Which is the most friendly technology

A few days ago I spoke to Michael Gaedeke who, from the United States, explained to me about his new business in the development of wireless solutions allowing to access the Internet without connecting to the telephone wireline. As I could not quite understand what he was talking about, I visited the website of his company, “nvision.com”, which described the features of such solutions… and listed a set of recent projects as references, among which – proudly – the Chamber of Commerce of Irvine, California. I had not grasped the importance of the initiative, and had consequently even forgotten about it, when I received an invitation to the Star Hotel Ritz of Milan, for a presentation of an operating wireless network. I decided to investigate the topic, and confirmed my participation. That morning, before going to the meeting, I happened to speak to the Italian manager of the Radisson SAS Hotel of Helsinki, and told him about the topic of the conference I was about to attend. He explained to me that, in Helsinki, all Radisson SAS hotels offer wireless Internet services to their customers as a routine. The solutions proposed by IBM and Cisco at the conference were very interesting, and the Megabim Company presented a network which is already operating, allowing users to easily access the Internet from the main Italian airports and from Starhotels hotels, without the need to connect to the wireline. The advantages: the possibility to directly connect to the web or to a corporate LAN from airports, hotels or conference centres, while being comfortably seated wherever is most convenient – at the bar, in the lobby, in a waiting room… All of this is available today. Tomorrow, similar opportunities will be extended to railway stations, highway stopovers, all sorts of places where you stop for a rest and from where you still wish to make use of your time. This is a user-friendly technology which I believe will very soon spread in tourist facilities. Having the chance to check you e-mail in a simple and rational way without the stress of searching for a phone jack in an airport, for example, will definitely be a relief, and the proposal is also interesting for those who, like me, do not use a cellular phone.