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The NetSuds (TM) Report
The December 1, 2001 Issue:
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Definition: "com and .com" = Telecom, Datacom, IT or Internet
In this Issue:
1.0 Heard on the Net
2.0 Jobs in the "com and .com" Market
3.0 NetSuds
on Tour - Fourth Generation
4.0 Tidbits
5.0 Calendar of Events
6.0 Apply to Present at a
NetSuds
or
MedicalSuds
Entrepreneurs
Breakfast
7.0 10 US Telecom Policy Myths
8.0
What's Hot. What's Not.
9.0
Wireless LAN Primer
10.0 Guest Writers for this Report
1.0 Heard on the Net
1.1 People on the Move:
Please email:
people@netsuds.com to report a change in your
job status if you are moving from or to a company in the
"com or .com" space.
NetSudser
Jon Segner, formerly with Boomerang Marketing is "back to the womb"
as he said, as CFO of Dominium (www.dominiuminc.com),
the largest apartment
manager and developer in Minnesota. Contact Jon at 763.354.5620 or
jsegner@dominiuminc.com
NetSudser
Tim Ward has joined Sprint E|Solutions as an Account Executive in
the Minneapolis office. Contact Tim at either 952-896-3540 or
timothy.e.ward@mail.sprint.com
NetSudser
Bill Bennett has joined Planna Technology as COO. Contact Bill at
either
bill@planna.com or 612-374-4200.
NetSudser
Kathleen Douville has joined Fourth Generation, a custom software
development firm in St. Paul, as a sales executive. Kathee was formerly
a
senior account manager with NetSource America.
NetSudser
Bob Hebrink joined Fourth Generation as Vice President. Bob came
from Nistevo where he headed up their Client Services Business.
NetSudser
Nancy Harrower has launched New Venture Communications, specializing
in high impact corporate marketing and communications programs. Nancy
was most
recently Director of Corporate Communications at Lawson Software.
Contact her
at nancyharrower@aol.com.
Warren Pillsbury left as VP of Sales at Optical Solutions.
C.S. Mondelli has joined Magnum Technologies as VP Sales &
Marketing. C.S. was
most recently President and CEO of Transition Networks.
NetSudser
Robert Reed is now the Wireless Messaging Account Executive at
Metrocall.
So who is the most sought-after executive in town? If you guessed
Lynn Davis,
the former President and COO of ADC, you were right. Lynn's taking some
time
off before jumping back in the game, though.
1.2 Companies on the Move:
Please email:
start-ups@netsuds.com to report (1) the formation
of a new start-up, (2) momentum change at an existing start-up,
(3) addition of key hires, or (4) a funding event at a start-up.
Please give details on the above including any information you do
not want made public. We are very discrete.
A new Twin Cities start-up in stealth mode
is seeking the following
types of individuals on both a part-time and full-time basis. If you
have ISP experience at setting up DNS servers, email servers, LANs,
WANs, subnetworks, VLANs, please send a resume and cover letter to
stealth@netsuds.net. Include whether you are seeking full or
part-time
and a salary range.
Cognizo -
www.cognizo.com - is Asim Beg's latest start-up. Asim was
previously the CEO of Seleriti.
itiliti -
www.itiliti.com - raised a $4M venture round announced on
October 16. itiliti's investors include 3 channel partners who
invested 75% of the round.
Integra Telecom, a NetSuds
sponsor and local CLEC, has just reported that
its Minnesota operations is EBITDA positive. Carol (GM) and Anita (Mktg)
are frequent NetSudsers and are to be congratulated for building a nice
operation here in Minnesota. I reported on a tour of Integra in a
previous Monthly Report.
Xo Communications, a NetSuds
sponsor and national CLEC/ICP, has just
received an $800 million investment commitment from Telefonos de Mexico
and buyout firm Forstmann Little. The firm is currently $5 billion in
debt. The financial infusion will keep the company from bankruptcy and
should, according to company executives, allow the company to get to a
profitable operations.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011129/n29329516_8.html
White Rock Networks -
www.whiterocknetworks.com - raised a $60 million
venture capital round in early November. White Rock is a provider of
optical transport systems for the local metro market Participating VCs
were Mayfield, Fremont Group and Oak Investment Partners. White Rock is
led by former ADC VP Lonnie Martin and is based in Dallas.
Going, Going, Gone. But the word is those
fired are starting something. |
Fourth
Generation will conclude 2001 with a significant growth in revenue
and profitability over 2000 in spite of the economic downturn reports
CEO
Robert P. Musselman,
musselman@fourthgen.com, 651-767-8450.
NetSuds
does not speculate in rumors. However, some significant changes
seem to be in store for a couple of IT firms in town where Chapter 11
bankruptcy has been rumored for ****. It would only be a rumor if I
told
you who **** was. But if you hear of **** in bankruptcy ...
The other company is a venture-backed service provider with management
changes in its future.
| Ventures Magazine has folded as of November 26, 2001. That leaves MinnesotaBusiness - www.minnesotabusiness.com, Twin Cities Business Monthly and the NetSuds Monthly Report left as monthly publications of start-up and technology news in the Twin Cities. CityBusiness remains as the weekly. |
 |
2.0 Jobs in the "com and .com" Market
Please email:
jobs@netsuds.com to report job openings in the
"com and .com" Market. In the body of the message, give the
name of the company and a URL link to the job postings.
** Dakota Wesleyan University
http://www.dwu.edu/humanresources/jobopenings/JobOpenings.htm#kelley_center
3.0 NetSuds on Tour -
Fourth Generation
NetSuds loves on-site tours! Email me if you want to show off your
company. I can be reached at
matt@netsuds.com.
3.1 Fourth Generation
I visited very recently with Bob Musselman (CEO) and
Chaim Teitelbaum
(Founder) at Fourth Generation -
www.fourthgen.com - at their St. Paul
headquarters.
FGI is a custom software development company specializing in OOT and
Java development. They work with software development process known
as Rational Unified Process and the WebSphere, iPlanet and WebLogic
tools. They are 16 years old and employ 37 people.
As with many software development companies and IT consultants these
days, the forecast is hard to see and the backlog is short. However,
FGI seems to be weathering the IT storm better than most and keeping
their developers busy. They recently added sales staff and are
aggressively seeking new business. They always competed well on
price with other firms but like to differentiate by their technical
expertise. They have no vertical focus and their client base is
diverse.
The trend in their business right now is "developers at customer sites"
rather than "developers in-house and exporting software".
While most of their customers are Minnesota-based, they have customers
in Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Most of their IT employees are
senior programmers with an average of 15 years experience.
FGI seems to be a survivor and has grown steadily in the last 3 years,
including 2001. This bodes well for aggressive plans in 2002.
Unlike many start-ups, FGI is growing and
*profitable*. One aspect I
particularly liked was their employee stock-option program. They have
created an internal market for the stock and publish a new stock price
every month based on objective criteria from financial data they share
with their employees.
Contact Robert at
rmusselman@fourthgen.com.
4.0 Tidbits
4.1 Minnesota - Friendly to Entrepreneurs?
This came in from NetSudser
John Brand and is a telling report on how
Minnesota ranks in terms of entrepreneurial climate compared to the
other
49 States. California, home to Silicon Valley, doesn't rate very well
so
one has to wonder how much public policy has to do with entrepreneurial
activity.
http://www.sbsc.org/Media/pdf/SBSI2001.pdf
4.2 Who Says VC Money Has Dried Up?
From Jason McCabe Calacanis, Editor & CEO, VentureReporter.net & Silicon
Alley Reporter,
jason.calacanis@venturereporter.net
Over the past six weeks (ending 11/2/01) we've seen an amazingly
surprising
trend: despite economic concerns and the ongoing war on terrorism
venture
capital investing has not only stabilize, but is robust, reaching over
$500
million a week for the past six weeks. Today alone (11/7) the Venture
Reporter
database and email alert system (www.venturereporter.net) tracked over
$230
million in investments setting us up again for a big week.
If you would like to receive email updates on venture capital
investments each
day, or search our database of thousands of venture capital deals,
please
visit www.venturereporter.net today.
4.3 Seattle Shrinks
This came in from
NetSudser
Graeme Thickens
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134363278_seattlenetwork07.html
4.4 LMDS & MMDS in Minnesota
Some of you have seen the Worldcom ads for broadband wireless service in
the Twin Cities. I've seen the ads in the Star-Tribune and
CityBusiness.
Check out their service offering and cities served at:
http://www1.worldcom.com/us/products/access/broadband/wireless/
MMDS (fixed wireless access, sometimes referred to as
wireless
DSL) is a
technology which was purged by ADC in the recent rounds of shrinkage.
Nextnet Wireless -
www.nextnetwireless.com - builds products for the
MMDS
space and is located in Minnesota.
And the LMDS offering of Winstar is still up in St. Paul - probably
elsewhere as well. LMDS is a higher speed version of fixed wireless.
Local Multipoint Distribution System.
4.5 ITEC - December 5 and 6 in Minneapolis
NetSuds is pleased to be holding our quarterly gathering in conjunction
with
the 4th Annual Twin Cities ITEC (Information Technology Exposition &
Conference), December 5-6 from 10:00am - 4:00pm. The two day event
features
45+ free seminars and 150 booths filled with exciting new technologies
to see.
Visit the IT Security Pavilion packed with security consultants, Demo
Microsoft's new XP, take in the "Cyber Terrorism Security Panel
Discussion"
hosted by the FBI, or just browse and see what's new with Sun
Microsystems,
HP, Intel, and Sprint. If you work in or with IT, this event is a don't
miss
opportunity to see Comdex caliber exhibits in our own backyard. To
review
more details and pre-register to attend the ITEC log on to
http://www.goitec.com/forumreg/min_netsuds
http://events.goitec.com/eticket/MIN01/eticket
4.6 Local Boy Makes Good
Longtime
NetSudser
Graeme Thickins, founder of GT&A Strategic Marketing,
reports that the Red Herring "NDA" conference he recently attended in
California was quite an upbeat affair, and that his reporting on the
event
was picked up by both Business 2.0 and Conferenza.com.
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,35231,FF.html
http://www.conferenza.com/ArtDsp.asp?file=200110/nda2001_intro.htm
In addition, George Gilder's publishing organization
recently asked Graeme
if it could post his review of the "Storewidth 2001" event earlier this
year on one of its web sites. Graeme is available to put his writing
skills to work for more Minnesota technology firms as he did recently
for
Agiliti. Graeme can be reached at
grt@gtamarketing.com or 952.944.1672.
4.7 Market Caps - 11/24/01
A few years ago, John Chambers chronicled Cisco's rise to the top of the
datacom equipment vendor heap. It was during that same speech that he
matter-of-factly predicted that Cisco would become the
world's largest
telecom supplier (all in terms of market capitalization). Well, here's
the report card:
Cisco - $143.7B
ADC - $4.0B
Juniper - $8.4B
Lucent - $28.6B
Motorola - $39.3B
Nortel - $25.5B
Sun - $41.5B
Tellabs - $6.5B
Siemens - $53.2B
NEC - $16.7B
Ciena - $6.5B
AFCI - $1.6B
4.8 Irwin Jacobs ... I can help
I doubt Irwin Jacobs reads the NetSuds Monthly Report but in case he
does
I want to offer my services on his "thorn in IPI deal" as reported in
the
November 23, 2001 issue of CityBusiness. It seems IPI bought a boatload
of shares in Clarent Corporation - CLRNE. It turns out Clarent is (was)
a
significant player in the VoIP gateway and software business. Clarent
acquired ACT Networks in August of 2000. I spent 4.5 years with ACT
Networks developing the voice over frame relay products; DSP and
telephony
engineering. Irwin, I can help you determine what's what at Clarent.
Give
me a call at 612.279.2154 or drop me an email at
matt@netsuds.com.
5.0 Schedule of Events
5.1 - Minnesota
12/5 Minneapolis Convention Center
- NetSuds Evening
Gathering
http://www.netsuds.com/netsuds/
Mayor Elect R.T. Rybak, IP Telephony
Panel and
Demos
12/14 MedicalSuds Entrepreneurs Breakfast
http://www.medicalsuds.com/eb/2001/December/
5.2 - Outside Minnesota (iSuds)
12/11 MedicalSuds Evening Gathering - Washington, DC
http://www.medicalsuds.com/dc/eg/
12/19 iSuds Evening Gathering - San Jose
http://www.isuds.com/sj/isuds/
5.3 - pulver.com Events -
http://www.pulver.com/conference/index.html
12/4- San Diego, CA - Softswitch Expo 2001
12/6
http://www.pulver.com/softswitch/
February 5-7 - 5th Annual IP Communications
Industry Executive Summit,
Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii (
http://pulver.com/execsummit )
April 8-11 - Spring 2002 VON, Seattle, WA
May 29 - 31 - EAT'M (Emerging Artists and Technology in Music)
2002,
Las Vegas, NV (
http://www.eat-m.com )
5.4 - Non-NetSuds Events
John M. Morrison Center for Entrepreneurship, house on the
Minneapolis
campus of the University of St. Thomas, offers a number of
special
outreach/lifelong learning programs with Just-In-Time
information.
Visit
http://www.stthomas.edu/entrep/programs
for a calendar of events.
6.0 Apply to Present at a MedicalSuds or
NetSuds Entrepreneurs
Breakfast
Every month since Autumn 1999 NetSuds has had an Entrepreneurs
Breakfast (see
http://www.netsuds.com/eb/ for
past and current
events). If you are a pre-IPO "com or .com" start-up, you can apply
to present your company to the investment community at a future
breakfast event. Apply online at
http://www.netsuds.com/eb
Apply to present at a MedicalSuds Entrepreneurs
Breakfast (coming
soon) at
http://formmail.to/medsuds
7.0 10 US Telecom Policy Myths
By iSudser Daniel Berninger,
dan@pulver.com
Everyone agrees on two things. Investment in the tech sector, in telecom
in
particular, has mostly collapsed. And the policymakers in Washington,
DC
do not always understand the ways of technology - in particular, the
Internet.
Few see the connection. Some do.
For all the technology changes in telecom driven by the emergence of the
Internet, telecom policy has not changed much. The Internet emerged as
an
unregulated adjunct to the telephone network, but now everyone assumes
the
days of unregulation are nearly over. Everyone also assumes government
regulations will cripple the Internet. Hence the challenge.
The information technology companies that drove the commercial Internet
have only themselves to blame. They hoped their absence in Washington,
DC, the absence of disasters, and the growing importance of tech to the
economy might protect the Internet from ill-advised government
regulation.
It seems like time for Plan B.
The information technology sector needs to reverse its aversion to
public
policy debates. Realizing the promise of the Internet depends on it.
Heck, world peace depends on it.
Sixty or so bills that alter the way the US government interacts with
the
Internet are currently under consideration in Congress (see
www.cybertelecom.org). The bills reflect a number of myths about the
Internet, telecom, and public policy.
10 US public policy myths about the Internet:
1. Policy is independent of technology.
The first line of defense to protect the policy status quo usually
includes
claiming the emergence of the Internet does not change anything as
policy
should be independent of technology. Public policy inevitability
requires
making distinctions that require carefully worded definitions (i.e.
drawing
"lines"). The definitions require assumptions about technology that can
become obsolete as technology changes. Regulations attempt to impact a
commercial value chain toward some public interest goal, and technology
defines the value chain. A statement of goals and principals can
attempt
to remain independent of technology, but the goals will tend to get
shaped
by cost factors driven by technology. For example, the debate about
including Internet access in the definition of Universal Service must
consider the feasibility with respect to cost.
2. The Internet is a PSTN overlay network.
The collection of data networks that make up the Internet have only a
very
modest connection to the PSTN. "PSTN" stands for public switched
telephone
network or that part of the network addressed by telephone numbers.
Home
users frequently access the Internet by dialing telephone numbers, but
none
of the Internet hosts with permanent IP addresses depend on telephone
numbers for connectivity. The links may share conduits. The equipment
may
get housed in the same buildings or share maintenance staff, but the
PSTN
infrastructure is entirely separate from Internet infrastructure.
3. The Internet will replace the PSTN
The Internet is to the PSTN as highways are to railroads. The emergence
of
highways empowered people to control many more aspects of their
transportation needs with much greater flexibility. The Internet
accomplishes the same thing for communications in removing the need for
central control. Railroads tracks and the PSTN links support a single
type
of vehicle/service. Highways and the Internet allow all vehicle/service
types to commingle. Highways overshadowed railroads, but railroads did
not
become obsolete even though government recognized the public interest
associated with investments in highways. Automobiles and highways gave
rise
to an entirely separate industry and provided the basis for new types of
commerce, but railroads remain the most effective solution for some
transportation needs. The PSTN will increasingly leverage IP
infrastructure
to obtain the aggregation advantages analogous to using trucks and
railroad
to transport products. However, the end user control features that make
highways and the Internet interesting also limit reliability.
4. The Internet will prosper if government just stays out of the way and
lets
the free market work its magic.
If this were true, the Telecom Act of 1996 would not have unleashed
investment
in the Internet. For better or worse, government actions have preceded
all
significant industry changes. The government made the Internet possible
by
forcing AT&T to allow researchers to attach modems to the PSTN. The
information technology sector itself owes its existence to government.
The
1956 Consent Decree between the Department of Justice and IBM opened the
information processing market IBM dominated. Getting the commercial
markets
to work requires a significant amount of government intervention, but
government can get in trouble trying to micromanage technology. The
Communications Act of 1934 unfortunately represents this model in
attempting
to manage the communications business rather than facilitate a market.
Government intervention created the current state of affairs, it will
take
enlightened government action to allow the Internet to prosper.
5. The Communication Act of 1934 applies to all types of communications.
The FCC interprets the Communication Act of 1934 to authorize regulation
of
all types of communication from smoke signals to PSTN and the Internet.
The
FCC has maintained a policy of unregulation with regard to the Internet,
but
nothing in the Communication Act prevents regulating the Internet. In
fact,
the Communication Act of 1934 is irreconcilable with the Internet. The
implementation provisions of the Act assume transport defines service
(i.e.
broadcast means television and copper means telephone.) Once you know
the
type of transport, you know the type of service and vice versa. The
Internet
makes transport and service independent of each other. Companies
building
networks don't need to know anything about services. Companies
developing
applications don't need to know anything about the network. Attempts to
reassert a link between service and transport destroy the fundamental
innovation of the Internet. Incorporating the Internet in the
regulatory
framework established by the Communication Act of 1934 inevitability
requires a fiction about the difference between voice and other types of
data.
6. The US's Universal Service Program makes telecommunications
affordable in
high cost and low income areas.
The metrics for telephone penetration in high cost and low income areas
show
automobiles, televisions, and VCR's reach more people. Telephone
penetration
drops below 80% in some low income areas. During a period where the
price
for local telephone service increased every year, market forces succeed
in
bringing computers from the realm of prohibitively expensive military
research devices to something children have in their room and use for
instant
messaging. Telecom applications of the Internet have already
significantly
reduced the cost of international calling. Ongoing innovations
leveraging
the Internet, low-cost premise equipment, and creative pricing models
promise
to make communication much more affordable in the next 10 years than the
Universal Service Program accomplished in 30 years. To the extent the
regulatory complexities of universal service discourage innovation, the
Universal Service Program hurts the cause of high cost and low income
areas.
The subsidy model designed for explicit redistribution of wealth applied
by
the Communication Act (i.e. socialism) was discredited in the last
century.
7. All we need is a level playing field
Government exists to serve voters. The challenge of US public policy is
not
creating a level playing field between business entities, but finding
market-
based approaches that promise the most benefits for consumers. This may
require favoring one industry segment over another depending on the
history
of the situation.
8. Bell companies just need the right incentives to begin rolling out
broadband and other new services.
In other words, the Bell companies want to be able to charge enough to
make a
profit on investments in broadband and new services. In other words, it
would
help to have monopoly pricing power. Deploying new services requires
losing
money for a period of time. The Bell companies naturally don't relish
the
idea given profit margins associated with the old services and the
prospects
of new services cannibalizing those old services.
Verizon, SBC, and
Bell South
will collectively have $20 billion dollars of profit this year. It makes
no
sense for a monopoly to pursue network upgrades required for new
services, R&D,
and marketing as they just reduce profits.
The track record of Bell
company
reluctance to deploy new services arises from a rational decision to
profit
rather than invest. Incentives designed to attract Bell company
investment can
only mean less competition and higher prices for consumers.
9. The Telecom Act of 1996 empowers the FCC to address local loop
anti-trust
issues, or it would with greater enforcement efforts and, perhaps,
the
authority to assess larger fines.
The Telecom Act of 1996 is written as a series of amendments to the
Communication Act of 1934. The Communication Act of 1934 serves
anti-anti-trust
purposes in that it created a monopoly in telecommunications. It defies
reason
to use it in the opposite way, and the track record shows no amount of
tinkering
can make the Act suitable for anti-trust purposes. The FCC existed for
60 years
as a manager of a telecom monopoly. Over the years, the monopoly
accumulated far
greater resources than the FCC. The FCC's annual $230 million dollar
budget
seems unlikely to keep the Bell companies from doing whatever is
necessary to
protect their $20 billion dollars of profit. The Bell companies get
increasingly
adept in using an offensive legal strategy, a myriad of small acts, red
tape, and
predatory pricing keep competition under control. The impossibility of
the FCC
managing the Bell monopolies does not change with larger fines. The Bell
companies have consolidated their monopolies since the 1996 Act. They
control 10%
more of the local access lines than AT&T did prior to divestiture in
1983. The
courts have recently ruled the Bells are immune from anti-trust laws for
activities covered by the Telecommunication Act of 1996. Further
revisions to the
Telecom Act offer little promise as Bells have significant influence
with key
leaders in Congress.
10. Governments have the same authority to regulate the Internet as they
did
traditional telecommunications
The Internet with a capital "I" is a global phenomena. At this point,
global
government does not exist. Local governing authorities can create local
"Berlin
walls" to maintain central control, but enterprise and economic gains
simply move
elsewhere. Governments might rightly consider the impact of the
Internet on
consumer protection, crime, and public interest. The challenge requires
going
back to basics and assessing what policy goals the Internet threatens,
rather than
simply looking for a way to capture the Internet within an existing
regulatory
framework. The 90% decline of most Nasdaq listed telecom stocks
accurately
reflect a bleak public policy outlook. The $4.6 trillion in wealth lost
by
Nasdaq share holders between March 2000 and March 2001, represents the
difference
between optimism about the future of the Internet and pessimism about
the
prospects for Internet-friendly public policy. Economists point to the
inevitable
business cycle-driven inventory correction where supply exceeds demand.
Old
economy partisans maintain the new economy business models never made
sense.
Neither explanation seems satisfactory as the new economy businesses
never had a
chance to create demand, and all companies lost funding independent of
business
model. The public policy threats that frightened the capital markets
offer a much
better explanation.
Ultimately, the change in investor sentiment comes from a change in
"faith" rather
than rational considerations. In 1999, investors believed government
would make
sure the Internet prospered and continue the push toward competition in
telecom.
In 2001, conventional wisdom does not give the Internet very good odds.
It takes
a visionary or historian to hold out hope for IP Communications-friendly
policy.
Visionaries know the Internet juggernaut can't be stopped. Historians
can see the
slow inevitable progress government has made to reduce the grip of
monopoly in
telecommunications over the last 70 years.
Please send thoughts/comments/feedback to: Daniel Berninger -
dan@pulver.com.
8.0 What's Hot. What's Not.
NetSudser
Mike Duran of New York recently conducted a survey of his
network
of telecom and datacom professionals in preparation for his CNNfn
interview.
Here is what he reported to us all at the conclusion of the
survey:
Friends,
Thank you to everyone who responded to my request for thoughts on
what is HOT and what is NOT in technology today. It was a big help
to me in preparing for my October 23 television interview on CNNfn.
I received slightly more than 200 responses in 24 hours and thought
you might be interested in the results of this unscientific survey.
Below are the top three of each and some commentary. If you would
like more of the raw data, just let me know.
What is HOT?
HOT #1. Security - 43 respondents mentioned security. General ideas
covered a wide range from personal, to corporate, to internet.
HOT #2. Wireless - 30 respondents mentioned wireless data. Many think
wireless data devices are hot and others mentioned wide-area wireless
data networks - 2.5G, 3G, wide-area 802.11.
HOT #3. Video and Voice - many respondents mentioned video and voice
applications on the Internet. This included cable equipment, set-top
boxes and voice-over-everything.
What is NOT?
NOT #1. Telecommunications - we received many negative comments on
telecommunications including CLECs, telecommunications equipment, and
optical networking.
NOT #2. Wireless - the wireless data hype has disappointed many who
mentioned WAP, 3G and fixed wireless.
NOT #3. Video and voice - several mentioned reservations about the
success the Internet will have in ever carrying voice and video.
Michael Duran, Partner, Apax Partners
212.753.6300,
Michael.Duran@Apax.com,
www.Apax.com
9.0 Wireless LAN Primer
By NetSudser
Joe Dwyer, founder of Dwyer Technology, Inc., a Minneapolis
-based software and technology service firm focused on custom software
development, Internet and wireless solutions, and infrastructure
management.
He can be reached via e-mail at
joe@DwyerTech.com
Computer networks are a necessity for corporate computing. E-mail,
Internet
connections, printing and file sharing have all become an affordable
reality
because of the corporate network. However, costs can be lowered,
flexibility
increased and usefulness of the computing system improved with the use
of a
wireless network.
The functionality of a wireless network is the same as a wired one.
It's
simply an extension to existing network structures. It allows for
printing
to network printers, surfing the Internet, retrieving e-mail, file
sharing,
etc., without the restriction of the network cable. Everything you do
on a
wired network can now be done wirelessly.
The most common form of wireless network utilizes the
802.11b standard,
which
defines a high-speed communications protocol through the air. Equipment
based
on this standard is available at all major retail computer stores, is
inexpensive and can be easily integrated into existing networks.
Creating this type of computing structure requires two components. The
access
point is the basic device used to connect wired infrastructure to the
wireless
world. An access point plugs into a wired network just as a PC, hub, or
switch
currently does. In order for workstations to access data remotely, the
PC must
have a wireless network card installed. This network card is similar to
today's
typical NIC, except it contains an antenna instead of an Ethernet
connection
jack. The wireless network card communicates with the access point,
which then
forwards signals out along the wired path.
The speed of wireless connections is quite remarkable. When located
near an
access point data transfer rates of up to 11Mbs can be reached. Many of
today's
wired networks run at maximum speeds of 10Mbs so the speed is quite
comparable.
Moreover, in an open area such as a warehouse or the outdoors, speeds of
1Mbs
can be maintained at distances of up to a quarter of a mile away.
The most impressive part of this new technology is its cost. The access
point
can be purchased for approximately $200-$250, and wireless network cards
typically run from $80-$140. One access point can connect 50-200 users
depending on the traffic generated. A small business of 20 people can
be
connected for under $3000. Couple this with the cost savings and
management
effort of the network cabling, and the system becomes quite affordable.
Wireless networks are greatly increasing the
flexibility of today's
corporate
computing. Now one can be as connected as ever without the restriction
of the
wire. No more needing to find the nearest network hook-up. No more
having to
remember to bring a cable in order to connect your laptop. No more
needing to
find the nearest connected PC in order to check e-mail or get to the
Web. It
has now become feasible to be connected wherever you are in your home or
office.
The Internet can literally always be at your fingertips.
Besides connecting PCs, wireless networks also expand the usefulness of
today's
computing environment by connecting
PDAs and Tablet PCs to corporate
data.
Connecting these devices opens up a whole new world of efficiencies and
automation. Imagine warehouse and distribution employees having live
access to
customer and inventory data. Or, being able to remove paper-based forms
with a
system that immediately creates and revises corporate data. The
possibilities
are limited only by a company's creativity and desire for automation and
efficiency. Many manufacturers of handheld PDAs, including the Compaq
iPaq,
allow for expandability of the device to support wireless network
connections.
Most next-generation PDAs and Tablet PCs will come with built-in
wireless
network capabilities.
Over the next several years many public places, including most airports,
will
become wireless-enabled to handle high-speed Internet and data traffic.
Some
cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, are even starting grassroots
efforts
to connect the complete metropolitan area with one gigantic wireless
network.
The cost, flexibility and convenience make wireless networks a great
choice in
today's business environment. As you build out new networks for your
home or
business, consider implementing a wireless network.
10.0 Guest Writers for This Report
I have opened up the Monthly NetSuds Report to guest writers. If
you have a passion for a topic, and you can write (at least no worse
than me), send an email to me at
matt@netsuds.com. You can even send
copies of your work. It needs to be on "com and .com" topics and can
include entrepreneur/investor activities. Good information from our
service providers and vendors is also welcome so long as it is not a
"commercial" for any one company or individual.
We will consider both sponsored and unsponsored columnists and guest writers.
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Matt Noah
1460 Lake Drive West
Chanhassen, MN 55317
612.279.2154
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matt@netsuds.com
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