A new report from In-Stat indicates the global pre-WiMAX-Certified 802.16-2004 equipment market, which includes subscriber units and base stations, will grow to over $3 billion by 2010. According to In-Stat analysts, it's a rather aggressive outlook on the future of WiMax, given that the upcoming field trials have not taken place yet nor has there been any indication of which type of WiMax (fixed or mobile) will find more acceptance by providers. However, with subscriber units expected to decrease in price from $500 currently to $100 by 2010, it looks like either platform should be fairly affordable.

The city of Boston is currently deploying a public wireless netowrk (Boston Main Streets WiFi) available in four commercial districts--Hyde Park; Roslindale; Washington Gateway, and West Roxbury. In partnership with three network providers (Airpath Wireless, Ascio Wireless, and Colubris Networks), the network is funded through a combination of donations and advertising revenue.

It seems like a nice idea, but what about the rest of Boston. Where will these people and businesses be able to access a broader network? The initiative does have some expansion plans, but may not be enough to cover the entire city. We'll have to keep tabs on this project to see how it will address the other parts of Boston.

The battle over who's ultrawideband spec would get ratified by the IEEE has taken a seismic shift with the news that the IEEE 802.15.3a task group on ultrawideband is going to vote this week on whether or not to disband. If this happens, and speculation is that this vote could go either way (it takes a 75% majority to disband a IEEE group), then the specs championed by Freesc ale Semiconductor, the WiMedia Alliance, and Pulse~Link will fight it out in the marketplace. As a result, there will be multiple forms of UWB, and manufacturers will have to choose between the three specs for the one that will most fit their needs and, of course, end users will have to educate themselves on which products with which UWB spec will work best for them.

We've touched on this subject before, but the New York Times is featuring a fairly in-depth story on mobile phone marketing, and how advertisers are investing quite a bit of time and money creating up close and personal ads to be delivered to cellphones. These video, audio, and text codes messages will be especially targeted at those consumers with GPS-enabled cellphones who must might happen to be in the vicinity of a particular advertiser's location or kiosk.

Of course, there are concerns by privacy groups, as well as some mobile carriers, as to how these type of advertising programs can be carried out without causing serious disruption to users. Will consumers have to spend a great deal of time having to go to websites of all types of marketers to place themselves on Do Not Call-type lists? It can become an overwhelming task, especially if you rely on your cellphone as your primary means of communication. Advertisers, content providers, and wireless carriers will have to tread lightly here and come up with strategies to make sure that these programs are limited in scope and delivered only to those people who want to receive these messages.

As has one CEO has indicated by the title of this post, this type of personal mobile marketing has been designed to wash away the concept of consumers that switch away from television commercials. But again, this is personal--the messages are delivered to you alone, and that can cause quite a stir if this isn't done right.

The movement to deploy municipal wireless networks is underway in cities of all sizes, and now the city of Corvallis, Oregon is only the latest community to take steps toward going wireless. At this juncture, the city is looking at various ways to upgrade their limited wireless networks currently used by police officers and other first responders. With that in mind, the has signed a memorandum of understanding with Intel to explore their citywide network options. In addition, there are plans to issue a RFP by late winter/early spring.

So far, it seems Corvallis city officials are looking at three scenarios:

• A city-owned network that would charge users for access.
• A privately-built network that would be used by city agencies and residents.
• A partnership wherby Corvallis would partner with another party to share operating and maintenance costs.

Since Corvallis is not a large metropolis, it is expected that the second and third choices would be the ones to focus on, but with the growing number of networks being built and deployed across the country, it could be that costs could go down as volume goes up. Time will certainly tell in this case.

Looks like the city of beer, cheese, and the Brewers, Milwaukee, is about to go wireless. The city has reached an agreement with Midwest Fiber Networks to develop and deploy the citywide network at a cost of roughly $20 million dollars with a launch date of mid-2008. No taxpayer money will be used to build the network, however users will be expected to pay monthly fee (about $20) to access the service. A city council committee is expected to ratify the deal within the next couple of days.

Just as mostly everyone else is doing these days, Milwaukee's intention in building this network is to attract business. Will it do so? Who knows for sure, but it certainly can't hurt.

Supporters of the 802.11n WiFi standard which, according to them, will "breathe new life" into the wireless networking technology, got some good news this week when the Enhanced Wireless Consortium passed a joint proposal by a 40-0 vote. Their proposal will now go in front of the IEEE at its meeting next week.

It is believed that 802.11n WiFi is estimated to be nearly five times faster than 802.11g, and up to 50 times faster than 802.11b. It would make sense that those municipalities looking to deploy a citywide wireless network pay particular attention to this development, although the standard won't be ratified until (most likely) the end of this year.

The growth of WiFi access may soon spread to supermarkets with the announcement by the Stop & Shop chain that it will be deploying free WiFi access throughout their chain of stores in the Northeast. The company has contracted with ICOA Inc. to manage the store networks. So as you navigate your way through the fruit and vegetable section, you'll be able to surf the web. Look for other supermarket chains to join in the fray very soon.

City council members in Salem, Oregon will be investigating the possibility of developing and deploying a citywide wireless network accessible to residents of the community. Like most other municipalities that are considering the wireless route, they will be choosing a private firm to build the network and will allow that company to receive cash or access to city property to install the necessary equipment. Plans call for users to pay daily and/or monthly fees as well as investigating ways where low-income users can access the network.

As is the case with most of these citywide wireless networks, Salem is hoping that their network will attract business and workers to their community.

A new study from ABI Research indicates that RFID is definitely one of the hotter technologies and momentum continues to grow for its adoption by a number of companies in all sorts of applications. In addition, ABI notes that vendors who manufacture label converters will continue to postion themselves in the marketplace as they determine which applications to focus on, including retail inventory tracking, supply chain environments, or any other situation where the movement of goods or people is essential to track.

Another Connecticut city, Hartford, also is contemplating a wireless network. In today's Hartford Courant, Mayor Eddie Perez discusses the citywide wireless initiative and says the free network will provide access to all residents, and there is a plan in place to provide low-cost computer equipment to lower-income residents. Like New Haven, Hartford also has some economically depressed areas, and it is essential that the wireless network be accessible to all and not just a few. Mayor Perez says the city is looking to partner with a private company to build the network and the plan is to roll out the network to the entire city within the next two years.

Of course, it all comes down to how much it will cost to build this network as well how much people are willing to pay to access it. New Haven is home to Yale University, but there are some very economically depressed areas here as well, so smart planning is essential in this case.

This week will determine whether or not the city of Chandler, Arizona (right outside of Phoenix) will follow their neighbor Tempe's steps in developing and deploying a citywide wireless network. City Council members will meet tomorrow with NeoReach Wireless, the folks who built the Tempe network along with others including Sacramento and Akron, Ohio, to see if their plan to place antennas and radio units on city street lights will be sufficient enough to wireless service to residents and businesses.

Plans for Chandler call for users to pay $3.95 per day or $29.95 per month for unlimited access anywhere in the city. If the plan is approved, the city would allow NeoReach to mount equipment on city street lights and to use up to $15,000 in electricity per year in exchange for 3,000 free network subscriptions for city employees on city business. Construction is expected to begin in March.

Two Miami Beach neighborhoods--North Beach and South Beach--have been desginated by city officials as part of a pilot testing program to determine if free wireless Internet access will be viable throughout the rest of the city of Miami.

IBM and Wireless Facilities Inc. were given permission to set up antennas in both locations in order to see if their systems meet the requirements of 95 percent coverage over their specific geographical areas. The testing begins on Jan. 20 and will be monitored by a consulting firm hired by the city who will be presenting results to Miami's Finance and Citywide Projects Committee on Jan. 30. Officials are expected to make a final decision on which company will be awarded the opportunity to build a citywide network at their Feb. 8 meeting.

The network is estimated to cost around $4 million to build, and should be up and running within six months. However, there are a number of ISPs who aren't happy about the city possibly giving away access for free, and rest assured there will be a heavy dose of lobbying and marketing on both sides to push their agenda across. In any event, you can pretty much cross off Miami as the next major metropolitan area that will be getting some sort of citywide wireless network in the near future.