Jackie is a busy executive in a multinational firm based in Makati. Her morning routine: orders a cup of latte at Seattle’s Best and looks for a comfortable location inside the café. Once settled, she brings out her newly-acquired notebook, fires it up to check her email, reads the news online, reviews her schedule for the day, runs through some numbers for a proposal, approves it, and sends her comments by e-mail. How does she do it without a landline in place, one might ask?

Randy Ruiz – a graduating student from one of the top Asian schools located in Makati – has just arrived in school and is scheduled to have a group case presentation in class. A few minutes before his scheduled presentation, Randy gets a call that his groupmate – who has the final copy of their presentation – will not make it to class. So what does Randy do? He requests his groupmate to send the file via email and he will just download from his laptop wherever he is in the school.

Jackie and Randy are among the growing users of the wireless Internet who find it very useful and convenient for their personal needs. Without any cable attached to their computing device, people can already access the Internet with just a few clicks on their laptops. Being mobile is no longer just a trend but rather has become a necessity for many. Companies who deploy wireless local area networks help in the productivity of the employees as it gives them more opportunity to transact business even when outside the office.

Wi-Fi, the technology behind wireless internet, is one form of wireless technology – similar to what is used in cellular phones – enabling multiple users within range of a base station to share a broadband connection to get online. Wi-Fi is hot for two reasons: it’s about 10 to 20 times faster than dial-up and it’s easy to install in the computer. All you need to do is plug a Wi-Fi antenna into a cable modem or digital subscriber line and within an hour you can be surfing the internet using the laptop equipped with an antenna.

Wi-Fi is slowly cropping up in cafes, hotels, airports, parks, and schools. Anyone with the right equipment and near a hotspot can easily access the internet as if accessing it from an office or house.

Providers of wireless internet
So far, there are only two wireless internet service providers (wISP) in the Philippines offering the service – BliNK (http://www.blink.com.ph) (powered by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company ) and Airborne Access Corporation (http://www.airborneaccess.net/). Their clients – where wireless internet is available – include coffee shops and restaurants located in Metro Manila.

How it works
Normally, hotspots share their DSL, cable or T1 broadband connection via an access point that transmits a wireless signal to the wireless card in a user’s Wi-FI enabled device, (i.e. laptop, PDA, among others). Users connect through a log-in page in their Internet Web browser. The normal coverage extends over a 100-300 foot radius from the access point.

BliNK hotspots’ clients require that they open an account by purchasing a prepaid Internet card at any hotspot outlet. The prepaid card (P100 for 40 minutes) contains a username and password. BLiNK prepaid cards can only be sold, bought and used in selected hotspots and there’s a limit within the specified range of these hotspots. Airborne, on the other hand, offers the service at no cost for some of the hotspots like Seattle’s Best.

Hardware
The first requirement is any laptop or any Windows CE-based Personal Digital Assistants (e.g. iPaq, Jornada) that are wireless network-ready. Computers manufactured by IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, Gateway and Acer are among those whose mobile computers and devices have built-in wLAN cards. Second, ensure that wLAN (wireless local area network) compatible device conforms to the 802.11b standard.

In case the laptop does not have a wLAN card in accessing via a BliNK hotspot, a card may be rented for P30 per hour.

What the future holds
According to research firm Cahners In-Stat, sales of wireless network cards and Wi-Fi base stations are expected to grow from $1.9 billion in 2001 to $5.2 billion in 2005. As reported, Intel, IBM and AT&T have officially combined their forces, through Cometa Networks, in an effort to create a network of public “hot spots” that would give its people wireless broadband Internet access from just about anywhere in the U.S.

As for the Philippines, the introduction of Wi-Fi is just in its very early stages. But its apparent practical use is reason enough for the country to go the same direction in developing this technology and making it more accessible to the fast-paced city dwellers of today.