The race is on to distribute the next generation of wireless systems. This one is going to be much more interesting than the last, where carriers were frantically waving their hands to explain why the promises they were making weren�t anywhere close to happening. This time the race is between cities, which Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs thinks are unfair competition, the carriers, which are still trying to swallow their monstrous debt loads, and manufacturers like Motorola or Cisco (or even both of them together), which are playing the arms dealer role and selling to all sides at once.

The role Jacobs is playing is a familiar one, much the same way that he ran interference to avoid having the U.S. standardize on the same GSM standard that was adopted in Europe and practically everywhere else in the world. His goal is to raise enough controversy to allow time for the carriers (Qualcomm�s customers) to get their house in order. The last time I heard him speak here in San Diego he said that Wifi had had a small window to become important, but that it had missed it. It looks like maybe that window at least blew back open, and it may just have broken through completely.

The argument that tax dollars are inappropriate for creating wireless networks is pure baloney. The fact is that it is ridiculously cheap for cities to build these networks, they use them to enhance their services anyway, and the upkeep is practically nonexistent. You can practically measure the ROI with a stopwatch instead of a calendar. I can think of much worse things for cities to spend tax dollars on - and they do!

Larry Mittag