African economies experience boost from free Wi-Fi initiatives

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Internet users in Africa are experiencing a new drive by service providers to increase the availability of free Wi-Fi access across the continent in an effort to grow economic activity and improve education.

Countries all over the continent are benefiting from the trend. Rwanda's Smart Kigali initiative is creating free Wi-Fi hotspots around the capital to provide residents and visitors with more information. The Kenyan county of Nakuru, through a partnership with the State House digital team and county government, is offering residents free access. Enterprises are also able to take advantage of Nakuru's program in order to conduct business, according to State House director of digital media Dennis Itumbi, and students can use it to easily study and complete assignments from anywhere.

Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, provides visitors to its airport with free Wi-Fi access through a public-private partnership. Because of the level of Internet service at Lagos' Murtala Muhammad Airport Two, it is the only airport in Africa with the ability to display real-time arrivals and departures online, according to Steve Omolale-Ajulo, spokesman for Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited.

While projects in other areas are growing, South Africa has the largest free Wi-Fi program in the region, with both the public and private sectors in the country launching initiatives to provide hotspots. In fact, there are now so many access points in South Africa that a website was created to provide users with a way to find the spot closest to them.

Greater access to Wi-Fi offers increased opportunities
Alan Knott-Craig Jr., whose non-profit Project Isizwe has Wi-Fi deployments in three South African municipalities service 1.5 million people, says the reason countries across Africa are rolling out these programs is clear.

"The World Bank says that for every 10 percent of broadband penetration a country's GDP grows by 1.28 percent,"said Knott-Craig in an interview with The Next Web. "More tangibly, free Wi-Fi in townships allows the unemployed to look for jobs online and email CVs. Education is obviously the other major benefit of free Wi-Fi, as kids and older students can study online, download textbooks, and generally access information about the world."

Global management consulting firm McKinsey and Company has projected that increased Internet penetration in the region could contribute up to $300 billion to the economy by 2025 if the market grows in a similar fashion as mobile phones did.

Google plans test for new ultrafast Internet

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Google strengthened its commitment to bring super fast, gigabit-per-second Internet to homes this week by filing with the FCC for permission to test new Wi-Fi technology.

While the tech giant has requested confidential treatment for the filing, Google has said that it will use frequencies of 5.8 GHz, 24.2 GHz, 72 GHz and 82 GHz in testing their new concept. Currently, 2.4 GHz is the most commonly used Wi-Fi band and it is becoming increasingly congested as more individuals connect more devices to networks.

The project, which was first launched by Google four years ago, is scheduled to have its next test in mid-November. Testing will take place in three locations within the San Francisco Bay area. Experts who are familiar with the filing believe the new technology could be a reliable replacement for traditional fiber, ValueWalk reported. Researchers have also hailed Google's technology as a faster, more cost-effective way to provide ultrafast Internet service.

Telecom expert Stephen Crowley noted in a blog post that Google is experimenting with higher radio frequencies so there will be more available options. With more frequencies to choose from, more bandwidth becomes available and data speed increase dramatically. The frequencies being used in Google's upcoming test work best in short distances and will require users to connect directly to a receiver.

Faster connections not without obstacles 
According to Forbes contributor Elise Ackerman, using a 60 GHz standard known as WiGig would allow connections of up to six gigabits per second, which is six times faster than the speeds currently offered by Google Fiber. While such a frequency would provide ultrafast Internet, it also has its downsides.

"The problem that you encounter when you get to these really high frequencies is the propagation starts to be almost like light," said Bill McFarland, vice president of technology for Qualcomm Atheros. "Sixty gigahertz doesn't like to go through walls. It's very directional. It goes in the direction you point it."

McFarland went on to say that this characteristic is amplified as the frequency increases. He added that as long as receivers have a clean line of sight to the area requiring  the Internet connection, it wouldn't be unreasonable to consider using Google's new Wi-Fi technology as a replacement for fiber.

New study finds mobile work options create more productive employees

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A recently released study by UK communication services provider Azzurri has revealed that employees are more productive when equipped with mobile devices and the ability to work from anywhere.

The majority of respondents – 62 percent – reported using their mobile devices for both the creation and consumption of content. The most common tasks completed by professionals on their devices are sending emails, sharing files and accessing company data. The ability to complete ordinary business processes at any time and any location seems to have invigorated employees, as nine out of 10 participants reported an increase in productivity.

The study, which included surveys from IT and telecom leaders at more than 180 firms, found that 93 percent of participants experienced greater productivity from staff members using mobiles devices outside the office. Almost 50 percent of those claimed the boost was substantial.

With mobile productivity boost, focus shifts to UC
Currently, companies are focusing on ways to enable mobile data access, but according to the report priorities are shifting toward the ability to provide remote business communication. Enterprises are increasingly focused on unified communications in general and workflow management and video conferencing in particular.

"Smartphones and tablets have transformed mobile devices from being for consumption to being used for creation and editing — and so are changing the way we all work," said Azzurri Communications CTO Rufus Grig. "The form factor shift towards devices with larger screens is enabling more meaningful work to be performed. Mobile productivity suites allowing proper editing of documents have made this a reality".

Video conferencing is currently ninth on a list of top priorities for IT specialists, but is expected to jump to second next year. Grig also noted that, as connectivity improves with increased access to Wi-Fi coverage and 4G mobile networks, a variety of services will become more prominent in the enterprise. Instant messaging, presence and Web conferencing will all become more valuable to companies in the near future.

According to the report, only 42 percent of organizations currently utilize tools for mobile device management. While another 17 percent have plans to do so soon, a large portion of companies employing bring-you-own-device and mobile work policies are woefully unprepared for the stress and risks such programs can cause to a network. Utilizing a third-party service provider to roll out an enterprise BYOD or mobile strategy is a reliable way to ensure that security is maintained and company networks are strong enough to handle the increase in traffic related to remote working.

Travelers find quality of Wi-Fi increasingly important

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The website Hotel Wi-Fi Test, which provides travelers with detailed information on the quality of the Internet at their specific hotel, has introduced its new Wi-Fi Happiness Ranking, highlighting how important access to quality Internet is to people when they travel.

Prior to the happiness ranking, hotels on the site were sorted by the expected speed of their Internet. Often times this was misleading, however, as a hotel with a great download speed may have a dismal upload speed, making the quality of video calls terrible and disrupting communication. In an age when so many people travel for work and rely on cloud-based communication strategies, expecting one speed and getting another is unacceptable.

The new ranking uses a variety of metrics, including latency, stability and both download and upload speeds to provide users with a comprehensive score. The site also provides an overall confidence rating that reflects how well the Wi-Fi has been tested.

A solid Internet connection has become increasingly important to travelers as so many are now on trips for work instead of pleasure. A recent survey by online retailer Pixmania found that respondents were more interested in Wi-Fi access at their hotel than having a clean room while on vacation. Almost one-third of respondents put Wi-Fi access ahead of cleanliness, ranking Internet second overall in terms of desired comforts while traveling. Only a nice view was thought to be more important.

Mobile use increasing importance of quality Wi-Fi
The growing reliance on mobile devices has also made reliable Wi-Fi a valuable commodity. According to a new study by online travel company Expedia, travelers are becoming more reliant on their mobile devices, treating them as a concierge, tour guide and travel companion all in one. More than half of the survey's participants reported that their decisions on booking flights and hotels were impacted by the price and availability of Wi-Fi.

The Expedia report, which included surveys of more than 8,800 employed adults in 25 countries, found that 76 percent of travelers believe their smartphones to be either very important or critical to their daily lives. Seventy percent said the same about their laptops. The study also found that 35 percent of travelers use their smartphones more when they are on a trip than they do at home. In fact, 30 percent of respondents reported carrying some type of device to recharge their smartphones while on the go when traveling so they don't have to wait until they're back in the hotel to plug in. 

"For business trips, mobile devices are already a requirement for most travelers, and mobile usage trends are still increasing," said Rob Greyber, president of Expedia's business travel brand, Egencia. "This is because mobile devices and enabling-apps make corporate travel smoother and more productive."

As travelers – especially those on business – rely more heavily on their mobile devices, access to reliable Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly important. Hotels with good Internet connections are being singled-out and earning a better reputation among guests than accommodations without decent Wi-Fi. Hotels looking to gain an advantage over their competition would be remiss not to take a hard look at their Wi-Fi offerings and make necessary upgrades to provide improved latency, resiliency and speed.

Virtualization driving global SDN market

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As businesses increasingly look for the most effective and efficient technologies to power their operations, software defined networking continues to become more popular within the larger enterprise and cloud service provider markets in regards to data center networking.

SDN refers to an innovative architectural model that delivers network virtualization, automated provisioning and network programmability to enterprise networks and data centers. Companies are quickly realizing that SDN offers tremendous value to tech-based organizations, and the technology has shown itself to be a driving force for change and innovation in the sector. While SDN is still fairly new to many companies, the landscape of the technology is likely to change in the next three to four years as vendors continue to make large investments in the area and enterprises keep acquiring the technology, according to Cloud Times.

"SDN is taking center stage among innovative approaches to some of the networking challenges brought about by the rise of the third platform, particularly virtualization and cloud computing," said Rohit Mehra, Vice President of Network Infrastructure at International Data Corporation. "With SDN's growing traction in the datacenter for cloud deployments, enterprise IT is beginning to see the value in potentially extending SDN to the WAN and into the campus to meet the demand for more agile approaches to network architecture, provisioning, and operations."

Global SDN market expanding rapidly
A study conducted by IDC predicted that the enterprise SDN market will grow by 89 percent annually, increasing from $960 million in 2014 to $8 billion in 2018, due in large part to the implementation of software virtualization, physical infrastructure, network controllers and security services. A separate report published by MarketsandMarkets estimated that the software defined data center market will rise to $5.4 billion over the next four years. The growth in that market is mostly attributed to more frequent use of network virtualization and the practice of corporate data center consolidation. The study also found that network controllers and switches will also contribute to higher market share.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the major industries driving the SDN market are financial services, government, telecom and education. All of the sectors most commonly utilizing SDN can benefit from the technology's simplified network designs and operations, directly programmable network control, ability to increase the network's agility in adjusting to traffic flow and single interface management capabilities.

Wi-Fi Alliance announces improvements to Wi-Fi Direct service

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This week it was announced that new improvements are coming to The Wi-Fi Alliance’s peer-to-peer technology Wi-Fi Direct. The service allows a variety of machines – including printers, PCs, phones and TVs – to communicate one-to-one without the need for a LAN, and the planned enhancements promise to make that action even easier.

The Alliance claims to have certified more than 6,000 products as Wi-Fi Direct-capable over the last four years, IDG News Service reported. Next week, the group plans to introduce four new mechanisms to make carrying out basic tasks simpler over Wi-Fi Direct. Adding the services to a certified device is optional, but they allow users to “discover, connect and do” certain functions with a single click, according to president and CEO of the Wi-Fi Alliance Edgar Figueroa.

The new services will make a variety of tasks simpler, but especially focus on simplifying the ability to share and print documents from mobile devices. The enhancements include:

  • Wi-Fi Direct Send: This feature will allow content to be quickly sent and received by one or more devices while keeping user interaction to a minimum.
  • Wi-Fi Miracast: Enables screen mirroring and display sharing in a single step when devices have implemented the updated device and service discovery mechanisms of Wi-Fi Direct.
  • Wi-Fi Direct for DLNA: Simplifies the process of allowing devices supporting Digital Living Network Alliance interoperability to find each other before connecting to stream content.
  • Wi-Fi Direct Printing: Allows users to print documents directly from PCs, tablets and smartphones with a single command.

New services remove previous complications
With the previous iteration of Wi-Fi Direct, a user could send a presentation from a computer to a Wi-Fi-enabled projector over the service as long as both devices were equipped with the basic technology. But after the initial connection, a variety of additional steps were required that made the process confusing for users. In the past, vendors weren’t developing enough Wi-Fi Direct implementations between products from different vendors, and because of poor interoperability some devices that were advertised as Wi-Fi Direct clients wouldn’t always be able to connect with a user’s device. The new services aim to improve interoperability between vendors’ products.

The new services do not require any additional hardware, allowing upgrades to be provided for products already in hand. The Alliance is making applications available for each of their services to vendors, so only a user interface will need to be created. According to Figueroa, the organization is also making a toolkit available so similar capabilities can be built for other processes in a standardized way.

The simplicity offered by the Wi-Fi Direct service is making devices with the capability increasingly popular, according to a recent study by ABI Research. The firm estimates that 2 billion Wi-Fi Direct certified devices have been shipped to date, RCR Wireless News reported. Over the next four years, ABI expects 81 percent of devices with Wi-Fi capabilities to be certified for Wi-Fi Direct.

University of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium upgrades Wi-Fi offerings

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The students attending the University of Nebraska – Lincoln received a nice surprise when they returned for classes last week. The school’s football arena, Memorial Stadium, was given a $12.3 million makeover in an effort to improve its sound system and Wi-Fi capabilities.

Upgrading stadium Internet access is a fairly new concept among universities, with only four other schools providing Wi-Fi access to sports fans – Auburn, Texas Christian University, Penn State and Stanford. While other schools have offered students free Internet inside their arenas, University of Nebraska director of information technology Dan Floyd noted that none of those projects were as big as the one taken on by UNL. To give spectators in Memorial Stadium broad coverage, 900 antennas were installed around the premises. The hardware took three months to fully install, but Floyd says his team will continue making adjustments all season.

“When they do a large venue like a stadium or an area, there are no people in it,” said Floyd in an interview with The Daily Nebraskan. “So you really don’t have the opportunity to test it until its full of people.”

Record-breaking upgrades
The Wi-Fi upgrade, dubbed Memorial Stadium Fan Experience Improvements, makes University of Nebraska’s football arena the largest collegiate stadium connected to Wi-Fi and the second largest connected stadium overall, second only to AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The improvements made to the Internet offerings allow football spectators to have access to special features on the school’s mobile app that are only available within the stadium, like instant replays. Floyd said that he wants Husker fans to be able to bring their mobile devices to football games and be able to connect them anywhere in the stadium.

“It’s very important for the stadium to be connected socially,” said Floyd. “You’re connected in the union as a student, you’re connected inside Starbucks as a client. Wherever you go, people have that expectation.”

According to Omaha.com, 80 percent of the stadium’s visitors should be able to access the Wi-Fi network at the same time without a problem, enabling fans to post pictures, Tweet about the game or view exclusive game footage as easily as they could at home. As students become increasingly attached to their tablets and smartphones, being able to provide reliable Internet access in the locations they spend most of their time is a boon to schools looking to increase student involvement and school spirit.

University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium upgrades Wi-Fi offerings

/in , /by

The students attending the University of Nebraska – Lincoln received a nice surprise when they returned for classes last week. The school’s football arena, Memorial Stadium, was given a $12.3 million makeover in an effort to improve its sound system and Wi-Fi capabilities.

Upgrading stadium Internet access is a fairly new concept among universities, with only four other schools providing Wi-Fi access to sports fans – Auburn, Texas Christian University, Penn State and Stanford. While other schools have offered students free Internet inside their arenas, University of Nebraska director of information technology Dan Floyd noted that none of those projects were as big as the one taken on by UNL. To give spectators in Memorial Stadium broad coverage, 900 antennas were installed around the premises. The hardware took three months to fully install, but Floyd says his team will continue making adjustments all season.

“When they do a large venue like a stadium or an area, there are no people in it,” said Floyd in an interview with The Daily Nebraskan. “So you really don’t have the opportunity to test it until its full of people.”

Record-breaking upgrades
The Wi-Fi upgrade, dubbed Memorial Stadium Fan Experience Improvements, makes University of Nebraska’s football arena the largest collegiate stadium connected to Wi-Fi and the second largest connected stadium overall, second only to AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The improvements made to the Internet offerings allow football spectators to have access to special features on the school’s mobile app that are only available within the stadium, like instant replays. Floyd said that he wants Husker fans to be able to bring their mobile devices to football games and be able to connect them anywhere in the stadium.

“It’s very important for the stadium to be connected socially,” said Floyd. “You’re connected in the union as a student, you’re connected inside Starbucks as a client. Wherever you go, people have that expectation.”

According to Omaha.com, 80 percent of the stadium’s visitors should be able to access the Wi-Fi network at the same time without a problem, enabling fans to post pictures, Tweet about the game or view exclusive game footage as easily as they could at home. As students become increasingly attached to their tablets and smartphones, being able to provide reliable Internet access in the locations they spend most of their time is a boon to schools looking to increase student involvement and school spirit.

California counties join together to bring broadband to underserved areas

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It was announced earlier this month that a partnership has been formed between four California counties in an effort to extend fast and affordable Internet services to underserved areas. The North Bay North Coast Broadband Consortium is made up up Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties and was created in the last few months in the hopes of modernizing the area's service offerings.

Over the next to years, and with a $250,000 grant from the California Public Utilities Commission, each of the four counties in the consortium will be developing regional maps to identify which areas are served by what types of Internet connections.

"One of the biggest issues we're confronting is closing the digital divide, and this mapping is really a data-based approach that will identify where we have the greatest need," said Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, who was appointed to represent the county in the consortium. "We have to get broadband access to those who are underserved, especially in our rural communities in the county."

One of the driving forces behind the consortium's efforts is Marin County which, despite having a highly educated population, has the highest percentage of people without broadband access within the nine Bay area counties, according to the Utilities Commission. The goal of the initiative is to demonstrate to major providers that the need for broadband access exists and to push for future state and federal funding to build a network of underground fiber optic cables that would connect rural fire and sheriff stations, schools, libraries and businesses to reliable Internet.

Proving a need exists
In an interview with the Marin Independent Journal, Carrillo said that the consortium hopes to offer Internet providers data that would help to push them to make better services available to rural and underserved areas like Marin county.

"This is a chance to bring many more Marin residents online," said Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey. "It has moved pretty swiftly. We just started this last November and enticed the Mendocino and Sonoma folks and brought along Napa to make a compelling consortium. We got word in the last month or so that they are on board, and we are moving ahead."

Providing service for the people
The access made possible by the new initiative will also allow more state parks, like Fort Ross State Historic Park in Jenner, California, to access high-speed Internet and give visitors the ability to post pictures and send emails about their trip. About 200,000 people visit Fort Ross each year, but the park currently has only spotty cell phone reception and poor Internet access.

In an interview with The Press Democrat, Public Policy Institute of California researcher Dean Bonner said that an increasing number of California citizens are viewing the Internet as a service that should be provided in the same way as power and water. According to Bonner, about two-thirds of those surveyed believe high-speed Internet is a public utility that everyone should have access to. Another 67 percent of respondents said that they would support a program offered by the government and funded by telecom providers that would increase broadband access for residents in rural or low-income areas.

LA parks receive access to free Wi-Fi

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Park-goers in the Los Angeles area will now have access to free Wi-Fi in six of the city's parks. The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks partnered with American Park Network, which creates guides for national parks and public land, to bring the program live. The Wi-Fi service was fully paid for by Toyota, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The service, which has been in beta testing since July, was officially launched last week. The public will have access to the "Oh! Ranger Wi-Fi" network at designated spots throughout Cabrillo Beach, Echo Park Lake, Griffith Observatory, Pershing Square, Reseda Park and Venice Beach. According to Mark Saferstein, publisher and editor-in-chief of American Park Network, the aim of the program is to get more people outside and enjoying the city's parks.

"It's a way to get families who might not go to a park to go there and share with their friends on social media," he said.

By visiting a city website, people visiting the park will be able log onto the network and receive Internet access comparable to what they have in their homes, according to Councilman Bob Blumenfield.

At the same time as the Oh! Ranger Wi-Fi is being introduced, the city of LA has also rolled out a new mobile website that provides citizens with information on parks and recreational activities, like upcoming events, available services and programs and a hub for residents to post service requests.

According to Saferstein the speed of the Wi-Fi varies depending on which park it is being used in, but visitors will have connections fast enough to be able to check email and post pictures. The program is also expanding to New York, Saferstein said, and the hope is to eventually expand to more parks in Los Angeles and across the country.