Contents - Connect-World

Wireless Internet
Wireless internet access as the key to knowledge-based
growth and economic prosperity
by Thomas A. Freeburg, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Strategy, MemoryLink
A World Bank study showed that giving a small farmer a telephone could double his
income. The Internet gives that advantage to all occupations. Internet penetration in
North America is 60 per cent; in Asia Pacific, penetration is only six per cent. Nearly two
billion additional Internet connections are needed for Asia-Pacific to reach North
American penetration levels. Wirelessoperating in unlicensed frequency bands, with
per dwelling capital investments as low as US$9is the only economical way to provide
such widespread connectivity.
Thomas A Freeburg is Chief Operating Officer and Director of MemoryLink. Mr Freeburg is one of the
foremost experts in broadband Internet, particularly in the area of unlicensed wireless platforms. He
has 60 US Patents and more than 120 published papers. With one eye on today and one eye on tomorrow,
he rallies 39 years of experience at Motorola, where he served as Corporate Vice President, Chief
Futurist and Director of Technology. Mr Freeburg earned a BSEE from Bradley University and a MSEE
from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Emerging technology in the Asia
Pacific region is much like a gigantic
field of flowers about to burst into full
bloom. Imagine a field where a handful
of these flowers are already providing a
glimpse of their beautiful colours; we
see much of the same in our view of the
regions economic and social landscapea
future that will advance dramatically
as communications technologies
unfold.
Information and communications
knowledge-based poweris increasingly
recognised as the key enabler in
promoting growth, creating jobs and
improving life, for both developed and
developing nations. Access to information
and knowledge stimulates economic
growth by creating new products,
increasing productivity and promoting
new commercial and administrative
methods.
A decade ago, a study by the World
Bank sought to rank industrial applications
against investment priorities in
Asia-Pacifics emerging nations. The
study pointed to a union between agriculture
and telephony; by giving a
small farmer a telephone, one could
expect to double his income! The
Internet and its associated applications
extend that principle to all occupations
that have a knowledge-based component.
In Asia Pacific, as in many other parts
of the world today, communication
connectivity is made up of three broad,
yet distinct groups: entertainment,
classical telephony and the Internet.
Entertainment in the form of radio and
television is typically one-way, overthe-air
broadcasting.
The balance of the entertainment market
is shared by cable and satellite.
Over-the-air broadcasting has maintained
a major presence in Asia Pacific
for a long time. Initially subsidised by
the respective governments, over-theair
broadcasting also has been regulated
substantially. In the meantime,
cable and satellite are becoming more
and more important and are gaining
new ground.
Classical telephony has two groups:
wired and cellular, both of which are
true network technologies because they
provide for two-way communication.
In Asia Pacific as in most other parts of
the world, a large percentage of the
wired telephony networks continue as
monopolies and considering the economics
of installing new wire, it is easy
to see why a second wired network
would be difficult or even impossible to
build.
The cellular side of the scale is balanced
by privatisation and competitionlots
of competition. Twenty years
after the breakup of the worlds largest
communications monopolyAmerican
Telephone and Telegraphmany consumers
in the US have no fewer than
eight distinct sources of wired and
wireless telecommunications services
available to them and at historically
low prices. Also today a huge number
of competing Internet Protocol (IP)
carriers have become telephony players
connecting customers via cable, fibre,
telephone wireline-based DSL or dialup.
Finally, there is the Internet, which is
dramatically different from either the
entertainment group or classical
telephony. Both the entertainment and
classical telephony models house vast
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