Anthony Floyd’s home use with Shaw Internet averages 17 GB per month, with a low over the past 11 months of 6.1 GB and a high of 55 GB.

Jon Jennings, who auto-loads 5 GB of podcasts on iTunes every month, says downloading a five-minute video amounted to 25 MB.

Greg Andrews and his two roommates have to watch they don’t blow their monthly Novus cap of 200 GB up/200 GB down.

Hussey, Floyd, Jennings and Andrews are all cited in Gillian Shaw’s Vancouver Sun story which kicks off with a tale of woe from Dr John Sehmer who, “came home from a three-week holiday in New Zealand to find he owed $1,400 on his iPhone bill”.

Nor, it says, was the charge for phone calls, “except perhaps the one when Rogers called to see if he was happy with the service”.

The huge bill mounted up from data roaming charges on his iPhone. Nothing else.

“Wary of roaming charges when he travelled, Sehmer took an unlocked phone to New Zealand and used a local network SIM card there for voice calls,” says Gillian, noting, “What he failed to realize was that e-mail landing in his iPhone’s in-box was costing hundreds of dollars.”

She quotes Sehmer as saying he tried to use the Rogers’ site to find out what the rates were before he left but, couldn’t.

“There was something about so much per kilobyte downloaded, but one really has no idea what kilobytes are used to check an e-mail,” Sehmer says in the Vancouver Sun post, which adds:

“Sehmer disputed the bill with Rogers, but it was only after the company cut off his service that it relented and agreed to waive all the extra charges from the trip.”

And ironically, “they cut me off during the swine flu pandemic, and I’m a doctor,” said Sehmer.

“They told me I’d have to give a credit card number to get it hooked up again and pay a re-hookup fee.”

(Thanks, Marc)

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Vancouver Sun – Wireless charges: Groaning over roaming, June 5, 2009

Surf the Net? Or eat?

No brainer, eh?

Because WiFi is crucial, says Hot Hardware.

In a survey by American Airlines and HP, some 47% of business travelers reckoned WiFi was the, “most important airport amenity,” outscoring basic travels needs such as food by nearly 30 percentage points,” says the story.

Results came from 1,500 frequent travelers who log more than 20 trips a year on three or more airlines, it states, adding it also found the largest complaint, “wasn’t delayed flights, cramped areas, endless fees or the lack of an AC outlet in coach”.

It was dead PC batteries.

Now you know.

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Hot Hardware – Airport Wi-Fi More Important Than Food, May 23, 2009

The intercoms sold to let parents listen in to every snuffle, sob and cry operate in the same frequency band as the wireless networks more and more of us are installing and can generate so much interference that they make them unusable.

The television rebroadcasters that many people use to watch satellite TV in the bedroom without having to install a second set-top box also use the same frequency, because it is one of the few areas of the radio spectrum that does not require a license, and they too can slow down wifi speeds or make it hard for a computer to make a connection to a local network.

These unwelcome findings about interference come from a detailed survey by Mass Consultants carried out on behalf of the telecoms regulator Ofcom as part of their investigation into how radio spectrum is currently used and should be allocated in future.

They found that in central London the number of overlapping networks attempting to use the same channel was a significant problem, and that in some areas nine-tenths of the available bandwidth was being used by wifi nodes advertising themselves or doing general ‘housekeeping’, with only one-tenth actually available for user data.

Outside major metropolitan areas the real problem was interference from other devices using the same frequency ranges.

As I write this in a café near Holborn I can see eighteen networks apart from the one I’m connected to, so I can vouch for the scale of the problem in London!

Wifi is far from robust in normal circumstances, as anyone who has wandered around a house with a laptop looking for a space that gets a decent signal will testify.

And back in 2006 consultants AirMagnet got some useful pre-Christmas publicity when they announced that reflections from tree baubles and tinsel could cut wireless signal strength by a quarter in well-decorated households.

But these findings reveal both the growing popularity and importance of wireless networks for home and business net use, and the urgent need to do something about it. Imagine how nice it would be if most wireless networks were suddenly five or even ten times faster and generally reliable.

There is, of course, a simple if somewhat radical solution to the problem of having to squeeze wifi, baby alarms and TV retransmitters into the same frequency range as remote controls, children’s toys and many other devices. We could get rid of them – or at least the ones that cause trouble.

The problems largely arise because the devices are analogue and use a wider band of frequencies than digital versions of the same technology and their signals are much more variable than the relatively constrained digital signals expected by a wifi receiver, so if we made them all digital we could design them so as not to interfere.

Of course this won’t happen, because owners won’t accept that the analogue devices they’ve already paid for and used for years have to be sacrificed in the name of the bright shiny digital future.

I can see their point, even if part of me just wants to sweep their old technologies away in favour of an uncluttered wireless world.

Another solution would be to move wifi away from the currently unregulated 2.4 gigahertz frequency band it uses, but here we face much bigger issues than the objections of parents and sports fans.

Vast tranches of the radio spectrum from 9 kHz to 275 GHz is taken up by radio and television, both the older analogue transmissions that are currently being switched off and the newer digital services that replace them, DAB and digital terrestrial television.

If we got rid of the analogue and the digital services and replaced the whole thing with a high-bandwidth wireless network service then we would have more than enough room for laptops and baby listeners.

Yet even if Ofcom decided this was a good idea – and they won’t – there is an international dimension to the issue as the International Telecommunication Union’s Radiocommunication Sector has the task of ensuring that the many systems in use do not interfere with each other.

Much of the ITU’s work is about balancing competing desires, but there are also real physical limits on what can be done. Some frequencies, for example, are used by remote sensing devices in satellites because they are characteristic of water or growing plants, and obviously these can’t be changed by administrative fiat.

But as with so many established practices and procedures, from copyright law to the regulation of the financial markets, digital technologies both create new opportunities and challenge or undermine current practice. The ability to make perfect digital copies has lead to the crisis in the music and film industries, and the availability of digital communications channels is causing us to question the wasteful use of spectrum by analogue devices.

Unfortunately it seems unlikely that we’ll see a wholesale rethink of the way spectrum is allocated, and the lack of political will means there is little chance that those pushing for deregulation of broad swathes of the spectrum will have any success. We will have to live with flakey wifi for a while yet.

Bill Thompson – andfinally.com
[Thompson is a UK-based writer and broadcaster. He has a weekly column on the BBC WebWise site, and contributes both on and off-line to The Guardian, The Register and The New Statesman, among others. His "inappropriately-titled 'billblog' "appears weekly on BBC News Online in the technology news section.]

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May, 2009

The trouble is, one of its products, Netopia, is apparently providing WiFi almost without boundaries to hackers in Ireland.

Eircom, Ireland’s largest ISP, has just agreed to disconnect its own users accused by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG of being file-sharers.

Now Eircom customers are at risk of having their Net connections chopped because of a security hole in some of the Netopia WiFi routers it uses.

The flaw makes it child’s play for war-driving hackers to hijack older Netopia 2247 and 3300 WiFi routers and, hence, some Eircom accounts.

‘Huge security risk’

Motorola bought Netopia in 2006 and, “I always had concerns about Eircom’s default set up for their wireless broadband routers ever since one of my clients asked me to set one up for them,”" says an October 2007 post on Tom Doyle :: TALK, going on:

“When you get a wireless router from Eircom, you are also given a disc which has a program on it to help you generate your WEP key. With the program loaded on your computer, you simply enter the serial key on the side of the router and bang, you have the WEP key – to write down and take away.

“In my mind, this is a huge security risk.”

Said Bart Busschots a month earlier, “I had heard complaints from people in the past that Eircom didn’t seem to do the whole security thing properly at all,” going on:

“I guess I just hopped they’d have sorted themselves out by now. They haven’t. I’m not sure if it’s down to incompetence or just not caring about their customers, but, in my book there are no valid excuses for leaving your customers exposed.”

Given its current arrangement with the Big 4 labels, customer care doesn’ t appear to be high on its list of priorities and Busschots continued »»»

Currently each Netopia router shipped by Eircom has two pre-programmed settings that distinguish it from every other Eircom Netopia router out there. These are the SSID (the ‘name’ for the wireless network) and the WEP key. Both are somehow pre-generated and added to the router’s configuration before shipping. If the information I have been sent is correct there is a fatal flaw in the way these two settings are generated.

They are both apparently derived in a simple way from the router’s serial number and given JUST the SSID (which is BROADCAST by the router) you can apparently easily calculate the default WEP password. This means that if you follow Eircom’s instructions and leave it at that the name your wireless network is broadcasting contains all the information an informed attacker needs to access your supposedly private and protected network.

Update (02 Oct 2007): As has been pointed out in this thread on boards.ie the serial number which is used to generate the WEP key can be derived from the MAC address of the router so changing the SSID is not a protection. As long as WiFi is enabled the MAC address can be sniffed and hence the default WEP key generated.

Fast forward to 2009 and, Sean Byrne, who lives in Ireland told TorrentFreak, “There are lots and lots of existing WiFi signals that are open to this exploit. I’m located in Galway city, there are several ‘Eircom*** ***’ SSID’d networks located in the city that are open to this.”

Even now, “It’s like free communal WiFi on tap,” the story has Byrne saying, “most places you travel in Ireland will have an Eircom WiFi signal.”

Adds TorrentFreak:

“Although WEP security should be avoided if at all possible, some devices (particularly older ones) rely on it. Short of changing the WEP keys, this particular exploit can be defeated by simply changing the network’s SSID.

“That said, we expect the same people who ignored or missed Eircom’s advisory the first time round will more than likely take the same action as they did back then – i.e very little. In the meantime, thanks to Eircom’s deal with the music industry, anyone in this position can have their connection used by an unauthorized file-sharer, and along with that the prospect of being accused of something they haven’t done.

“Equally, anyone with one of these routers could simply claim they have been the victim of a hacker and Eircom would have to believe them. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this situation before long.”

Stay tuned

disconnect its own users  – Eircom caves in to Big 4 labels, January 29, 2009
Tom Doyle :: TALK – Eircom netopia wireless router hack, October 1, 2007
Bart Busschots – Eircom Exposes Its Broadband Customers to Serious Security Risks, September 11, 2007
TorrentFreak – Eircom Customers Wide Open to Erroneous Disconnection, February 2, 2009

It has friends in low places.

If its consumers [read customers, whom it treats like dirt] were of any account, it would’ve been long gone. But it’s still there, and claiming to have the fastest WiFi network in not only in Canada, but in North America.

It’s like the old lawyers joke: Q: How do you tell if they’re lying? A: Their lips are moving.

Because Bell’s PR has turned out to be BS.

“In response to a complaint filed by Rogers Wireless, Advertising Standards Canada, the advertising industry’s national self-regulatory body, recently looked into a Bell Mobility ad that claimed Bell had ‘the fastest … network across North America’,” says the Toronto Star, going on »»»

The panel ultimately decided that Bell’s claim was inaccurate after viewing evidence put forward by Rogers.

The panel then asked members of the public to give their assessment of the claim in question.

Bell refused to supply any evidence to the panel.

Janet Feasby, spokesperson for the ASC, said that “considering the evidence provided, the claim was found to be inaccurate.”

The ASC informed Bell of its findings in October, but Bell refused to recognize the decision, says the story.

(Thanks, Marc)

Toronto Star – Bell sticks to claim of fastest network, January 16, 2009

p2pnet news view WiFi | Freedom | P2P:- In a bid to win approval for his plan to, “auction off a slice of the airwaves” for a free US WiFi broadband network, soon-to-be-ex-Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin has removed an especially contentious element.

And that, says Newsday, “is a requirement that the provider of the wireless network filter Internet content to block any material deemed inappropriate for children”.

The news is especially interesting in light of attempts by governments in Australia and Britain to impose online censorship, claiming it’s vital to protect children from undesirable content they might otherwise come across online.

Martin’s proposal to, “build a family-friendly broadband network by blocking objectionable Web sites was loosely based on the business model of a startup called M2Z Networks,” says Newsweek, noting he dropped the requirement, “to increase the chances that his proposal will win the support of his fellow commissioners”.

It adds:

“The concept mirrors the logic behind indecency regulations governing over-the-air broadcast TV: Since the service would be available to everyone, it would need to protect children from unsuitable material.

“But the filtering proposal raised concerns among free-speech advocates on the left and right, who question how to determine what constitutes appropriate Internet content and how effective content filters truly are. Opponents point out that filters often mistakenly block legitimate sites, including resources about health and sex education.”

Newsday – FCC chairman drops content-filtering rule from proposal for free wireless broadband network, December 31, 2008
Australia – Australian censor plan targets BitTorrent, December 23, 2008
Britain – Dear Andy Burnham: On X-rated Net sites …, December 30, 2008

Canada’s Atif Shamim says he’s come up with a way to extend battery life by up to 12 times.

But the Battery Bunny doesn’t have to worry.

Yet.

Shamim, an electronics PhD student at Carleton University, says his invention is meant for use with power-hungry devices such as the Apple iPhone.

It involves a packaging technique, “to connect the antenna with the circuits via a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits on the chip,” says the university.

“This has not been tried before —- that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly,” says Shamim. “They’ve been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That’s where the power gets lost.”

In June, 2007, “”Apple tried to answer critics who had given the iPhone low marks for its short battery life,” says a statement.

“Five months after unveiling the new product, the company announced the iPhone could now get up to eight hours of talk time, up from the five hours of talk time and 16 hours of audio playback at the launch.

“If an iPhone battery needs repairing, Apple will service it for $89, plus $10.77 for shipping for Canadian customers. All data on the iPhone is lost during the service, which normally takes three business days.”

The story’s headline claims the breakthrough can extend battery life by up to 12 times, “but that seems to be a misinterpretation of Shamim’s claim that his method reduces the power required to operate the antenna by a factor of about 12; 3.3 mW down from 38 mW,” says Soulskill on Slashdot.

Says Shamim’s paper, Wireless Interconnect Between On-Chip and LTCC Antennas for System-in-Package Applications:

“A novel LTCC based TX SiP implementation has been demonstrated which makes use of on-chip antenna to LTCC [Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic] package antenna coupling through an aperture in the common ground plane. The strategy is useful as it eliminates the need of isolating buffers, bond pads, bond wires, matching elements, baluns and transmission lines. It not only reduces the number of components and simplifies SiP design but also consumes lower power. The chip coupling to LTCC patch antenna improves the TX module gain by 32 dB and range by 23 m as compared to the on-chip antenna alone, without affecting the RF circuit performance and power consumption. The conventional LTCC package provides 3 times more range than the proposed design but consumes 12 times more power.”

Carleton University – Carleton engineering student creates innovative invention to prolong battery life, November 27, 2008
Slashdot - Student Invention May Significantly Extend Mobile Device Battery Life, December 19, 2008

But maybe not.

“Open wireless networks have served as a successful defense strategy for several alleged filesharers, as it is often impossible for content owners to prove that the person they accuse, has actually distributed the files they claim they did. Unfortunately, for the customers of the UK ISP Karoo, running open WiFi might also get them disconnected – even if it’s unintentional.”

That’s the intro to Ernesto’s TorrentFreak story which goes on some people leave their networks open, “simply because they are clueless about how to secure it” while others just don’t mind if their WiFi connections are open and, “In recent months, we have seen several cases where accused filesharers have successfully argued that someone else may have used their WiFi to share copyrighted materia,” it says, going on »»»

“Because anyone could have accessed the network, it is impossible to prove that the defendant was the one who shared files illegally.”

But, “Not all ISPs are happy with customers who have open WiFi,” says the story, pointing out some even threaten to disconnect those who do, one such being Britain’s Karoo which had the item below in its September 2008 terms and conditions

We shall be entitled to terminate the Service immediately if We discover that you have permitted (whether knowingly or not) a third party (or third parties) to access the Service using a wireless connection over Your Communications Line.

TorrentFreak’s Ernesto continues

Should an ISP be entitled to demand this? Karoo leaves its customers no choice, and simply forbids them to leave their network unsecured, or use a FON router, despite the fact that this will be practically impossible for them to enforce. Not only that, people who have no idea about router security are now wide open to summary disconnection by this ISP. UK lawyers Davenport Lyons are actively encouraging that service providers of various types enforce their own terms and conditions against copyright infringers, so if you’re with Karoo and get a complaint, you can forget about 3 strikes. Even if you did nothing illegal, it’s one strike and you’re out.

Some would argue that having an open wireless network is the right thing to do. Earlier this year, security expert Bruce Schneier wrote an extensive essay on why it’s a good thing. Some of his key arguments were that it is basic kindness, and that the risk of running into abusers is extremely low. Also, when someone abuses the open WiFi to do something illegal, it is easy to defend yourself.

Schneier’s post led to a flood of responses, and most of them agreed with the security expert. Of course, there are pro’s and con’s to having an unsecured network, and whether it really is a wise choice can be debated. But, disconnecting your users simply because they, knowingly or not, have an open wireless network is a bit too strict for our taste. Nevertheless, Karoo thinks otherwise.

Karoo didn’t respond to Ernesto’s requests for comment, he adds.

However, on Saturday, p2pnet also asked Karoo what was going on and a few moments ago, received this by way of response »»»

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the recent changes to the Karoo Standard Terms.

We confirm that the changes were implemented to prevent unauthorised usage of the Karoo service by a small number of our customers.  The changes do not prevent our customers from connecting to the Karoo service from multiple computers, in their own household, or from remote wi-fi access points, legitimately.

We are sorry if we have caused you any concern.  We will make suitable amendments to the Karoo Standard Terms, to provide clarification on this point, in the next edition of the Karoo Standard Terms.

Oh. So that’s OK, then.

Stay tuned.

TorrentFreak – ISP Disconnects Customers with Open WiFi, November 2, 2008

And an international ring of hackers turned it into a very profitable exercise, using it to steal 40 million credit card numbers from restaurants and businesses last summer, says Heise Online.

The story has US security provider RSA says even after seven years of annual studies, wireless network security is still far from adequate.

Home WiFi networks are, it says, much safer.

Many business wireless networks are either unprotected or insufficiently secure but it found private networks are generally, “much better locked down”.

“In Paris, 98% of all home networks were encrypted, in New York 97% and in London 90%,” says RSA in the story, which adds:

“In addition, the home networks used far better encryption methods than the corporate networks – in Paris and New York, more private users than businesses protect their networks with strong encryption.”

London had the lowest level of security of the cities surveyed, said Heise, adding:

“Although as many businesses as homes use strong encryption, overall, not enough corporate networks have any protection at all. One in five corporate networks are completely unprotected. This is even more than last year and more than in any other category in any city studied. The highest number of security improvements, on the other hand, was found in Paris, where 94% of all corporate networks and 98% of private networks are encrypted.”

Heise Online – Private Wi-Fi more secure than corporate wireless networks, October 31, 2008

p2pnet news view | WiFi:- Last week’s announcement that the Apple iPhone will make its long awaited Canadian debut later this year generated considerable excitement.

While analysts focused on the bottom line impact for Rogers Wireless, it may be that the most important effects have already been felt in Canada since more than any industry statistics or speeches, the iPhone’s slow entry into Canada has crystallized the view that the Canadian wireless market is hopelessly behind the rest of the world with limited competition, higher prices, and less choice.

The year-long delay of the iPhone – Apple first launched the device last June in the United States followed by France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, and Austria – provided tangible evidence that the Canadian market desperately needs an injection of competition (as the sole GSM provider, Rogers was the only carrier capable of supporting the iPhone) and more competitive pricing (Canadian data prices are far above the U.S. offer of unlimited data for US$20 per month).

In many ways, the iPhone saga merely confirmed what many Canadian consumers and businesses have known for some time. Mobile data pricing in Canada is among the highest in the world, creating a significant barrier to the introduction of new mobile services and causing many consumers to carefully ration their mobile use for fear of being hit with a hefty bill at the end of the month.

The impact of uncompetitive pricing is felt beyond the consumer market. Last month, the World Economic Forum pointed to problems in the wireless market as a key reason for Canada’s slipping global ranking for “network readiness” (Canada has moved from 6th worldwide in 2005 to 13th today). Canada ranked 75th in the number of mobile subscribers, trailing countries such as El Salvador, Kazahkstan, and Libya. It also lagged behind countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, Sweden, and Norway on mobile pricing.

As the country falls further behind the competition, it is time to acknowledge that market forces alone will not solve the issue. It therefore falls to policy makers to focus on the developing a marketplace framework that encourages greater competition and innovation.

The first step in that direction came last fall when Industry Minister Jim Prentice announced a set aside for new entrants in the forthcoming spectrum auction. The auction, which runs over the next few weeks, is expected to pave the way for several new wireless competitors, who may join forces to create a fourth national carrier.

While the spectrum set-aside was a good first step, more is needed. Prentice’s goal should be to create the world’s most flexible regulatory environment that encourages openness and interoperability. The next round of spectrum auctions, which involves the coveted 700 MHz band, could include mandatory open access requirements that allow carriers, device manufacturers, and service providers to use Canada as the sandbox for mobile innovation.

Many companies are also beginning to focus on the potential of “white spaces,” small bits of spectrum that exist between television frequencies. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is currently considering a proposal to make the white space home to unlicensed uses, thereby encouraging further experimentation. Assuming that potential frequency conflicts can be resolved, Canada should follow suit.

The emphasis on openness could also extend to telecommunications ownership where the current foreign ownership restrictions may artificially limit Canadian competition. There remains concern about completely opening up the Canadian market to foreign ownership, however, that may be a price worth paying to address the current malaise.

Prentice could also encourage competition by removing the barriers that consumers face in moving between providers. The introduction last year of wireless number portability, which allows consumers to retain their phone number when they change carriers, helps in this regard.

However, restrictive long-term contracts and government plans to introduce legislation that could prohibit consumers from unlocking their cell phones would represent a case of one step forward, two steps back.

Finally, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission may want to take a closer look at the mobile marketplace. The CRTC is committed to a de-regulatory approach and has for years largely left the mobile marketplace alone (with the exception of undue preferences and unjust discrimination), yet the regulatory hole has not served Canadians well.

Canadian iPhone fans may finally get their coveted device, but it is going to take more than a great phone to fix what ails the Canadian mobile marketplace.

Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]

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p2pnet news | Freedom:- Traffic throttling is an outright outrage, no two ways about it.

But it has its lighter moments, as WirelessNorth reports, also telling p2pnet the situation remains unchanged.

Get this for delicious ironies of our day, it says, going on >>>

Download speeds on Rogers wireless cellular/HSDPA network are hitting 250 kBytes/sec.

Observed torrent rates on the throttled-within-an-inch-of-its-life home “broad”-band are closer to 30 kBytes/sec. What does this mean?

Rogers wireless network is wide open. No deep packet inspection. Due to the physics of airwaves, it’s the one network that should be most constrained and yet they’ll let you run all the bandwidth saturating P2P apps you want. Crazy that you can do this over the air but not over wireline.

Mobile broadband is fast. The highspeed airwaves are empty, like a fresh built freeway just before it’s consumed by suburbia. enjoy while the going is good.

Pissed off by slow access over cable? Run a few torrents over the air. Better effective bandwidth and you can take it anywhere.

Somewhere, someplace, a Rogers network engineer wants to kill me for telling you this.

*This is with a 3.6Mbs cellular PC card (about $99 unlocked on eBay) . 7.2Mbs cards are also on the market, and the network may be capable of it in your area.

Definitely stay tuned

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The revised list of bidders, “should be a relief to Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Bell Canada Inc. because the absence of a T-Mobile or AT&T means there is less risk for incumbent wireless players in Canada, said Greg MacDonald, an analyst at National Bank Financial,” says the Financial Post.

“My biggest concern was that a carrier was in the wings. I think you can safely say there is no stealth carrier out there,” he said.

However, after, “initially indicating a plan to spend $800-million on wireless spectrum, the Niagara Networks application was ‘withdrawn’,” according to yesterday’s list of qualified bidders, according to the story, adding:

“The detailed information did, however, confirm the presence of a bona fide and deep-pocketed investor with media and cable experience. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is one of the financial backers of a planned bid by Canadian media and fast-food entrepreneur John Bitove.

“Mr. Bitove and his partners, which also include private-equity group Quadrangle Group, submitted a $106-million letter of credit to Industry Canada. The group is bidding under the name Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc. (DAVE), and will be controlled by Mr. Bitove.

“Mr. Allen, who is among the world’s wealthiest men, has invested in more than 50 companies through investment fund Vulcan Inc., in sectors including cable TV and telecommunications, sports, technology, aerospace, entertainment, biotechnology, oil and real estate.”

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Financial Post – Wireless auction has first casualties, April 1, 2008

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AT&T, Verizon and Google are among companies willing to pay big bucks to own a licence.

“The spectrum licenses are being surrendered to the government by broadcasters as they complete their conversion to digital television by early next year,” says the New York Times, going on:

“The licenses are coveted because they will provide the winners with access to some of the best remaining spectrum – enabling them to send signals farther from a cell tower with far less power, through dense walls in cities and over wider territories in rural areas that are now underserved.”

Google wasn’t expected to post a winning bid, But it’s already achieved an important victory, “by influencing the auction rules,” says the story, adding:

“The commission forced the major telephone companies to open their wireless networks to a broader array of telephone equipment and Internet applications. It remains to be seen whether a variety of technical and regulatory issues can be resolved to make the promise of more open networks a reality.”

[NOTE - p2pnet is running a special reader's survey. It only takes 20-30 seconds and it'd be a huge help if you'd fill it in. Please click here. Cheers! And thanks ... Jon]

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Also See:
New York Times – Wireless Spectrum Auction Raises $19 Billion , March 19, 2008

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p2pnet news | WiFi:- Sometimes it is only when the niggling pain goes away that you realise just how irritating and distracting it had become.

A sore tooth can sit for weeks just beneath the threshold of consciousness before you finally decide to do something about it, and you leave the dentist full of optimism, hope and love for all humanity now that you can think clearly.

Well, like a man who bangs his head against a brick wall because ‘it feels so good when I stop’, I’ve finally given up grubbing around for open wireless connectivity on the move and invested in a 3G modem for my laptop.

No more will you find me wandering down dark alleyways in search of an elusive open network, or hoping that the train slows down long enough on the run into Stevenage station for me to pick up ‘Netgear’, ‘default’ or ‘belkin54g’ long enough to download my email.

I have to admit that this change of heart has not come about because such activity might be illegal, since I firmly believe that simply joining an open network should not be considered a crime.

The law has clearly not kept match with the capabilities of the technology especially since many people leave their networks open in order to offer a service to passers-by.

And an iPhone or iPod Touch will automatically connect to ‘known’ networks, so if my home network is called ‘default’ I’ll join any other open ‘default’ network as I walk the streets.

So I’m confident that a well-constructed defence would establish that the previous convictions under the Communications Act were not justified.

But now I won’t even be tempted to latch on to other people’s wireless, because I have a little white box, called a dongle, that plugs into a USB port on my laptop and can connect to the phone network.

It works on the train, it works in my favourite (wifi-less) cafes in Cambridge and it works in my car sitting by the side of a B-road trying to figure out where I am on Google Maps.

I’ve been able to get my email and surf the web on my phone for ages, but it has always been a second-best solution, and I’m unwilling to shell out for an iPhone even if the user interface does solve many of the problems I’ve had with small screens.

But since I have my laptop with me nearly all the time – and I do realise how sad that sounds, believe me – I don’t need to compromise on a small screen or inadequate keypad.

And life is good.

The toothache has been sorted. The ringing in my ears has stopped. I can breathe freely and that sharp pain whenever I bend over sideways has finally cleared up. I can be online whenever and wherever I want to be, and life is good.

The new generation of data modems are already being sold as an alternative to slow broadband for home PCs when ADSL over copper wires is either not feasible or just unreliable.

And it can’t be long before someone realises that the external dongle isn’t really needed, and offers a laptop with a built-in 3G modem and a slot for a SIM card. [thanks to everyone who has written to tell me that these are already available]

It isn’t a perfect service, as I found out last weekend when I tried to stream video from the re-opening of Wysing Arts Centre in the middle of the Cambridgeshire countryside. You really need a 3G connection for anything at all substantial, as when the connection falls back onto the old GSM/GPRS network it can cope with email but little else.

But it is a viable alternative to Wifi in cities. As well as being a lot cheaper it lets you move around without dropping the connection because it uses the cellular network.

I can also see how these 3G services could be used in countries without an established telecommunications infrastructure. Many cybercafes in African countries already use a cellular phone to provide access to the internet, but these dongles could improve the speed and quality of service without needing several phone handsets.

When I first got an always-on internet connection from home I couldn’t believe how liberating it was.

This was in the days before home broadband and involved rather a lot of complex fiddling to get SSH tunnelling going over a pair of Centrex lines into a small Linux box on my desk, and if that means anything to you then you’ve been in this business too long.

Now I’m finding the same sense of freedom comes from having easy, fixed-price access on the move. Instead of deciding whether to shell out a fiver for an hour’s access in the railway station or risk the quality of coffee in a well-known fast-food chain just to get free access I can plug in and go.

Once again, the technology has demonstrated its ability to surprise me, and yet again I realise that we are only at the beginning of the transformation which began with the early networks of the 1960’s.

Bill Thompson – andfinally.com
[Thompson is a UK-based writer and broadcaster. He has a weekly column on the BBC WebWise site, and contributes both on and off-line to The Guardian, The Register and The New Statesman, among others. His "inappropriately-titled 'billblog' "appears weekly on BBC News Online in the technology news section.]

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p2pnet news | WiFi:- A UK study into the possible deleterious effects of WiFi is to go ahead, it’s been decided.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency guidelines already say masts shouldn’t be sited near schools because of a possible links to cancer link and other health risks.

Now, although HPA chief executive professor Pat Troop is quoted by ZDNet UK as saying, “We have good scientific reasons to expect the results to be reassuring and we will publish our findings,” better safe than sorry is the obvious UK government attitude.

There hasn’t been, “extensive research into what people’s exposures actually are to this new technology and that is why we are initiating this new programme of research and analyses,” Troop says.

“Some individuals have also been concerned over GSM and 3G radio waves,” says the story, although, “All research to date in that field has suggested no ill effects in the short term, although long-term effects remain unknown.”

Meanwhile, “Use of Wi-Fi is increasing rapidly in businesses, homes and public places, with recent research showing that

London is the world’s top ‘hotspot city’,” says ComputerWorld UK, adding:

“And last week, the McDonald’s fast food chain announced that it would provide free Wi-Fi access in 1,200 UK locations.”

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Also See:
sited near schools – UK fears on Wi-Fi in schools, May 21, 2007
ZDNet UK – Government to study Wi-Fi health risks, October 15, 2007
ComputerWorld UK – Wireless computer networks face health probe, October 15, 2007

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“Could it have been that RFID implant?

“Nah …….”

But although the US Food and Drug Administration found “reasonable assurance” the spy-chip was safe and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005’s top ‘innovative technologies’, there may be something in the p2pnet reader’s half-serious concern.

“When the approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients’ medical records almost instantly, says Associated Press, going on:

But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had “induced” malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.

“The transponders were the cause of the tumors,” said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

Some 2,000 of the Radio Frequency IDentification spy chips have been implanted in humans worldwide, says one of the leading makers, VeriChip Corp, and parent company Applied Digital Solutions.

“We stand by our implantable products which have been approved by the FDA and/or other U.S. regulatory authorities,” Scott Silverman, VeriChip Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, told AP.

But Amal isn’t worried. On his site, he says he has two RFID implants, one in each hand (Flickr pic on the right), going on:

His left hand contains a 3mm by 13mm EM4102 glass RFID tag that was implanted by a cosmetic surgeon using a scalpel to make a very small cut, into which the implant was placed.

His right hand contains a 2mm by 12mm Philips HITAG 2048 S implant with crypto-security features and 255 bytes of read/write memory storage space. It was implanted by a family doctor using an Avid injector kit like the ones used on pets.

He can access his front door, car door, and log into his computer using his implants, and has written a book called RFID Toys, which details how to build these and other RFID enabled projects.

That may make Amal happy, but he might not be quite so upbeat if he has to undergo a medical procedure such as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan.

CASPIAN’s (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering) Katherine Albrecht believes VeriChip implants expose people who have them in their bodies to electrical hazards, MRI incompatibility, adverse tissue reaction, and migration of the implanted transponder, to name only a few of the potential risks.

“According to the FDA’s Primer on Medical Device Interactions with Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems, ‘electrical currents may be induced in conductive metal implants’ that can cause ‘potentially severe patient burns‘,” Albrecht pointed out.

But Mexico’s attorney general Rafael Macedo de la Concha isn’t worried.

Back in 2005. He had a RFID spy chip embedded in his arm, as did people in his office, as a security measure.

Stay tuned

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Also See:
p2pnet – Spy chips in employees’ arms, February 10, 2006
Associated Press – Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors, September 9, 2007
Amal – Amal’s RFID implant page
potentially severe patient burns – Spy chip health hazards, October 22, 2004
embedded in his arm – US to adopt electronic ID cards, February 11, 2007

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“Apple and Nike have come up with a shoe-cum-iTunes-cum-iPod nano marketing scheme aimed at Macolyte joggers and keep-fit fiends. ‘Grab an iPod nano, a pair of Nike+ shoes, and the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, says the promo site. Rock ‘n’ run,” says another. ‘Your shoes talk. Your iPod nano listens. Track your run in real time’.”

Well, The Aphrodite Project has taken the concept a quantum leap forward into an area which seems to actually be practical and useful.

It states:

“Platforms, the latest series of work in the ongoing Aphrodite Project, is a social sculpture: an interactive, wearable device that is a conceptual homage to the cult of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, a practical object for contemporary sex workers, and a vehicle for public dialogue.

An integrated system of shoes and online services, Platforms draws on the innovations of the courtesans and professional companions of antiquity to improve the conditions of 21st century women who, despite advances in culture and technology, are now perceived to be outlaws by trade and are vulnerable to surveillance and violence.

Platforms empowers all women with tools to stay safe, wherever they want to go at night, without having to hide.

The pic on the right comes from a Flickr post here.

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He was nailed by two “police community support officers,” says the story, going on:

“Although wireless thieves say it is a victimless crime, the number of arrests for dishonestly obtaining free access under the Communications Act 2003 are rising.”

Detective Constable Mark Roberts warned anyone caught illegally hitching or piggy-backing could face arrest, states Times Online, adding:

“When police examined his laptop, they discovered that he had logged on several times before.

“He was found guilty of dishonestly obtaining an electronic communication service and his computer and wireless card were confiscated, he was fined £500 and given a 12-month conditional discharge.”

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Also See:
The Guardian – Man using laptop on garden wall charged with wireless theft, August 23, 2007
Times Online – Laptop user arrested for ‘illegal log-on’ to house wi-fi, August 23, 2007

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Literally.

It’s going underground for a 1-gig sewer-enabled high-speed broadband internet connection for students, says ZDNet UK.

“The dark fibre sewer connection will provide broadband at the university’s Hillhead student village halls of residence by replacing an existing microwave link between the main campus and the village,” says the story, quoting Dr Brian Robertson, head of infrastructure at the university, as saying:

“The microwave connection is relatively low bandwidth and one of the issues is the trees keep growing and are in the line of sight. We needed a hard-wired connection.”

Aberdeen will now be able to offer its 1,700 students a wireless broadband service called ResNet.

Mainstream ISPs aren’t allowed to install their own connections, adds ZDNet.

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Also See:
ZDNet UK – Sewer system to provide student broadband, August 20, 2007

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Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.

So says Forbes, going on that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, “put off a vote to approve a contract with EarthLink to set up a wireless network as it dickered with the company over the deal terms”.

Meanwhile, “a struggling EarthLink is now reviewing its municipal wi-fi plans as it tries to push its way back to profitability,” it says.

San Francisco’s citizens will be able to say what they think about the municipal WiFi network, says Ars Technica.

“San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin agreed to put the question of whether to go forward with building a free, citywide wireless network to the city’s residents for a vote in November.”

Back in 2005, Google was among more than a dozen suitors looking to put the city online with free WiFi.

Click on the microphone on the right to hear this story. If you’d like to do a p2pnetcast, just pick a post that hasn’t been done and send the results to p2pnet @ shaw dot ca. You have an accent? No problem

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Also See:
Forbes – Frisco’s Wi-Fi Fiasco, August 8, 2007
Ars Technica – San Francisco to vote on municipal WiFi network, August 5, 2007
dozen suitors – San Francisco free Wi-Fi plan, October 2, 2007

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Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.