With every man and his dog rushing to proclaim that the advent of WiMax will mean the death of Wi-Fi, proponents of the most popular local area wireless technology believe there’s a healthy future ahead for it – and it doesn’t depend on the laptop…

…A standards body is set to ratify 802.11n by September next year, giving Wi-Fi a throughput of 100Mbps and helping to bolster its potential uses in bandwidth-heavy situations. {source}

My thoughts
So, you mean WiFi is still alive and kicking? This is a good thing because all the WiMAX “pushers” are selling their drugs (er hardware) at such ridiculous prices. Like, what are those guys smoking (or drinking)? I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Once a WiFi phone comes out with a mobile Skype application attached to it, then all hell’s gonna break loose because those greedy mobile operators are going to be in some deep doo doo. Of course, this is dependent on cities and municipalities around the world offering free (or almost free) WiFi services to their tax paying citizens. Fat chance of that happening though. Government leaders cave in soooo easily to big business. Heck, why the frig are we even bothering to vote?

The scoop:
Coverage? All of Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar & Pemba islands right now, and the entire country by the end of 2007
Price? Just top up in TSh 5000 ($4) or TSh 10,000 ($8) increments = TSh 56 per Megabyte = KSh 3.2 per Megabyte
Modem price? CDMA USB modem is TSh 150,000 ($118)
Download capacity? 90 Megabytes worth of data for every TSh 5000
Speed? 153 Kbps to 2 Mbps depending on the device used
Technology? CDMA 1X and EVDO, always on, high speed packet data network

Final thoughts:
By the way, I truly believe that CDMA/EVDO is vastly superior to the EDGE/GPRS service that Celtel and Safaricom (KSh 10 per Megabyte) are offering in terms of data broadcasting. All I can say is this: “Celtel, watch out for the big Z!” As you can see, this is a great Go Africa go! story because the inclusion of yet another mobile wireless Internet competitor means lower prices, which translates into peeps actually getting down to some serious business. In other words, a heck of a lot more businessmen and businesswomen are going to be more efficient and effective as they go about their daily activities. The word on the street is that Zantel is well regarded as the mobile company with the lowest prices. You don’t believe me? Well take a peek here! Oh, I’m supposed to go to Zantel‘s office today or tomorrow to take Z-Connect for a spin. I’ll highlight my thoughts here.

One other observation. Internet access rates are a heck of a lot cheaper in Tanzania than its neighbour to the North (Kenya). What the heck is up with outrageous ISP fees in Kenya? I thought they were supposed to be more advanced and waaaay ahead of everyone in these parts. But I feel that’s what happens when a monopoly like Telkom Kenya gets too much protection from the government for a very long time. Now it’s making Internet services too costly over there. Let’s just say I know people who pay $120/month for a 128K shared wireless broadband solution from Africa Online. Holy crap! With TTCL, you could get their blazing-fast ADSL service (2 Mbps down, 512Kbps up) at home for a paltry sum of TSh 40 per Megabyte (or TSh 40,000 per Gigabyte of download). Heck, you can’t even get those speeds from Telkom Kenya. In general, I hate telecom companies, but TTCL is not bad at all.

Newspaper ad:

NEED MORE SPEED?
Z-CONNECT. TANZANIA’S FASTEST, MOST AFFORDABLE MOBILE INTERNET. Introducing Z-Connect; the fastest, most affordable, continuous high-speed mobile data network in Tanzania. Just install it in minutes, load prepaid airtime and start working, surfing or downloading in seconds. For instance, you’ll be able to download a 3 Mega Byte music track in 20 seconds, or open the average webmail or website in 7 seconds. And it’s mobile, you can do all of this anywhere, anytime. Now available in Dar es Salaam, and contrywide in late 2007.
For more information and the location of your nearest Z dealer, call 077 600 6000 or email sales@zantel.co.tz

I have some very exciting news to share with you in the wireless broadband arena. I’m sure you’ve heard all the rage (or hoopla) about WiFi (define) and WiMAX (define). Right? Well, add iBURST to your vocabulary – courtesy of the savvy engineers at Japan’s Kyocera Group.

I’m convinced this technology would be perfect for many regions in Africa considering how costly it is to dig and install fibre for broadband Internet access. Furthermore, this is the correct solution for small islands like my homeland, Barbados, which is only 166 square miles and relatively flat. This is why I’m so excited!

iBurst draws first blood against WiMAX in Africa
In a nutshell, iBURST gives you fast wireless Internet access – anywhere, 24/7 – without any complicated requirements. Aaah, simplicity at work.
Best of all, the technology uses the licensed 1.7 Ghz frequency, which means that your connections will never have any interference with other wireless technologies – unlike WiFi (also known as 802.11).

All I can say is “seeing is believing.” Thanks to a buddy (Gunnar Hillgartner) of mine who works at Africa Online, I was able to get a bird’s eye view of their new infiNet Broadband Wireless service offering. Again, I have to stress how simple it was to connect and start surfing on the Net.

All Gunnar did was insert a tiny PCMCIA (define) card into his Sony Vaio laptop, start up the Access Manager application, and he was surfing the Net at around 128 Kb/s (Note: other foreign ISPs provide 256K, 512K, and 1 Mb iBURST access). Then he proceeded to lauch Skype – my favourite VoIP (define) application – and had a crystal clear conversation with his parents in Puerto Rico.

No complications, no silly configuration headaches…nada. This is the way wireless broadband technology ought to work. Most importantly, customers will always beat a path to the doors of companies like Africa Online who can provide such an easy path to high speed wireless Internet access.

Advantage: You, the customer
If I were part of the management team at Telkom Kenya, I’d be looking over my back because the competition just got a little stiffer, and much more competitive. Chalk one up for the little guy!

Another reason I’m so keen on iBURST (and WiMAX technologies) is because there are lots of rural areas in Canada that would benefit from it. Most of the time, the telcos and cable TV operators don’t bother to service these areas that are 30 minutes travel outside the big markets. And don’t forget, Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world with a population hovering around 30 million people. It just isn’t cost effective to wire most of these rural areas. I understand that.

Well, I’ll be meeting with some other folks at Africa Online to delve in more about the technology and what is required to implement it in other parts of the globe. I’m told that it’s in their best interest to see iBURST installed and used around the world so that it’d be easy for customers from similar wireless ISPs to “roam” since the hardware is the same.

An interesting WiMAX meeting
By the way, I was invited to a presentation last month by Italy’s Selex Communications to find out more information about their upcoming WiMAX product offerings. Although it was only a PowerPoint presentation given by Annamaria Raviola (Senior VP and resident Mathematician), the implications of the company’s robust, military-grade wireless technology are huge. Having the ability to transmit any where between 30-70 Mb/s over a distance of 30-50 Km will get any one’s attention.

Once again, the customer is ultimately the winner as all of these remarkable wireless technologies compete with each other further applying pressure on incumbents like Telkom Kenya to shape up or ship out.

Stay tuned as 2006 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the wireless broadband market.

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Related links:

• iBurst bursts into Melbourne
• Cap Gemini first to trial iBurst wireless broadband
• iBURST testimonials (read opinions from the Australian operations of Yahoo, Citigroup, Fujitsu, and much more)
• Personal Broadband Australia iBurst
• Developing a fiber optic backbone for Africa (PDF file)
• Rural firms hungry for high-speed Internet
• Internet Economics: What Things Cost (in different countries) and who pays
• Interconnection in Developing Countries (or “The Missing Links”)
• Broadband Socialism
• Chapter 3: Free Internet Phone Features That You’re Paying For Now (PDF) (from Talk Is Cheap: Switching to Internet Telephones)
• (new) Flashcom Bets On Wireless Fixed Phones (Flashcom introduces new CDMA wireless broadband service)
  

Upcoming blog entries:

• My NEW video game idea
• Skyping: Everybody’s “doing it”
• Very Interesting Software – Issue 1
• Politics, politics, politics: Man made similarities in IT (open source) & government (famine)
• PostgreSQL: The backbone of a remarkable GIS application in Kenya
• My idea for using a USB memory stick with your home stereo system (cool)