fi NOW @ Mobile World Congress: Meet CEO of Fon, Alex Puregger appeared first on Wi-Fi Now USA.

Also: You get to meet Alex at Wi-Fi NOW the conference in Washington, D.C. – go to this link now to register!

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Could there be more spectrum in the pipeline for Wi-Fi? appeared first on Wi-Fi Now USA.