Although the Gilded Age of optical networking is still dark from nuclear winter, it didn’t stop Telecosm 2003 - the Burning Man for telecom gurus - from releasing a few (wireless) fireworks of its own.
Sky Dayton, chief executive officer of Boingo Wireless predicted the average selling prices for Wi-Fi chips will drop by half, to $8 this year, $4 next year and as little as $2 in 2006,
Dayton estimated there are now 5,000 hotspots in the United States, but said that number must double in key areas such as airports, hotels and conference centers to get Wi-Fi to critical mass. “We’re working with OEMs to create a hotspot-in-a-box that will have access points and everything you need for well under $200,” Dayton said.
Intel is mandating wireless connectivity in all its new buildings. “It’s the cheapest way of connecting, and I believe other people see this too,” said Intel president Paul Otellini.
Whether 802.11 will be integrated in next-generation cell phones was a source of debate among Telecosm panelists. “I believe Wi-Fi will become a standard component of cell phones in the future,” said Dayton. But Paul Jacobs, executive vice president of Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego), was less certain.
Otellini noted a shift over the last 18 months in his discussions with carriers about including Wi-Fi in cell phones. “They have moved from saying ‘heck no,’ to seriously considering it,” he said.
“I was in the lobby of this conference center today making a VoIP [voice-over-Internet Protocol] call over Wi-Fi,” said Otellini. “This is happening a whole lot faster than most people thought. And we are working on 802.11 variants that are in the milliamp power range.”
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