Here's something that should have 3G mobile investors sitting up and taking notice: several wireless network kit manufacturers are now offering 802.11 networks with ranges measured in miles, not metres. Proxim, reports News.com, is the newest (and biggest) into the market with a system offering 12 miles range per base station, but Intel is not far behind.
The News.com story does not say if this is a 12 mile-wide "cloud" of access, as with current 802.11 networks, or if the service is pointed at particular fixed locations in order to get the full range. But the 3G world's assumption about 802.11 has, until now, been that these are wireless LANS - local area networks, offering seveal megabits a second of bandwidth but only over a range of a couple of hundred feet. If they cease to be too local, expect lots of 3G operators to get very upset indeed, especially as this low-cost, high power solution will strike at exactly the business user 3G wants to appeal to first.
