Broadband Internet Is Not a Socket in the Wall

Here’s a
statement made by Anssi Vanjoki at the recent Nokia World Conference: “Broadband Internet is not a socket in the
wall, it is all around us”.

He draws
and interesting picture and I think he is right. Today, many people already use
Wifi access points to create their personal broadband Internet cloud. Thus, the
broadband Internet IS virtually all around them. In the future people will not
only use this cloud with desktop computers and notebooks but also with smaller
devices such as mobile phones with built in Wifi capabilities (like Nokia
N-series phones for example) or physical widgets .
Smaller devices will also change the way we perceive the Internet cloud. No
longer do you have to sit down at a specific place, e.g. in front of a
computer, in order to communicate (VoIP, eMail, IM), to get information, or to
publish information to the web yourself (pictures, blog entries, videos, etc.).
Even today you don’t need to be in your personal Internet cloud anymore to
perform these activities. When you leave your personal broadband cloud, 3G and
3.5G networks and WiMAX in the future are a natural extension. Instead of using Wifi, mobile Internet
devices then switch over to the cellular network. As we move into the future
the cloud will extend into areas not covered today, available bandwidth will
increase and moving between the personal Internet cloud at home and the larger external
cloud will become ever more seamless.

An
interesting scenario for handset manufacturers like Nokia and others developing
3G/Wifi integrated multimedia handsets, for innovators of cool mobile services
and for network operators such as Vodafone, O2 and Orange who have decided to include DSL lines
into their portfolio to offer a home cloud in addition to the larger network
coverage. It’s time to start the integration of handset, personal cloud and
external cloud and mobile services into a homogeneous experience.