Things to come
Wireless does not necessarily mean mobility, but, without it, mobility will be pretty difficult.
Says Thibault Dousson, HP's PSG category country manager: 'As we move towards the reality of an undefined wireless world, the challenge is how to make connectivity manageable and adaptable, so that it can truly enhance productivity. It is pointless to bring out new technology if it is not easy to manage, as this will become a barrier to business.'
'The bottom line is that over the next few years, high-speed networks composed of an array of underlying technologies and using converged devices will become more widespread, with more people enjoying more bandwidth in more places,' Dousson says.
Heinz Stephan, director product and technology at Comztek, says: 'The technology that allows us to connect to such resources as the Internet is mainly GPRS and 3G, then the wireless network, which relies on technology such as Wi-Fi. The future is obviously the marrying of the two technologies -- mobile and wireless -- to ultimately provide an always-on, always-connected, transparent roaming environment.'
Stephan believes that the future is in intelligent Internet-enabled mobile devices, predicted by some to become as prevalent as fixed-line telephones by 2008.
According to Suzette Victor, sales operations manager of the Venture Communications Group, technologies that will have an impact on the mobile space include the proliferation of VOIP calls -- like Skype -- and free handset-to-handset (point-to-point) calls to bypass cellular networks altogether.
Victor notes that the 'seamless handoff' is also a challenge of the future of mobility. 'Many see the possibility of a seamless transition -- during a single telephone call -- from a wireless network to the cellular networks as a natural evolution of both services,' she says.
Ultimately Stephan sees a meshing of technologies such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and traditional mobile packet transmission technologies, such as GPRS and 3G in the not too distant future.
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Security
With mobility and the increase of connection coverage, security has become an increased issue.
Says Dell SA client product manager, Gavin Slevin: 'Network security is of particular concern in the mobile environment, particularly today when most mobile devices include wireless LAN connectivity as standard. An unsecured Wi-Fi signal is a major security risk, so make sure that your WLAN implementation allows for the configuration of the SSID signal, MAC address filtering, the support of a VPN, and network authentication based on the 802.1x encryption standard to ensure the unwanted users are kept off the network and the data on the mobile system safeguarded from prying eyes.'
According to Dousson, mobile security solutions already exist that allow users to implement a wireless network, out of the box, with confidence and without the need to hire a security specialist.
Jonathan Hatchuel, business group manager: Windows client at Microsoft SA, also notes that the company has built in a number of mobile security features, such as Bluetooth authorization and end-to-end virtual private network (VPN) encryption to ensure that remote workers can operate safely, irrespective of their physical location, whilst using Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.
Wireless into Africa
Dousson believes that the African market is aware that it has to adopt wireless technologies, but that African economies are not mature enough to fully embrace them.
'With the capacity to provide higher speed Internet access, GPRS could provide a solution to the lack of Internet access. In the meantime, fixed wireless networks are being utilized to provide 3G services in a number of countries. Given the demand for Internet access, these wireless technologies could provide a viable solution to Africa's Internet future. WiMax could also have a key role to play in helping install a 'portable' Internet solution for the region,' he adds.
Says Paul Wilde, regional manager: SADC and southern Africa at arivia.kom: 'In countries such as Nigeria, the ratio of wireless to fixed-line is already 6:1. CDMA is also likely to take off faster than GSM, since older versions already have a large footprint, and it is far cheaper than GSM.'
'Africa is no backwater market where first-world vendors can dump dated technologies,' Wilde warns.
The reality is that fixed wireless technology is still at the order of the day, but true mobile ventures are catching up. As implementation costs decrease, cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks expand, and more mobile devises and applications are developed, having a stationary office will soon become pass'.