Which European capital wears the WiFi crown?

RIGA, Latia — The Estonian tech-hub city of Tallinn has long laid claim to the title of WiFi capital of Europe – but now it has a challenger.

A Baltic rival has emerged in Latvia, whose capital Riga launched a war of words this week as it seeks to overtake its neighbour in all things Internet.

City authorities teamed up with Latvia’s state-owned Lattelecom telecoms company to buy billboards leading into Riga with the words “European capital of WiFi” cheekily emblazoned across the front.

Statements from city hall followed, pointing out that Riga has one free Wifi zone for every 750 residents, compared to one for every 1,263 in Tallinn.

At the unveiling of the billboards, Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs crowed that his city has “surpassed other European cities in free WiFi coverage”.

Lattelecom CEO Juris Gulbis hailed Latvia as an emerging European “WiFi superpower” for the 4,000 free points dotted across the country of two million.

While the sheer numbers of free WiFi points in European metropolises like London or Paris dwarf those in both Baltic capitals, Riga now claims to trump the rest — especially its northern neighbour — on a per capita basis.

Officials in the Estonian capital are not amused.

After all, their city gave birth to Skype, hosts NATO’s elite cyber-defence centre and claims to offer the highest number of public e-services on the planet.

Vaino Olev, Tallinn City Council’s head of IT services leapt to defend his city’s high tech credentials.

In a subtle dig at Riga’s supposed modernity, Olev also suggested that free WiFi is actually yesterday’s news.

“This sounds more like Riga has set an ambitious goal for itself,” he told AFP.

“Due to the booming popularity of smart devices among city residents, the number of WiFi areas in Tallinn has stabilised rather than increased – interest in public free WiFi has diminished,” he said.

“This, of course, is mainly due to the local mobile phone operators offering low prices on smart phone packages. The main WiFi users in Tallinn now are tourists,” Olev said.

Estonia, with its population of just 1.3 million people, has made a name for itself for being a trailblazer in technology and notably pioneered e-voting in 2005.

After five decades of Soviet rule ended in 1991, Estonia opted to use existing computer engineering facilities to go hi-tech as quickly as possible.

It earned the nickname “E-stonia” as it outstripped most other members of the European Union, which it joined in 2004.

Officials in Latvia have watched Estonia’s success closely, and have responded by investing heavily in infrastructure in a bid to spur growth.

source: interaksyon.com

Global Wi-Fi shipments to hit 18 billion in the next 5 years — ABI Research

MANILA, Philippines -– Global shipment of Wi-Fi is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the following years due largely to the growth of the smartphone market and increasing connectivity of various tools and gadgets.

From an expected 2.6 billion total this year, Wi-Fi shipment is expected to hit a cumulative 18 billion from 2015 to 2019 according to New York-based ABI Research. In the present market, ABI Research said that Wi-FI is “the most ubiquitous technology for Internet Access.”

“There will be a roughly even split in 2019 for Wi-Fi chipsets of different integration levels,” said ABI Research director Philip Solis in a press release. “Standalone, or discrete, Wi-Fi chipsets — increasingly targeting the ‘Internet of Things’ — will be the largest group, followed by integrated platforms with Wi-Fi targeting mobile devices, followed by Wi-Fi combo chipsets.”



The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things is the term used to the current trend where various objects or even animals are able to automatically transmit data over a network without any form of human control, such as a heart monitor implant or a tracking device on free-range animals for location and identification.

ABI Research added that concurrent with the industry’s growth, Wi-Fi protocols will also continue to evolve, though the dual-band network is poised to dominate the market.

“By the end of the forecast period, dual-band will comprise the vast majority of chipsets shipped among all the protocols. Dual-band had a strong start in 2013 by surpassing 100 million shipments in the smartphone space alone, which accounted for a sizable fraction of the total shipped that year,” ABI Research said.

Tri-band, however, will also see “a strong ramp” during the next five years according to ABI Research.

“The natural progression of Wi-Fi into more capable protocols and new use cases will have a profound effect on the Wi-Fi chipset industry. Smaller players will try to make a land grab for market share while the established players will defend their turf,” ABI Research said.

source: interaksyon.com

WiFi-powered cameras a massive hit in Southeast Asia, GfK says

MANILA, Philippines — The future of digital cameras is Internet connectivity, and if uptake figures from Southeast Asia are any indication, that future will be bright as day for camera manufacturers that take this route.

According to latest figures from market research firm GfK, WiFi-enabled cameras marked 2012 with a two-fold increase in sales volume over the previous year, as consumers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam gobbled up a total of 776,000 units last year.

Cameras that have WiFi capabilities have been in the market since as early as 2005, but it is only recently that the category has seen massive adoption from users, given the popularity of Internet-enabled devices. In 2012, a total of 160 models from manufacturers such as Canon, Samsung, Olympus and Nikon were being sold in the region.

“By December 2012, one in every three cameras sold in the region’s more technologically advanced markets of Singapore and Malaysia were equipped with the WiFi feature, contributing to nearly two-fifth of total dollar sales in the respective countries for that month,” observed Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital Technology at GfK Asia.

By providing Internet connectivity in digital cameras, manufacturers allow users to instantly upload photos to various photo-sharing services, including social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The innovation came as the digital camera market faced tough competition from smartphones, whose built-in cameras have been improving in recent years, and whose mobile operating systems allow the operation of apps that make photo uploads easier while on the go.

Samsung even stretched the concept further by releasing the Galaxy Camera, an 18-megapixel digital camera that runs on the Android operating system.

In an earlier interview, Samsung Philippines AV Business Unit Head Ariel Aras admitted that these new features found in digital cameras are the market’s way of responding to consumer demand, which is increasingly preferential for the ability to share photos instantly.


“[That is why] we are responding to the demand of consumers asking for WiFi technology [to be integrated in our cameras],” Arias said. “We will not only offer a great experience in taking photos, but seamless connectivity with other devices as well.”


GfK said that with stiff competition in the category, prices of WiFi-enabled cameras went down by at least 39 percent from 2011 to 2012, making the devices affordable to a wider range of consumers.

“The digital camera market is facing strong challenges from smartphones which today are able to offer comparable functions and good quality photos of as high as 13 megapixels,” Tan said. “The introduction of the WiFi feature in cameras is definitely a right step forward to stimulate and boost the camera market in this Internet age.”

IDC projected that in 2012, the number of connected devices such as WiFi-powered cameras that shipped worldwide had breached the 1 billion mark, or about 14 percent of the total world population today.

source: interaksyon.com

Free Wi-Fi, but Speed Costs

As airlines try to persuade passengers to pay for Internet access at cruising altitudes, more airports and hotels are offering it free on the ground.

Half of the busiest airports in the United States now have free Wi-Fi, including Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Phoenix and Houston. Dallas/Fort Worth plans to join that list in September, teaming with AT&T in a service that will give travelers 40 minutes of free Wi-Fi in exchange for viewing a 30-second advertisement.

That type of sponsored access is one way airports are balancing consumer pressure for free access to Facebook, Twitter and e-mail accounts with the cost of providing a bigger pipe for growing data needs. As devices demanding Wi-Fi proliferate, airports and hotels are also turning to tiered pricing models: offering limited Internet access free and a faster premium service to customers willing to pay.

Denver International Airport, which has offered free advertiser-supported Wi-Fi since 2007, is switching to a tiered pricing model this week. Working with Boingo Wireless, the airport is upgrading its network to give travelers free basic Internet service or more bandwidth for a $7.95 day pass (for a laptop) or $4.95 an hour (for a smartphone).

A business traveler sending a large file to a client is the type of customer who may opt for the premium speed.

“If you don’t see it going fast enough, you’d have that option of upgrading to the paid service,” said John Ackerman, the airport’s chief commercial officer. “Is your time or your money more important to you? That’s a personal choice we’re going to allow you to make.”

While the free service will still require viewing a 15- to 30-second commercial every half-hour, Mr. Ackerman said passengers should see improvements in the speed of the complimentary service, which has been a source of complaints.

The Boingo contract guarantees the Denver airport a minimum share of the Wi-Fi revenue — more than $500,000 over three years for the airport — with the potential for higher earnings as advertising opportunities evolve.

“We could have somebody walking down the concourse and serve them an ad saying, ‘There’s a Starbucks 200 yards up and to the right — stop in and have a cup of coffee for 50 cents off,’ ” Mr. Ackerman said.

With flight cutbacks decreasing the income airports receive from landing fees, non-airline revenue has become more critical to airports, which have also been lobbying the government to raise the passenger tax that helps pay for airport facilities. So these types of Wi-Fi deals help balance budgets while remaining competitive in an era when passengers can choose to fly from or connect through an airport with better amenities or prices.

Jim Sullivan, founder of WiFiFreespot.com, a directory of airports, hotels and retailers that offer free Wi-Fi, said more regional airports had joined the list in recent years.

“It’s more of a competitive situation there,” he said. “It’s definitely an amenity they can offer to try to get more traffic.”

Some notable larger airports have also embraced free Wi-Fi, including Reagan National and Dulles airports in Washington. By July 2, Raleigh-Durham International airport in North Carolina plans to introduce a tiered Wi-Fi service, with 45 minutes of free advertiser-sponsored access.

Christian Gunning, a spokesman for Boingo Wireless, which operates free, paid and tiered Wi-Fi networks at more than 60 airports worldwide, said the hotel industry had led the way as Internet pricing models evolved.

“Ten years ago, pretty much every airport was pay and pretty much every hotel was pay,” he said. “Some of the midtier hotels started to go free, then everybody did it, and it was a race to the bottom.”

That bottom is an experience familiar to anyone who has tried to log on to a free network — or even a paid one — and waited through most of an airport layover or room service delivery time for a few dozen e-mails to download.

“No one wants to pay for anything, but everything needs to be state-of-the-art or people complain,” Mr. Gunning said.

source: nytimes.com

PLDT offers free wifi along NLEX, SLEX during Holy Week

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is offering free wifi access to motorists in select gasoline stations along North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway this Holy Week.

Travelers can avail of the free service at PLDT WiFi Zone booths where they can claim wifi PINs, register, and log on to fast and reliable Internet connections.

Other establishments and landmarks in nearby towns and cities such as Tagaytay, and in select areas in Batangas, Laguna and La Union will also have free wifi access powered by PLDT WiFi Zones.

With this free service offered to travelers, they can easily access their favorite social networking sites or news sites during pit stops to share their experiences or get traffic updates or the latest news for a more enjoyable Holy Week travel.

Visit www.pldtwifizone.com to see the complete list of wifi zones along NLEX and SLEX this Holy Week.

source: interaksyon.com