{"id":548956,"date":"2006-05-29T07:14:15","date_gmt":"2006-05-29T07:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548956-expanded-mobile-services-will-offer-users-wide-choice.html"},"modified":"2006-05-29T07:14:15","modified_gmt":"2006-05-29T07:14:15","slug":"expanded-mobile-services-will-offer-users-wide-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548956-expanded-mobile-services-will-offer-users-wide-choice.html","title":{"rendered":"Expanded mobile services will offer users wide choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

All these technologies have a role to play, especially in SA and the rest of Africa where wired infrastructure is lacking and fixed-line services are expensive compared with other markets. <\/font><\/p>\n

At the same time, loose partnerships are emerging between mobile-phone and network equipment manufactures to bring wireless and cellular capabilities together. <\/font><\/p>\n

Cisco and Nokia are planning to hold field trials in Europe shortly with a process that will enable voice calls to be routed over the wireless local area network (LAN) to users\u2019 cellphones when they are in the office and over the mobile network when they are not. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the success of the trials, the technology is expected to be made available for customers to test,\u201d says Gary Cuthbert, product specialist for wireless technology at Dimension Data. <\/font><\/p>\n

Cuthbert says some cellphone models already have dual WiFi capabilities, but companies will need to install an intelligent gateway device on their IP telephonyenabled network that will identify who is in the office and who is out and route calls accordingly. <\/font><\/p>\n

At present dual phones can be used to access the internet over the cellular network or over the LAN, but not to route calls between them. <\/font><\/p>\n

Another trend is that active radio frequency identity (RFID) tags, which transmit and receive information wirelessly over distances, will soon be available in a smaller form and could be monitored and managed over a wireless network, says Cuthbert. <\/font><\/p>\n

The tags could be used to track and trace small, high-value assets and to track people by attaching tags to their garments or working equipment, he says. <\/font><\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Joubert, GM of MWEB Business, says the rollout of wireless hotspots has accelerated over the past year in SA and there are now more than 200 countrywide. <\/font><\/p>\n

He says venue owners can get a service provider to set up and run a hotspot for them, including the hardware and connectivity, and provide technical support at no cost but with no share of the revenue. Alternatively, the owner can invest in the equipment and communication line and provide his own support and generate revenue from it. <\/font><\/p>\n

He says two years ago MWEB and Internet Solutions (IS) entered into a joint venture with the Airports Company to set up hotspots at airports and hospitality venues nationally. <\/font><\/p>\n

Since then MWEB and IS have extended the venture to other venues, including News Caf\u00e9 and Mug & Bean outlets, and the City Lodge, Sun International, Three Cities and Sheraton hotel groups. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have Wimpy on board and Nando\u2019s are considering rolling out hotspots at some of their outlets.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

He says the joint venture plans to increase its 100 hotspots to 500 by the end of next year. <\/font><\/p>\n

Elia Tsouros, business development executive at Verizon Business SA, says wireless broadband communication does not have the same reputation as wired infrastructure for reliability, but the services are improving. <\/font><\/p>\n

He says Verizon is using the Sentech Biznet and iBurst wireless broadband services infrastructure as a backup to reroute customer data traffic when the Telkom leased lines go down. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also using ISDN and ADSL fixed-line backup for critical data applications and voice.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

Tsouros says the company is doing feasibility studies on setting up its own wireless infrastructure once regulations allow this, using technologies such as WiMAX, that can provide speeds of up to 50 megabits per second over 50km. <\/font><\/p>\n

He says municipalities are considering installing fibre and wireless networks to deliver data and voice services in their areas as an additional utility for customers and for their own use for applications. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have set up pilots for two municipalities on this basis.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

More companies are allowing their mobile employees to access their corporate systems using the cellular EDGE, 3G and high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) services, says Tsouros. <\/font><\/p>\n

He says businesses should consider wireless broadband as an alternative for non-critical applications, and for connecting their branches in remote areas, because it is 20% to 50% cheaper than leased lines.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Inet-Bridge ||\u00a0 <\/font>Discuss this article<\/font> <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE wireless and mobile communication landscape is expanding, with more technologies and services vying for positions in the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}