Wireless Trends #1 - 802.11 - Coffee Table Surfing

This is my first blog journal on wireless. As it is I've just setup my wireless router the SMC Barricade router 7004 model given to me by one of my ex-Technology group bosses. To setup the wireless router was as easy as just keying in the userid and password of the TMNet streamyx account my dad owns, which the family jointly uses.

In fact to setup the broadband connection for my new notebook using XP was also as easy as that. This is the era of wireless, as I had last visited this site and been interested in blogging, I found that the novel idea of a phone log was already in place. One of them, supported by this blogger website is a phone blog. Its interesting whether this can take off... though I cannot imagine a phone blog. The reason why blogging is more a written tool comes from the days of publishing- its all about writing down your thoughts. People often find that easier than saying things verbally. Still, I've yet to check this out more...

Much on the same topic - WLAN setups. After a huge euphoria about having a wireless lan card and the IPAQ and able to 'surf' at the coffee shops, I've lost interest in that ... what's the point of having to enjoy your coffee if you have to bring work along?? Surely there must be a more innovative way to exploit WLANs at these public places? As a result, I observed that there are still the handful of 'I really need my notebook' people who are using their notebook at these hotspots, mostly those roaming travellers or salesmen who needed to either a) show their customer who is with them at the coffee shop something which requires the notebook but cannot be done formally at a customer spot or b) those who are on a one-on-one sales trend and trying to impress their quandry's with the ability to have more info at hand. Normally b) belongs to insurance salesmen, direct sales or those who are trying to convince the other party of new ideas.

So, this brings about the most interesting point - to drive WLAN take up, there needs to be in place :
a) A strategy to enhance utilisation or required utilisation of bandwidth at hotspots
b) Re-explore the product strategy - it cannot just be about bandwidth

Malaysia's euphoria on WLAN has just started. So far, the take-up has been slow, mostly amongst the business community. The providers are :
1) Airzed
2) TMNet
3) Maxis
4) TIME Net

Recently I visited one of the more popular WLAN camp-sites- Mont Kiara Starbucks, one of the pioneering WLAN service at a cafe, provided by Time. I wondered whether the service was still free, but it was definitely a different experience when you see at least 10-15 people in a 20-25 table seating cafe filled with people with notebooks. Also to note was that half of them also had pdas. And a few of them brought their young children to surf, whilst the most common was playing online games and emailing, whilst having a cup of coffee. This was indeed not surprising for a place like Plaza Mont Kiara, where there was once a rush of the dot-com startup companies. However, in a span of up to 2 years, it was indeed surprising to see that even bandwidth can still be so attractive.

So, in concluding this wireless trend thought, there is still a lack of hungry for bandwidth users and application, although the trend of internet usage and also leisure on the internet is increasing.

The next generation which will bring in the next wireless wave has definitely arrived, even in Malaysia. Are you one of them?