Long Distance WiFi: More Info
April 7, 2007 | By Raymond T. Hightower
Intel and UC Berkley are collaborating to bring long distance WiFi to the masses. Transmission distance: Over 100 kilometers (62 miles). This is a follow-up report on our WiFi post from last week.
News.com is streaming a video that gives a good high-level overview of the technology. In a nutshell: It’s a blend between wireless fidelity (WiFi or IEEE 802.11) and code division multiple access (CDMA). You may recognize CDMA as the technology behind the cell phone networks of Sprint and Verizon.
People in cities can connect to the Internet with relative ease. This is largely due to the economies of scale that network providers enjoy when they bring services to a large city. It takes a limited amount of cable & resources to connect people when they’re clustered close together. But when people are spread apart, the economies of scale vanish and Internet connections become expensive. And that’s where wireless enters the game: in rural areas.
More to come as this technology unfolds.