4Generation Wireless To Develop China, India

2007 predictions from inCode/Verisign wireless consulting: developing countries in Asia are going to innovate and influence 4G wireless networks before they make it to the western world! Here's what inCode said in January:

China and India Tilt Equipment Market. Together, China and India connect more than 10 million wireless customers per month in 2007, creating a subscriber base that is larger than Vodafone's at 200 million customers. By the end of [2007], China finally starts issuing 3G licenses. Wireless technologies are developed and deployed first in China and India, rather than Europe and North America as in the past. The result is a significant shift in industrial influence. Although Chinese infrastructure vendors may be viewed as the "Wal-Mart of wireless," that's more perception than reality. Chinese manufacturers make rapid technology improvements and aim for long-term strategic advantage. Expect intensified focus to ensure a strong Asian influence in the 4G market.

Most American cell phones get data services (email, SMS, web browsing and such) using 2G, or second generation, wireless networks that have a pretty small bandwidth. As more and more services go mobile - think music, Google, Facebook, YouTube, plus 100s you haven't heard of yet - those 2G and even 3G data highways are going to get congested pretty quickly. The 4G networks are too far in the future for too much Wall Street chatter, but are already being deployed across the developing world. One of those technologies has been dubbed WiMAX for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. More on that to come...

What Do XBOXs and $100 Laptops Have in Common?

One way is they will both allow kids to play fun games together. However, I'm excited about the technology used. The XBOX wireless module is based on the same wireless mesh standard (IEEE 802.11g) as the XO laptop built by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).

This wireless technology is one of the most interesting innovations coming out of the OLPC project is the laptop's "sensing" wireless-mesh network, as described in this video (minutes 14:40-21:25) by Mark J. Powers, Vice President, Engineering and Chief Architect of OLPC and a leading computer portables expert. Based on the IEEE 802.11b/g standard, this technology essentially allows each laptop to connect seamlessly to other laptops around it. And if one of those laptops has an internet connection, they all do. In techspeak, each laptop serves as an internet access point and router for the other laptops.

How does it work? Each embedded chipset receives and re-sends out a radio signal through the laptop's trademark "rabbit ears" antannaeto other laptops and allows packets of information to pass through it to the intended recipients on the network (as identified by each laptops hardware identification code). What's really cool is that the technology automatically detects the most economic route for information through the available computers, determined by the available signal strength between, and power level of, each computer.

Overcoming Islands of Connectivity
In remote locations, where there is no internet access, the OPLC has come up with a solution to deliver educational content (and possibly other kinds of data) to these rural or mountainous villages. OLPC has partnered with the satellite operator/giant SES-Astra which will broadcast the information (through DVBS, digital video broadcast for satellite) at designated times to small, low-power satellite boxes/receivers placed in schools. This path is a one-way street, but hey, it's better than utter disconnect from larger world. If there is an internet connection somewhere in the wireless area network (WAN), more laptops will quickly clog the connection. A long-term plan for internet connection, as described by Solar-powered access points and segmentation (using multiple frequency channels, or pointing antannaes in different directions.

Conclusion
The OLPC wireless mesh network is an innovative technology solution for sharing information between many mobile devices (i.e. kids running around with green machines and playing video games). however, there doesn't seem to be a good plan for connecting remote areas to the internet, allowing people to freely seek the information, web-based applications, and other content that they want and need.

One Laptop Per Child

If you've never heard of the "$100 laptop," you will. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation, based in Cambridge, MA, is probably the most revolutionary international development projects to date. And I'm not just saying that because this is my first blog and I want you to read on. Billed as "an education project, not a laptop project," OLPC hopes to integrate basic education and technology in the developing world and help "bridge the digital divide."

The nonprofit has designed a laptop also known as the "green machine," the "Children's Machine," and now the XO specifically for poor children in developing countries living in harsh and remote environments. In August 2007, Quanta, the laptop manufacturer in Taiwan that makes 1/3 of the worlds laptops, will mass produce XO initially for in seven countries: Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Thailand and Uruguay.

In addition to its innovative wireless communication parts, built-in camera, and collaborative office suite, the laptop has completely re-thought the user interface, and uses 10x less power than the standard laptop today.

No wonder 19 U.S. governors also want the laptops for their states.

Check out OLPC's website or wiki for more background. It will probably become a common thread in this blog.