Prometheus’ fire unbound

(First of two parts)

A story which forms part of classical Greek mythology describes a struggle between Zeus and an earlier race of immortals called the Titans. Prometheus, the Titan responsible for nurturing the development of mortals, thwarted Zeus’ plot to destroy humanity by depriving the earth of fire. For this deed, Zeus condemned Prometheus by ordering him bound for eternity on a remote mountain peak away from humanity. But Hercules, son of Zeus and the human princess Alcmene, eventually freed him so that humanity would continue to enjoy Prometheus’ benevolence.

Fire is symbolically linked to technology. Without it humankind would never have moved forward from the Stone Age to the Age of Information. Yet even as we trundle though our modern lives today, there is again a new fire being unbound whose glow is shining perceptibly brighter and one that promises to revolutionize the way we humans conduct our daily lives. It is called Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi is the acronym for Wireless Fidelity. It is in the forefront of a second wireless revolution more profound than the one that gave us radio 100 years ago and it is spreading like wildfire all over the globe. From Amsterdam to Auckland, the many uses of Wi-Fi are now radically changing the way people organize and conduct their lives.

In New York and other major cities in the United States, Internet connectivity is delivered wirelessly at broadband speeds. Using laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), next-generation smart phones or any device with Wi-Fi connectivity, people living there are able to do such tasks as reserve tickets, order goods, pay bills, surf the Web, check e-mail, download large music and video files, make phone calls, play online games, send short messages, watch the news or sports, and even manage to do work offsite during all hours of the day.

In South Korea, a mobile broadband service provider combines mobile wireless telephony with mobile wireless broadband Internet services to over 400,000 of its customers. It has also developed a handheld device that delivers a speed of 5 megabits per second so that subscribers can view each other while talking or watch movie clips on their handhelds during long commutes back to their suburban home.

In the capital city of New Zealand, wireless connectivity is available all over the place. Seven months ago, Auckland became one of the few cities in the world that deployed a single wireless broadband network that blankets its entire area. City dwellers there are now surfing the Internet from moving cars and in malls, parks, homes, offices, restaurants, coffee shops, pubs or just about anywhere within a 52-square kilometer area.

In Japan, more than 10 million people now use Wi-Fi-enabled mobile devices. The social dynamics in that country is also now rapidly developing to a level where people relate to each other more frequently through these lightweight devices because Wi-Fi makes it conveniently possible to have mobile Internet connectivity and the functions of voice, video and data converge under superlatively higher speeds but at a fractional cost to them.

The Word Wirelessly

The Vatican has gone Wi-Fi, too. If you are ever thinking of visiting Rome in the near future chances are you just might catch a Cardinal using his laptop or wireless PDA along the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, thanks to Wi-Fi. The Vatican, according to the technical director of the Vatican Internet Office, has embraced this latest of wireless technologies to spread the Word. It has launched its own website so that the faithful all over the world can keep in touch just by using their fingertips.

Estonia, an ex-Soviet bloc country in northern Europe with a population of only 398,000, has embraced Wi-Fi. It now boasts having over 300 hotspots. After it won its independence in 1991, a forward-thinking government looked at information technology and the Internet as central pillars of its future economy and at relatively little cost leaped into a leading place among Europe’s cyber elite by embracing Wi-Fi. Today, over three-fourths of all inhabitants of Estonia have mobile wireless access to the Internet at broadband speed.

Brazil is also getting its act together in this front. Wi-Fi has even reached the 23,000 residents of a small town called Pirai which is 80 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro. Wi-Fi has turned it literally into a digital community. It is now perhaps the most advanced outpost of wirelessness in that country. Wi-Fi signals beamed from base stations situated on hills high above Pirai deliver digital streams of voice, video and data at an amazing 14 megabits per second. Wi-Fi radio signals are received and distributed by antennas, each the size of a cigarette pack, in health clinics, schools, community halls and in public kiosks where just about anybody can access it.

Foothold In RP

Wi-Fi is also just beginning to gain a foothold here in the Philippines. A company founded by a group of young but tech-savvy Filipino entrepreneurs named Airborne Access (http://www.airborneaccess.net) has taken the lead in this arena by having successfully delivered Wi-Fi to the public within a year from its inception in 2001. Airborne Access now delivers wireless on demand broadband services in as many as 56 hotspots, most of which are situated in Metro Manila. That number is seen to triple by the end of next year along with development and deployment of hotzones in selected central business districts. Even schools like the Ateneo University have an Airborne Access hotspot within campus, making it convenient for students to access the Internet for research and other academic pursuits.

Some local companies are also now beginning to take notice of Wi-Fi as an effective tool to improve communications and productivity. A pharmaceutical company has just begun equipping its mobile sales force with Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs and laptops, enabling them to connect wirelessly using hotspots to upload and download information such as activity and sales reports.

Competitive and market developments are instantly fed back through e-mails. Back at the head office, information and data are consolidated on a real-time basis from all points during the day, allowing more time for their people to service customers and promote more sales. The cost of connecting wirelessly to Airborne Access Wi-Fi service from these remote points are relatively inexpensive, which is effectively a two-and-a-half centavos per minute rate or P1,000 per month for unlimited use per user. Large fleet accounts get better discounts at P850 per month unlimited use per user or only two centavos per minute.

Airborne Access’ Wi-Fi connectivity services are not limited only to corporations. Individuals can also begin activating their gadgets for mobile wireless connectivity either through Airborne Access’ prepaid card called Wingspan or through various monthly subscription plans under a service called Horizon. Horizon postpaid plans come in one-, six- and 12-month subscription periods and surprisingly include freebies like a router and a Wi-Fi LAN wireless card (12-month plan) for desktops and laptops, instantly enabling these devices to communicate with each other through the Internet when the service is activated on the same day the postpaid account is signed up.

(To be concluded)