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RSS feedsThe reach of wireless LANs may not stop at the boundaries of firms' headquarters or branch offices. Carriers, service providers and mobile operators are planning to create public-access WLANs, or WLAN hotspots, in public spaces.
The idea is that users already carrying WLAN-enabled portable computers will be able to log on at these public access points to get instant high-bandwidth links to the Internet and corporate LANs.
BT has promised to install up to 4,000 public access WLANs in locations such as airports, railway stations, hotels, bars and coffee shops across the UK within the next three years.
These will be based on 802.11b technology, which offers better signal range than its rivals and has the largest number of users among consumers and business employees, who will need to use their own client devices to access the WLANs.
Some question the extent to which users will be able to roam from one access point to another, however. BT says that users will have to sit at a specific desk adjacent to a single access point to log on.
Each access point will be able to support about 30 simultaneous users. Browsing performance will depend the number of users logged on to the WLAN, and the capacity of the broadband connection that links the WLAN to the Internet.
Corporations that want their staff to be able to access BT's hotspots will have the option to pre-pay for user licences, login names and passwords in bulk. Alternatively, mobile workers will need to input credit card details on an ad-hoc basis when they are within range of a suitable access point.
Carriers' long term plans are to integrate the public access WLANs into other types of mobile networks, such as GPRS and third-generation (3G) systems. This would allow users to maintain a constant link wherever they roam, with connections handed from one type of network to another whenever necessary to keep the connection alive.
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