In 1901, when Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal on Signal Hill, he was not dealing with a large amount of data. In fact, the signal consisted only of the letter "S" in Morse code, which is about the equivalent of one byte of data. Today, communication has evolved from the transmission of one byte of data to thousands (kilobytes) and, at times, millions (megabytes) of bytes of data.

Marconi was interested in wireless for sending signals. These days, wireless is being used more and more to deliver high-speed access to the World Wide Web. Another difference between wireless then and now is that Marconi hoisted a kite with an antenna perched on top in order to receive the signal that made him famous. The hardware associated with today's wireless technology is a lot more sophisticated and complex. It includes mobile wireless such as cell phones, laptops, palmpilots and pocket PCs and fixed wireless using an antenna and a receiver.

Fixed wireless provides high-speed access to the web by transmitting signals using radio frequencies delivered from "fixed," antennas and towers to antennas mounted on buildings, homes and other structures. Likewise, satellites send their signals to an antenna or dish mounted on the side or roof of a household or business. Fixed wireless Internet access in Newfoundland is not widespread at this point in time.

When it comes to mobile wireless, the technology still has a way to go before it can allow for transmission of large amounts of data at high speeds. Current cell phone technology is too slow for accessing anything but wireless-friendly websites. For this reason, digital, web-enabled phones filter out graphical content and allow text-based web surfing only.

If you want to access e-mail and the web using a phone, you must have a digital, web-enabled phone and be signed up with NewTel Mobility's WireFree™ Web service [www.mobility.newtel.com/products/wirefree/cell.html]. For now, that service is only available in St. John's, Mount Pearl and CBS but it will soon extend as far as Whitbourne. In the near future, we may see even wider access and greater use of web-enabled phones here on the North-American continent if trends in Asia and Europe are any indication of what's to come.

Trends in the use of mobile and fixed wireless will make for popular discussion items at the upcoming international Wireless Vision Congress [www.wirelessvision.nf.ca/] to take place in September in St. John's. The conference will attract industry leaders and big names in business. And that's because wireless is big business. In Canada alone in 1999, $1 billion was invested in wireless infrastructure.

But that doesn't mean that wireless is always profitable especially when it comes to this province. Delivering wireless World Wide Web access to households and small businesses in Newfoundland would be more expensive than in most other places in Canada.

Our population is concentrated largely in rural and remote areas that are hard and expensive to reach with today's technologies. Recovering the costs of new infrastructure installation and equipment upgrades may be difficult given the small number of potential customers in each community. Attracting private sector investment for wireless Internet access in Newfoundland households may therefore present major challenges.

Marconi would probably have understood these challenges. After all, besides being a creative inventor, he was also an astute businessman. That spirit of invention and business savvy may be the very combination needed to face the economic and technical challenges of providing wireless technology in Newfoundland.

Previously published in The Express 05/01
Take me To TechTrends