How Fast Can Wireless Get?
Rafe Needleman’s latest column takes a look at the offerings from ipWireless and Flarion, as they look to enable high speed wireless data over cellular networks. Needleman seems to think that the reason these technologies haven’t caught on yet is that the carriers haven’t convinced people why they need such high speed data on their handsets. My response is: handsets? Why bother with handsets? If you can really get high speed wireless data everywhere, then why not use it for all of your connectivity needs? The answer, unfortunately, is that it’s unlikely the carriers would ever price it in a way to make that feasible. Instead, they’ll price things per byte or per minute, and make it so that everything runs through a toll booth – which is unlikely to be useful except under specific circumstances.
