"You are seeing the perfect storm in the wireless,” says the wireless evangelist and managing director of Intel Capital, Sriram Viswanathan. “The stars came aligned three years ago. Unlicensed spectrum led the Wi-Fi growth in the home. Consumers—who had tasted the wireless at home—came to the office wanting the same. The IT managers did the natural thing—resist the trend.” The serious challenges in implementing a wireless enterprise system foretold the excitement in the opportunities—security, management and so on. Along came Intel and put this on to a platform, and the rest is history, says Viswanathan.

“Security is a big thing. This is like plumbing where there is no one single solution. You have to be patching leaks as they crop up and at times even use Draino,” Viswanathan draws an analogy. Layer the large scale security needs of the state and country, and this space is going to be full of opportunities for the entrepreneur, he says. “And look outside the enterprise. You see another big playing ground.” Wi-Fi applications availability at wirespeed outside the physical enterprise is going to be a huge market. Software that will glue all this together—LAN/WAN conversions, provisioning, network management and selection, roaming and so on are exciting areas now, comments the Intel investor.

On top of these two is layered the manageability issue—a unified application framework. Software and hardware that provide OSS capabilities is growing and will see increasing investments, says Viswanathan. Beyond this, extending the LAN/WAN convergence to the metro area and into the carrier world is where Intel is focusing now. WiMAX is now attracting serious attention from the carrier class, says Viswanathan.

Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Communications Group Sean Maloney recently said the company’s vision includes a three-stage deployment of WiMAX that would begin with fixed outdoor antenna installations to bring wireless to emerging markets and speed the installation of broadband services without the need to lay wire or cable.
“The technology will then rapidly progress to indoor antenna installations, broadening its appeal to carriers seeking simplified installation at user sites,” Maloney said. “Finally, in the third phase, WiMAX-Certified hardware will be available in portable solutions for users who want to roam within or between service areas.” As with Centrino, Intel hopes to encourage startups to provide innovations that would enable the WiMAX proliferation. “Centrino was a great excercise,” says Viswanathan, “perhaps the only product to return investments in 14 months.”
“The reality is that many telcos suffered a huge disappointment since the Internet crash when they were left with tens of thousands of unused wires,” says Peter Kastner, research vice president with the Aberdeen Group, Inc., in Boston. “After all, WiMAX is just another carrier backhaul which needs to be monetized, and how anybody makes money with more bandwidth is a fair question.”

Still, he says, many on Wall Street believe that telcos are girding up for new investments by next year and when they do invest, they'll be looking at the newest and most effective technologies. “WiMAX has a chance to be on that dance card.”

“The wireless service provider and telecommunication equipment industries are rallying around WiMAX technology because of its tremendous cost advantages to provide last-mile connectivity to large parts of the world that are too expensive to serve with wired technologies,” said Maloney. “The new technology will usher in a broadband wireless revolution.”

“Wireless broadband is going through a disruption,” observes Viswanathan. “This time around, there is a standards program which is directing the evolution.” The carriers are looking at removing disruptions in the space through a tiered spectrum. “The ultimate game is mobility. Range, speed and quality of service is becoming industrial strength. The Asian markets are extremely interesting in this space.” The availability of the service at a platform level is going to be critical to survival. “I think the evolution of this wireless phenomenon will finally see fruition at the home. It is not going to be IR or any of the traditional elements, it is going to be Wi-Fi.”

Every appliance inside the home is going to be designed with a wireless interconnect that will seamlessly wrap the user. “Today, you take a low quality picture on your mobile phone, download it on your PC, and then manipulate it for your needs,” he says. “The usage model will change. There is no reason why a user cannot shoot a hi-res picture, and automatically upload it on to his carrier’s server, who will then beam it down to the user’s PC. The various links in the chain—user, carrier, device makers are all happy.”

Speak of 3G and the investor heaves a sigh. “We have had some raging debates and I can prove that 3G for data just doesn’t make sense,” declares Viswanathan. “There will uses for it in voice, but not data, which is were Wi-Fi has moved up so effortlessly in the value chain.” How will you deliver added functionalities on a service like SMS on a 3G network, asks Viswanathan.

Mobility will effect new usage models. “The software defined radio will be another big influence,” he comments. “Devices are going to be big on memory, have many functionalities, and make increased demands on the RF side.” Multiple radios are probably going to be physically packaged into devices, and multi-mode radios are going to be switching the devices between networks. “Finally, the SDR will drive the cost down, giving the agility of switching and functionalities from software,” he declares. Also, sensor nets and RFID are going to redefine markets and the way enterprises will function. “RFID will stretch the way databases are being explored,” says Viswanathan.

As we go to press, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened up more spectrum for unlicensed use, adding an additional 225 megahertz in the 5 gigahertz range for wireless networking services. The agency also initiated a new proposal for measuring spectrum interference.

According to the FCC, the additional available spectrum will allow continued growth in wireless broadband services, including those offered by wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) who use unlicensed devices to provide a broadband alternative for rural and underserved areas.

“Wireless broadband is increasingly a reality in the marketplace. As demonstrated by our recent WISP forum, making more spectrum available for this important application will foster facilities-based broadband competition and significantly advance the public interest,” FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell said. “Moreover, additional unlicensed spectrum was a key recommendation of the Spectrum Policy Task Force.”

The unlicensed spectrum is capable of handling a lot more traffic, says Viswanathan. “There are also issues of harmonizing spectrums in the unlicensed spectrum. In contrast, the licensed spectrum is a lot more well-defined, with less than 4 licensees for WiMAX.” Unlike the U.S., other countries have different players and dynamics, he observes. “Take Spain, where if the current license holder is unable to deliver services within this year, another player will take it over. This is yet to be clearer.”
Wireless is not a usage model in abstract, either within the enterprise or home. It is a continuum, emphasizes Viswanathan. “Making it available at the platform level will soon be a reality on the desktop. Productivity, quality of life, usability will all mature in the next couple of years.”