Dear Friends and Industry Colleagues,

It is with deep regret that I must announce the termination of this newsletter. I really appreciate the many encouraging messages that I have received in support of my efforts, but unfortunately it does not produce enough revenue to keep the lights on and the telephone connected.

Over the last few months several companies have expressed an interest in paying for advertising in the newsletter an on my web site. None of these opportunities have materialized.

Short Messaging Picks Up Playoff, "Idol" Steam

May 20, 2003

If there were any lingering doubts that wireless carriers have hit on a hot application for their existing short messaging platforms, the activity surrounding interactive subscriber voting should blow them away.

AT&T Wireless says that as of May 14, more than 2.7 million valid 'short code' votes had been cast by its subscribers for contestants in Fox's hit show, 'American Idol.' At the same time, more than 5 million 'Idol' related text messages have been sent by AT&T customers, for such apps as trivia games, polling and sweepstakes entries.

Source: Wireless Week

For Immediate Release May 20, 2003

ZigBee™ Alliance Hits 50 Members

Global Low-Power Wireless Consortium
Hits Milestone in Less Than a Year

San Ramon, Calif.—The ZigBee Alliance announced today that the organization has reached 50 members in just seven months.

“This amazing growth is evidence of the worldwide interest in what the ZigBee Alliance is doing,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors. “Companies want to be part of creating the ZigBee standard, and be able to build products around that standard.”

A listing of all ZigBee Alliance members may be found at www.zigbee.org.

The ZigBee Alliance was officially created in October of 2002 and is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard.

Alliance members are defining the software layers for interoperable data networking, security services, and a range of wireless home and building control solutions. Devices are expected to transmit 30-75 meters, depending on the RF environment, and will operate in the unlicensed RF bands worldwide (2.4 GHz global, 915 MHz Americas or 868 MHz Europe). ZigBee-compliant solutions will incorporate the new IEEE 802.15.4 worldwide RF standard for low rate, wireless personal area networks.

Current ZigBee Alliance members include ABB Corporate Research; Adcon RF Technology BV; AMI Semiconductor, Inc.; Ardesta LLC; Atmel Corporation; Betronic Design BV; BlueChip Communication AS; Cambridge Consultants; Certicom Corporation; Chipcon; CompXs; CSEM SA; Danfoss A/S; Duolog Technologies; Eaton Corporation; Eazix, Inc.; Ember Corporation; ENQ Semiconductor, Inc.; ETS Dr. Genz (U.S.A.), Inc.; Figure 8 Wireless, Inc.; France Telecom R&D LLC; Helicomm, Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Company; Honeywell; Inovonics Wireless Corporation; Integration Associates; Intel Corporation; Invensys; ITE, Inc.; KETI (Korea Electronics Technology Institute); Leviton Mfg. Company, Inc.; Micrel; Micro Linear; Millennial Net, Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, Inc.; Motorola, Inc.; Nanotron Technologies GMBH; National Technical Systems; NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc.; OKI Electric Industry Co. Ltd.; Omron Advanced Systems, Inc.; Philips; RF Micro Devices; Robert Bosch Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Uniband Electronic Corporation; Xanboo Inc.; Xemics; Zensys A/S; and ZMD AG.

The Zigbee Alliance will hold its first European Open House June 3, 2003 at the Estrel Convention Center in Berlin, Germany, as part of the Zigbee Alliance member meeting June 2-6. The Open House will provide an overview and progress update of the rapidly emerging ZigBee global wireless specification, an update on the Alliance’s activities, and a discussion of current and future solutions and markets. Online registration and detailed information for the Open House is available on the ZigBee Alliance website, www.zigbee.org.

About the ZigBee Alliance

Wireless control that simply works.

The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working together to enable reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global standard. The ZigBee Alliance is a rapidly growing, non-profit industry consortium of leading semiconductor manufacturers, technology providers, OEMs and end-users worldwide. Membership is open to all. Additional information can be found at www.zigbee.org.

# # #

All company, brand, and product names may be trademarks that are the sole property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

For further information contact: Bill Chase
Executive Director, ZigBee Alliance
Tel: 925-275-6655
bchase@inventures.com

Wi-Fi roaming steps into the spotlight

May 21, 2003 1:37 PM EST

Wi-Fi roaming is garnering more attention this week as more companies announce settlement solutions in the space and a new report points to the importance of hot spot roaming.

Interoute said it launched a European roaming exchange service for 802.11 wireless and mobile service providers.

The Interoute roaming exchange allows providers to increase the number of wireless locations that subscribers can use to gain access to their networks. Interoute’s offering includes embedded authentication, billing and settlement facilities.

Source: RCR Wireless News

Wi-Fi Equipment Sales, Large-scale Deployments Rising

May 21, 2003

The momentum around Wi-Fi continues to grow and WLAN equipment makers are reaping the rewards. According to Infonetics Research, revenue from wireless LAN hardware sales is increasing every quarter and in first-quarter 2003 access point revenue hit $304.7 million, a 12 percent increase from fourth-quarter 2002. Of that $304.7 million, $33.5 million (or 11 percent) consisted of access points using the 802.11g standard. That figure is expected to grow to 28 percent of access point revenue by year-end.

The study says access points account for 63 percent of WLAN hardware revenue, with network integration cards representing 37 percent of the revenue. However, the company predicts the access point revenue will increase in proportion in the next few years as NC prices fall rapidly.

Consumer Wi-Fi buyers slightly dominate Wi-Fi hardware sales, accounting for 48 percent of the sales, while enterprises make up about 43 percent.

Source: Wireless Week

GPS on an SD card

Matsushita is working on a GPS receiver for Pocket PCs that will fit onto a postage stamp-sized SD cards. No word on when this might actually be released.

Source: barga!nPDA.com

Nokia Designs Intuitive Pen-based Nokia 6108 Optimized for Messaging

May 20, 2003 Introducing a compact, stylish and feature-rich phone for Chinese language users in Asia Pacific markets Singapore—Nokia introduced today a mobile phone with an innovative and intuitive pen input capability optimized for messaging and designed for Chinese language users in Asia Pacific markets.  Developed at Nokia's Product Creation Centre in Beijing, the stylishly compact and feature-rich Nokia 6108 has tri-band (GSM 900/1800/1900) functionality, a high resolution colour display, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), Java™, a built-in e-mail client, an XHTML browser, a "Chinese-English-Chinese" dictionary and enhanced features for Chinese language users in the region.  The Nokia 6108 will be commercially available in Asia Pacific markets during the third quarter of 2003. Source: Nokia Press Release and a review   (Have they been reading my newsletter? Is an Arabic version far behind?)

Wireless Carriers Soon May Lease Airwaves

May 15, 2003

In the next year, the FCC is expected to help set up a clearinghouse that would let carriers lease airwaves in a spot market, much as commodities such as metals and grains are sold.

In a major policy shift, federal regulators today are expected to allow wireless carriers to lease their airwaves to others—a bid to ease a capacity crunch that has clogged cell-phone networks and limited service in rural areas.

The move by the Federal Communications Commission would lift a 40-year-old rule requiring airwave license holders to tightly control services that use that spectrum.

Source: Wireless Newsfactor

Open Season on Wireless LANs

May 16, 2003

When individuals access a public WLAN at a coffee shop across the street from a library, for example, the laptop is configured to connect to the nearest, or strongest signal. The user cannot tell if that network is located in the coffee shop or the library.

Wi-Fi-based wireless local area networks are spreading like wildfire among homeowners, businesses small and large, and such public entities as libraries and government offices. But most users pay little attention to security, inviting penetration of their networks by anyone within range (about 300 feet) of an unprotected access point.

And such intrusions occur all too often. In fact, "war driving" is becoming an increasingly popular practice among mobile computer geeks. War drivers cruise the streets with laptops rigged for WLAN broadband connectivity searching for open access points.

Source: Wireless Newsfactor

From: Jonathan Chapman <jonathan.chapman@shaw.ca>

Date: Tue May 20, 2003 7:29:31 PM US/Eastern

To: brad@braddye.com

Subject: from the newsletter

Re: Wi-Fi issue

I enjoy your newsletter as an ex-Glenayre employee who still has an interest in wireless.

Regarding the article about Verizon introducing Wi-Fi nodes co-located with payphones, this is not really a new idea. Bell Canada actually demonstrated the concept late last year and invited journalists to try to damage their nodes as a demo of how tough they were. They apparently put on a good demo (see http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/11/1628257&tid=95)

Great newsletter. Wi-Fi may well be the biggest discontinuous innovation to come along in a long time and deserves attention, especially since the telcos don't seem to know what to do about it.

My comments: Thanks to Jonathan for his message. I am always happy to hear from someone who enjoys the newsletter. Yet another first from Canada! This reminds me of an experience several years ago when I was in London, England and bought a book on the history of the telephone. It told how a Scotsman named Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone—as if he had done it over there. Later I commented to a Canadian friend about this curious mistake, "since everyone knows" that he invented the telephone in the United States. Well, my friend went to the Bell Canada library in Toronto and copied a speech, and sent it to me, where old Alexander himself clarified the issue and said that he definitely invented the telephone in Canada:

"It certainly is the case that the telephone was invented in Canada. . . Brantford has an indisputable claim to this distinction and is rightfully named 'The Telephone City'." (Alexander Graham Bell, Canadian Club of Ottawa, June 1909.) Source: Telecommunications.ca

So you live and learn! The famous phrase "Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you." was first spoken in Boston on March 10, 1876, but the actual invention of the telephone was done in Canada in the summer of 1874 according to Alexander Graham Bell's own words:

"The invention of the telephone at Tutelo Heights Brantford Summer of 1874."
"The first telephone constructed and speech sound heard Boston June 1875."
"The first draft of the telephone Patent specifications Brantford Sept 1875."
"Complete sentences first clearly understood by telephone Boston Mar 10, 1876."
"The telephone exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition Philadelphia June 25, 1876."

All the above quotations may be seen in Alexander Graham Bell's own handwriting on Telecommunications.ca. This same web site names several other countries where claims were made to the invention of the telephone.

Thanks for everything and please keep in touch!

With best regards,	Brad Dye WIRELESS DATA CONSULTANT
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	E–mail:	brad@braddye.com
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