Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The case and the theoretical framework
- Part 1 The Wi-Fi Journey
- Part 2 The Wi-Fi Journey in Perspective
- 7 Wi-Fi in developing countries: catalyst for network extension and telecom reform
- 8 The Dutch connection to US-based NCR, AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems
- 9 Wi-Fi as community-based innovation
- 10 The governance of radio spectrum: licence-exempt devices
- 11 Exploring the future of Wi-Fi
- 12 Reflections and implications for policy and strategy formation
- Part 3 Annexes
- Index
- References
11 - Exploring the future of Wi-Fi
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The case and the theoretical framework
- Part 1 The Wi-Fi Journey
- Part 2 The Wi-Fi Journey in Perspective
- 7 Wi-Fi in developing countries: catalyst for network extension and telecom reform
- 8 The Dutch connection to US-based NCR, AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems
- 9 Wi-Fi as community-based innovation
- 10 The governance of radio spectrum: licence-exempt devices
- 11 Exploring the future of Wi-Fi
- 12 Reflections and implications for policy and strategy formation
- Part 3 Annexes
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Wi-Fi is beyond doubt an astonishing phenomenon, primarily because it involves the almost magical capacity to carry out actions at a distance, to exert control over machines and to process data and communicate with other human beings in a cordless, immaterial and yet quite reliable manner. In addition, Wi-Fi is not only growing in terms of numbers, but is also becoming pervasive in many respects. We are not concerned so much with the remarkable features and development patterns of Wi-Fi, however, as with the open-ended questions that Wi-Fi still raises and the uncertainties and complexities it carries with it.
In this chapter, we envisage the possible futures of Wi-Fi. In the second section, we acknowledge the historical build-up and successful characteristics of Wi-Fi. In this evolution we include quantitative and qualitative evidence, as well as a few material narratives that are strongly supportive of current Wi-Fi developments. In this context, we consider what to make of the various forecasts, and how to establish the kind of knowledge perspective that users and decision makers can work with, and therefore what kind of methodological pathways may help us reach our goal. In the third section, we discuss the question of whether the future of Wi-Fi can somehow be ‘guessed’ from existing innovation models, or how to use such models in an open and helpful manner. In the fourth section, we explore the Wi-Fi journey that still lies ahead of us, in terms of options, contexts and conditions, in particular through a micro-Delphi study – i.e. a specific enquiry among experts. We present the rough output of this exploratory study in the form of potential scenarios. In the fifth and concluding section, we examine what might be some weak signals of change or, on the contrary, might be reinforcements of trends that provide early indications as to the Wi-Fi to come in the next ten years or so. We argue that one of the aspects that will be a deciding factor between the various options is the dynamic tension between innovation and regulation.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Innovation Journey of Wi-FiThe Road to Global Success, pp. 331 - 366Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
1986 The adoption of a marketing model: comments and observationsInnovation Diffusion Models of New Product AcceptanceCambridge, MA:Ballinger, 203–32Google Scholar
2008 Emerging Technologies in Wireless LANs: Theory, Design, and DeploymentCambridgeCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
1968
2007 Evolution of Mobile VoIP: VoIPo3G Business ModelsLondonDisruptive Analysiswww.disruptive-analysis.com/voipo3g.htmGoogle Scholar
2004 Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry ChangeCambridge, MAHarvard Business School PressGoogle Scholar
2003 The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful GrowthCambridge, MAHarvard Business School PressGoogle Scholar
2006 www.news.com/The-wireless-alphabet-soup/2100–1039_3–6038991.html
1968 An experimental application of the Delphi method in the use of experts’Management Science 9 458CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1989 Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology’MIS Quarterly 13 319CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1988 Structural crises of adjustment, business cycles and investment behaviourTechnological Change and Economic TheoryLondonPinter38Google Scholar
1978 Histoire des techniques: Technique et civilisations, technique et sciencesParisGallimardGoogle Scholar
1967
2002
1997 Potentialités et limites d'un exercice de prospective de type Delphi: application d'une méthode de segmentation à l'enquête sur les technologies du futur’Futuribles 218 33Google Scholar
2001 Alternative industry futures in the global internet economy’Creative Destruction: Business Survival Strategies in the Global Internet EconomyCambridge, MAMIT Press229Google Scholar
1986 An overview of innovationThe Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic GrowthWashington, DCNational Academy Press, 275–305Google Scholar
1980 Society as a learning system: discovery, invention, and innovation cycles revisited’Technological Forecasting and Social Change 18 267CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1987 The Kondratiev cycle: predicting for the next 25 yearsR+D for the 21st Century: An Analysis of Trends Affecting Strategies for Industrial InnovationCranfieldCranfield PressGoogle Scholar
1991
1991 Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream CustomersNew YorkHarperCollinsGoogle Scholar
1996 http://horizon.unc.edu/courses/papers/Scenario_wksp.html
2004 Converging Technologies: Shaping the Future of European SocietiesBrusselsEuropean CommissionGoogle Scholar
2002 Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden AgesCheltenhamEdward ElgarCrossRefGoogle Scholar
2007
2009 Weak signals as a flexible framing space for enhanced management and decision-makingTechnology Analysis and Strategic Management 21 307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999
2005
2007 Regulation and Termination Rates in Mobile Telephony: State of Affairs and OptionsChichesterPraxisGoogle Scholar
2005
1974
1992 The public telephone network: stages in infrastructure developmentTelecommunications Policy 16 538CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1998 Using Delphi for a long-range technology forecasting, and assessing directions of future R&D activities: the Korean exerciseTechnology Forecasting and Social Change 58 125CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001 Proceedings of the International Conference on Technology ForesightTokyoNISTEP161Google Scholar
2008 Fixed Mobile Convergence: Voice over Wi-Fi, IMS, UMA/GAN, Femtocells, and Other EnablersNew YorkMcGraw-HillGoogle Scholar
2002 Shaping Technology, Guiding Policy: Concepts, Spaces and ToolsCheltenhamEdward ElgarGoogle Scholar
2003 World Wide Wi-Fi: Technological Trends and Business StrategiesNew YorkJohn WileyCrossRefGoogle Scholar
2000
1981 The economics of organization: the transaction cost approach’American Journal of Sociology 87 548CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.