Wireless
Warfare in the StreetsThe Wi-Fi in Your Handset -New Work TimesIt's a pretty innocuous headline and photo, but make no mistake this is an early salvoin what looks to be a heated battle over the control of the wirelessinfrastructure. The
cell phone service providers are on one side, theequipment makers and software
companies on the other. Governments? Theyare both omnipresent yet conspicuously absent from the core of thedebate, they seem to only have a clue as to what is happening atcertain key junctures (ie when municipal
WiFi discussions get seriouslike in SF or Philadelphia). At the core this is an
issue of information, an issue of whichcorporations are controlling the gateways between you and thenetwork(s) you need to access to connect to the world. To a largeextent it seems the wires are already laid down, at least for themoment it seems there is plenty of fiber in the ground and theproviders are reduced to the status of commodity sellers. Netneutrality might change that, but that is an issue for another day. Itis the
Wireless protocols that are up for grabs. So far the cellularcompanies have a massive lead, they have the infrastructure both toprovide and to profit built up, running and accepted by the public atlarge. But with that advantage comes a huge arrogance, and perhaps ashort-sightedness as well. The cell companies think they can call theshots and in the process they've pushed aside the handset makers andlocked the software and information technology companies out almostcompletely. They also have with typical phone company airs completelyfailed to win the confidence of their users, do you know anyone whoactually likes their cell phone company? The cell phone companies are gambling on controlling the airwaves,on staying oligarchical. This threatens a whole other group, perhaps wecan call them the network idealists, the coders and hackers, activistsand enthusiasts that drive the networked underground of globalinformation projects. I call them Benkler labor, after Yochai Benklerand his theory of networked productivity. The anti-cellular company strategy combines a hodgepodge of consumerdissatisfaction, plain old desire for better prices, Benkler labor andin places old school government public works projects into the creationof a so far mythical, but theoretically very possible, wifi meshwork.If there are enough accessible wifi hotspots overlapping each other ina giant mesh of wireless connectivity, it becomes possible to routearound the
cellular providers. Instead of a handful of capitalintensive cellphone towers, the plan is to provide connectivity via aswarm of wifi routers connected to people's broadband lines in theirhomes and offices. It sounds a little precarious to me, but if you werea mid to large sized company coming face to face with the fact thatyour livelihood is dangerously close to being controlled entirely by ahandful of cellular companies any way out probably looks like a goodgamble. At the moment at least the wifi forces are all about opentechnology, they are at such a disadvantage compared to the alreadybuilt up and profitable cellular networks that they need everyadvantage they can get, and open network infrastructure is a key one.Some of the players are idealistic about it, others I suspect not, butfor the moment at least this is in a large part a battle of opennessversus closed and controlled access to the networks, which is what thecellular companies have now and want to keep. If the cellular companieswin this battle it is tantamount to handing over your personalinformation to your provider. It isn't pretty, but you probably havedone it already. They know where you are, or at least where your phoneis. They know how to reach you. They know who you talk to, and if theywanted to I'm sure they could figure out exactly what you said,although it would not exactly be legal in the US for them to do so. Allthey want to do is add the contents of all your emails, web browsingand file sharing. not too much.The stakes are high, whoever controls the pipes in which yourinformation flows essentially occupies a position where they have thepotential to exert incredible control over you. Whether that potentialis realizable though is a huge issue. The wifi activists offer asolution with unclear long term ramifications. They want to ramp up thewifi network to a point somewhat akin to where the wired internet liestoday. One that is relatively open, somewhat balanced but with hugeweakness just beginning to emerge, as American's are learning with thecurrent net neutrality legislation churning in congress. In other wordswe are on the verge of a round of corporate warfare with potential tobe as messy as that "real" warfare engulfing the middle east. So pickyour carrier carefully, who knows where this leads...
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