From Our Readers

In Chris Taylor's "Will You Buy Wi-Fi?" [TIME GLOBAL BUSINESS, May], an otherwise good article is marred by a throwaway line about 3G's being much better than Wi-Max, a new Wi-Fi standard, when users are traveling at high speeds. Our company, Wi-LAN Inc., has demonstrated since 1999 the performance of Wi-Max-like equipment with users moving at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h. Then, we did tests with users traveling at 70 m.p.h. while receiving data at 20 Mbps (10 times the data rate theoretically achievable by 3G systems). We have also received data in an airplane flying at 100 knots and cars moving at 100 m.p.h. The geeks know this, and that's why they are working on the extension of the Wi-Max standard to incorporate mobility. In any case, our company has been promoting this technology as the basis for future 4G systems, and I believe this is a story that you may want to follow over the next couple of years.
SAYED-AMR EL-HAMAMSY
PRESIDENT AND COO WI-LAN INC.
Calgary, Canada