Wi-Fi For All?

I am subscribed to Popular Science. Last month’s issue had an article by Stewart Wulpin titled Stringer Signals. The article is about the predictions of where Wi-Fi will be in the future. I think this article effects us all, but I will have to learn how this entire works as a computer student. 

The article starts out talking about cell phones and how the speeds have increased (3G to 4G is one example). It then goes on to expect that cellular traffic will increase 26 fold in the next 3 years, making cellular tower technology inefficient. They predict that phones will start using an internet signal for everything, which this will end up being Wi-Fi (cause someone is going to attach a cord to their cell phone and only be able to go a limited distance from their house). Wi-Fi is approximately 15 times faster than 4G LTE.

The problem that many of you might think now is “People put passwords on their Wi-Fi and I would have to continually connect to new signals.” Using the IEEE 802.11u protocol, the Wi-Fi Alliance is going to release a passport, allowing a person to automatically connect to a preferred hotspot, connect to them, enter passwords and authenticate security credentials, all without user input or notification. It will do all of this automatically.

When I continue to read this article, it says that they are going to convert Wi-Fi to Super Wi-Fi (about 4 times stronger than normal Wi-Fi, and also has about 4 times more range). A town in Virginia uses Super Wi-Fi, and allows the whole town to receive the signal (the town mentioned is about 25 square miles, the average Wi-Fi signal is about 100 feet).

It is predicted that people will get a dual Wi-Fi/Super Wi-Fi router in 2014 and cell phone manufacturers may start putting Super Wi-Fi chips into cell phones and other products. A person could then use Skype to make all of their calls and their Facebook or IM service to text their friends and stay on top of things, without any lag (slow speed of internet).

This information will change a lot of the things I have to study and know, but I am familiar with Super Wi-Fi, so it shouldn’t be too dramatic. With all of these super routers installed, most workplaces will not need to have their own internet connection (one less thing I will have to worry about) and allow for phones to have much more speed.

I think this article is much more professional than the two blogs I have read, and this article uses many terms that most common users will understand. All of these blogs have pretty decent credibility (first one used to be a hands on experience with computer problems, second blog is from Microsoft, and Popular Science has been a very good source in many of my research papers, and seems to be pretty unbiased). I personally liked this article more because it was a much easier read, and made many things much clearer for readers.