Are Grassroots Networks The Future Of Wireless?

from the pass-it-on dept

The Economist has an excellent article looking at four emerging wireless technologies:smart antennas, mesh networks, ad hoc architectures, and UWB. All four technologies could help carriers role out next genertation networks. But the real power of these technologies may lie in their ability to change the position of traditional carriers from service providers to backhaul providers while communities and small ISPs build end user networks. This sounds great, and certainly the Wi-Fi community is leading the charge in this idea. But a similar idea was predicted in the wired space and all the small guys are dead. The more likely scenario is that small groups or companies will deploy these technolgies and demonstrate innovative uses and then the big guys will jump in and make a business of it. We're definitely seeing that pattern with Wi-Fi.

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