A ruling by a federal judge in Tyler, Texas upheld the validity of a 1996 patent obtained by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) on a technology used in implementing wireless standards developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The said patent owned by Australia's national science agency involves a...

LG Wireless is acquiring Alvarion's Cellular Mobile business for $15 million. Alvarion believes the unit is not only a good fit for LG but also serves the best interest of shareholders. The deal, according to Alvarion President and CEO Tzvika Friedman, will also enable the company to devote all its resources to WiMax. The said...

Bezeq hopes to launch WiFi phones in the fourth quarter of next year. According to Ran Goron, Bezeq's deputy marketing CEO, Israel's national communications provider seeks to become a major player in the VoIP sector but is unsure if the communications ministry will authorize the firm to join that field. The company, meanwhile, unveiled a...

Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada has banned the use of WiFi in the campus due to behavioral and physiological risks associated with the technology. According to university president Fred Gilbert, 31 scientists have subscribed the Benevento Resolution, which calls for precautionary strategies to wireless systems and setting up WiFi-free zones in cities, schools, hospitals and...

A report by the San Francisco Examiner suggested a possible vote by the city's Board of Supervisors to make the citywide WiFi network part of the city's owned assets. The move, if the board pushes through with it, would run in conflict with Mayor Gavin Newsom's plan to let a private company, particularly EarthLink, own...

Hackers are taking advantage of WiFi to steal vital personal information by creating bogus wireless access points near commercial hotspots and assign them the same name. According to Richard Rushing, chief science officer at Wi-Fi security company AirDefense, most hackers perform 'evil twin' attacks in locations "where the better-off are hanging out because they have...

Although ratification of 802.11n is not expected until 2008, major PC makers are pushing ahead with plans to integrate high-speed Wi-Fi into their notebooks. Lenovo is following the lead of Dell, Acer and HP, and will provide an 802.11n radio in its 3000 series notebooks. The company, like Dell and Acer, is turning to Broadcom...

Clearwire and Towerstream are two companies currently offering pre-WiMax services but they cater to different clients: Clearwire serves the consumer market and Towerstream focuses on businesses. Clearwire co-CEO Ben Wolff said subscribers to the company's fixed wireless service now number 162,000. The operator looks to cover 34 markets by the year's end and has launched...

Motorola has acquired Good Technology, which provides wireless email services for handsets, including Motorola's Q. Motorola Mobile Devices division president Ron Garriques said "Good Technology's software and managed service deliver a rich user experience, low cost of ownership, industry- leading security and enterprise-class support." Garriques believes the deal will "continue to strengthen Motorola as a...

The evolution of wireless technologies brought lessons that are now driving the draft 802.11n efforts: 1) The WLAN industry made the right move of supporting legacy 802.11b rather than establishing a new and potentially higher-performing frequency band at 5 GHz, which could cause incompatibility among products. 2) Improving throughput in environments filled with interference from...

Aruba rejected criticisms that its version of centrally-managed wireless LAN does not allow for scalable voice over WiFi (VoFi). Aruba vice president Keerti Melkote admitted that the company's systems, due to central application of encryption, command wireless traffic flows to go through the central controller. But this is not a problem "from bandwidth point of...

Blogger David Haskin found himself addicted more to WiFi than coffee, which he gave up five months ago. His confession came as the WiFi Alliance released the findings of a study showing that 80 percent of respondents would rather quit drinking coffee than lose their WiFi connection. Haskin said he brings WiFi travel routers when...

Current developments make Draft N poised to hit the mainstream market next year, according to Mike Hurlston, Broadcom's vice president of WLAN products. Hurlston said four laptop makers, i.e., Dell, Acer, Lenovo and HP, have announced plans to ship Draft N products. He also noted the improved cooperation among chipmakers, thus creating better interoperability among...

Intel Corp. chairman Craig Barrett sees WiMax as a solution to India's digital divide. Barrett said WiMax "is relatively inexpensive and relatively simple" and therefore "ideal for rural environment where there is limited infrastructure in place." He made these remarks following his tour of Baramati, a town that Intel adopted under its World Ahead Program....

Samsung is coming out with an all-in-one handheld, a fusion of PC, cell phone, camera, and portable music player. SPH-P9000 houses a folding qwerty keyboard and has built-in WiMax as well as high-speed CDMA EV-DO and Bluetooth capabilities. The PDA, which Samsung first put on display at the Mobile WiMax Summit 2006, is preloaded with...