I was wondering the same thing a few weeks ago, and here’s an article from Motley Fool which begins with: “Even the commodity techies are putting up good numbers. Let’s call NetGear (Nasdaq: NTGR) ‘Exhibit A’.”

They all implement the 802.11x standard… It is all the same and I am glad. Elsewhere the article states, “Roughly 3,500 of the Bentonville Behemoth’s stores are now selling NetGear’s wireless wares.”

Cisco buys Pure Networks for Linksys division

Pure Networks was acquired for $120 million. It makes Network Magic Pro 4.7 (see review).

This page shows information for IEEE P802.11 Voting, Potential, Nearly and Aspirant members as of  July 21, 2008.

The chair of IEEE 802.11 uses the following categories of membership:

1. Voting members. Those members qualify for voting membership status.
2. Aspirant members. Those members have participated in one plenary or interim session of meetings within the time of 4 plenary sessions.
3. Nearly voting members. Those have participated in two sessions of meetings, one of which being a plenary session within the time of 4 plenary sessions.

Nearly voting members become voting members in the first session they attend following their qualification for nearly-membership.

Summary

In terms of cooperation between corporations. I understand that different companies establish completely different wireless networks  that don’t talk to each other. I dont understand it fully. But the wired internet, or the power grid, seems to be much more cooperative.

Cell carriers have their own towers, and the 3g or 4g networks may not talk to each other. LTE is some proprietary thing.

I don’t understand the thought process - but perhaps I need to be in their shoes.

Will LTE be here around 2012? I am not sure, WiMax was said to be here in some places in 2007. It will take someone of determination, and I believe then companies will follow. The history of the word is the history of great men.

Some people say it is a crime, and others don’t. I think people have better things to do… litigiousness

Alvarion has been chosen to implement a nationwide WiMax network in Malta.

Vodafone already has WiMax in Malta

Where is Malta? South of Italy, it is an Island in the Mediterraniun Sea.

A femtocell is like a mini-cell phone tower. It is a thing that connects to the internet (via some router), and sends your cell-phone signal via the internet into the normal cell phone network.

It allows a cell phone company to have a mini-tower whereever you put it.

Sprint currently has Airave - it offers 5,000 square feet of coverage and allows unlimited calls within range (for a set of subscribers of your choosing).

T-Mobile, I don’t think, has a femtocell solution, though I am not sure what the difference is in functionality for T-Mobile @Home.

Sprint’s solution works with its phones, but T-Mobile requires WiFi enabled phones.

I wonder how strong the radio waves are, since if you ask someone whether they would want to live near a cell-phone tower, I believe the general answer is no. It may be for aesthetic reasons, though for me it would be for health reasons. But since this a cool technology, it is allowed in the home. Well if you are using a wireless router, like me, then it doesn’t matter.

If the airave,femtocell,etc.. also had a wireless connection, then you could maybe even get paid by a cell company. Yes, they are giving you free talk time when you use the femtocell, but let’s say you connect a bunch of them on the borders of your property, you are increasing the quality of their network.

If airave cost $50 and covers 5,000 square feet, the cost is 1 cent per square foot of coverage.

Let’s say a cell tower costs $250,000 and covers a radius of 1.5 square miles (area of coverage is 7 square miles) then the cost per square foot of coverage is like .13 cents

If the tower costs $1,000,000 and covers 3 square miles, the cost is 1.1 cents per square foot.

Mobilink launched in Pakistan on July 2nd, 2008.

Also, Huawei Technologies will implement this WiMax expansion.

Wateen is the other Pakistani company offering a WiMax network.

From Apple: “AirPort Extreme lets you turn your external USB hard drive into a drive you can share with all the users on your network. It’s called AirPort Disk, and it’s a simple and convenient way to share files among everyone in your family, office, or class.”

You can even connect a printer to this (for wireless printing).