The popularity of Wi-Fi--which features networking nodes that use the 802.11b wireless technology to broadcast an Internet connection over a radius of 300 feet--has spawned a number of independent companies that offer wireless services. Yet it is difficult, and prohibitively expensive, for many customers of a Wi-Fi service to use the network of another.
The barrier to wireless roaming lies not in technology, but in that carriers have only just started to iron out billing issues. "The bits, the bytes and the hardware exist for roaming. We just need someone to start pulling it all together," said Barry Davis, Intel's director of platform architecture. He's attending a meeting this week of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in the US, held to discuss how to jumpstart Wi-Fi roaming.
The European Telephone Standards Institute (ETSI) is making a similar effort to encourage companies to explore Wi-Fi roaming. It began work on developing a standard for 802.11b wireless roaming just last year, about the time British Telecommunications began selling its own Wi-Fi service.
While a standard isn't required to create roaming capability, there is industry pressure for the IEEE and the ETSI to agree on one, since it would cut costs and help development of future Wi-Fi technology. This could then be used in such industry efforts as Project Rainbow, a joint endeavour by Intel, IBM, AT&T Wireless, Verizon Communications and Cingular Wireless to create a nationwide Wi-Fi network in the US.
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