Recently, I suggested that some day some vendor may integrate WLAN
technology and cordless technology into one box for the home market.
Well, it turned out this wasn't as visionary as many people
suggested. It turned out that Siemens (those bloody Germans again ;-)
are doing it already ...
The article "Voice calls go out over HomeRF" at
http://www.eet.com/story/OEG20010810S0003
reports about a wireless system for the home, called HomeRF, that
combines WLAN and DECT.
They even talk about roaming in multicell environments (hotels and
coffee shops?) :
"... Compaq, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Proxim and Siemens
still remain staunch HomeRF supporters. And with advanced voice
support and a migration path to 50 and even 100Mbits/s, the HomeRF
group is confident it can take up to 80% of the home market. The
group is also looking at the multicell market for roaming to address
markets outside the home..."
And they seem confident to launch specific handsets for this:
"... The companies 'will make handsets available' to anyone 'in whatever
logo or plastic format they choose. We will kick this off with a sales
and marketing program beginning at the end of next month' said Haas."
So much for the myth that major GSM handset manufacturers wouldn't
push any technology that would present an alternative to using
cellular phones even at home.
It would rather seem that, as cellular handset sales are cooling off,
those handset manufacturers prepare to revive cordless in order to
revive sales. In other words, "if we can't increase sales of cell
phones anymore, then let's try to increase sales of cordless phones
instead."
And I'd like to suggest that, at the latest when they have saturated
that market, then they will eventually sell us end user combo-devices
that do cellular, cordless and wireless LAN.
kind regards
benjamin
[ Need archives? How to unsubscribe? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Thu Aug 16 10:14:23 2001