While offering higher flexibility, wireless networks have been held back by a lack of speed, standards and reliability. Only now is the wireless local area network (Lan) beginning to enjoy industry respect after its jump in data rate from 2Mbps to 11Mbps and the Wi-Fi standard for compatibility.

However, the wireless wide area network (Wan) is still struggling to get off the ground. The problem with the technology is finding an area where it is useful.

While it could be used to connect remote locations to the core network, it's difficult to see why anyone would prefer to use the airwaves rather than fibre optic cables or emerging technologies such as asymmetric digital subscriber line and cable modems.

"The problem is not the technology, but the way people view wireless," explained James McCall, channel manager at Tele2. "It is not seen as reliable. People are frightened by the word wireless."

This is a view shared by Mark Blowers, senior research analyst at Butler Group. "The wireless Wan has probably got a bad name from the poor reliability and speeds users have found in the current cellular networks," he said.

We are still faced with a bottleneck that cannot be removed because of cost issues. The internet core is maturing, with technologies such as dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and optical switching providing ample bandwidth for modern applications. The problems are still in the last mile, where content providers are struggling to get their material to the end user, whether this is a consumer or business.

Several companies, mainly in the US, have been touting fibre to the home, or at least fibre to the kerb, but another way to achieve the results that this would offer is through wireless.

Broadband fixed wireless is a suitable alternative offering high enough data rates to compete with, and improve upon, the technologies that we rely on today.

Wireless has the additional advantage that cables do not need to be laid, making the technology cheaper and easier to install with little maintenance.

It is safe to assume that there are four main driving factors in Wan growth today: the move to IP/Ethernet, the explosive need for bandwidth, the emergence of wireless service providers and a demand for rapid deployment.

Fat is the way forward

Until recently, there was no real need for fat pipes to every building, but with the growing amount of content online and the ever-increasing impact of ebusiness, this has changed. Although fibre to the building would be preferable in most cases, where this cannot be done - for any number of reasons - a wireless link could be the way forward for a company.

This could be, for example, where installation of cabling would inconvenience everyone, by digging up a busy street, for example. In cases such as this, a microwave transmitter can be used to provide a high-speed link at a fraction of the cost.

The only problem with this technology is that it relies on line of sight to work properly. Without this, a connection may still be made, but over time it will be unreliable and the signal will become unstable. This will typically give ranges of five to 30 miles depending on the local topography.

A saving grace of the technology is the price. A licence has to be bought to operate a fixed wireless connection, but the rental is typically a few hundred pounds.

When compared with the cost of a fixed line, the wireless option presents quite a saving, provided that the line of sight requirement can be met. The technology effectively bypasses the local operator in a bid to keep down the cost of networking.

Speed is still often a limiting factor in wireless networks, and while the industry is rushing to play catch-up, wireless is still a long way behind the cabled world. The next phase is to bring out a 100Mb protocol in the next 12 months that will be based on the new unlicensed 5Ghz frequencies.

Future speed hikes are merely a matter of time as McCall points out. "There is no physical speed limitation to wireless Wans and we can expect to see speeds increasing over time," he said.

Of course, keeping up with the wired world will really depend on how fast wireless developments can be made. While wireless is busy getting excited about the prospect of a 100Mb network, the wired world is already preparing for 10Gb Ethernet and beyond.

The wireless world needs to go a long way in order to play in the same game. Things are generally improving and new technologies are emerging to make wireless even more flexible. For example, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing exists to perform a similar job as DWDM in optical networks. It is a method of digital modulation in which a signal is split into several narrow-band channels at different frequencies.

Wireless insecurities

Security has also been carefully thought out and, while the majority of the world has the idea that wireless networks are insecure, the reality is a long way from here. Companies such as Novell are developing products designed to ensure the secure use of wireless networks.

McCall believes that all of this makes a purely wireless future technologically possible, although unlikely. "I would like to see a purely wireless future," he said. "Based on the economics and ease of rollout of wireless, it will make a large footprint in the UK. However, many providers have invested billions in cabling - it is very much part of the future. I don't think there will ever be a purely wireless future simply because of this huge investment in wireless alternatives."

The answer doesn't seem to be as clear cut as a matter of investment. "I don't think that the future is all wireless, as it's difficult for the medium to match the bandwidth available using optical fibre. Wireless will have uses where it's not practical or cost effective to provide other means of broadband access," said Blowers.

One area where wireless is finding its feet in is virgin deployments of services. For example, broadband provider XO Communications intends to use fixed wireless to a building until such time as there are enough companies signed up, at which point it will use fibre instead.

At the moment this is likely to be the limit of wireless Wan technology: a quick and easy stand-in until bandwidth demands reach a certain limit.

But, while this may not be the world dominating technology that McCall would like to see, it is a good start.

The technology is still in its infancy and is only taken up by the early adopters, but this does get the ball rolling.

For swifter development the IT industry needs to be aware that the technology is not as flawed as they may have first thought. At this point the technology could start to make serious inroads into areas that have been traditionally cabled only.

Until then, the best approach is to evaluate your company's needs. Cabling is not the solution to everything and wireless could solve a lot of problems.

It's clear, though, that unless the wireless brigade can pull a rabbit out of the hat and exceed existing wired speeds, the future is going to be a mix of both standards.

WIRELESS SECURITY - THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGY

The common conception of wireless technology is that it is inherently insecure. News reports have stirred up controversy by citing that crackers are now driving round in cars to crack into wireless Lans.

It's easy to see why this is the case, as images of personal and confidential data traversing the airwaves brings images of tapping and snooping to the forefront of the imagination.

In reality, this is not the case and encryption is a standard part of any wireless protocol. The current encryption processes used in today's wireless technology are more than enough to keep information hidden from prying eyes. In addition the technology also uses frequency hopping to further deflect attempts to break security.

A similar misconception hit the wireless Lan market where the public perception of slow speeds and low security meant that it struggled to get a foothold in the market.

"Security is inherent in wireless. Without a doubt, it is the most secure option for Wans," said McCall.

EVOLUTION OF MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

Third-generation networks are the next big evolution in mobile communications, and will provide higher data throughputs and 'always-on' connections to the network. This will enable whole new types of business applications.

Such networks, however, will require major investment in current technical infrastructures on the part of the service providers.

The bandwidths which are necessary to run them have also been priced highly. Nevertheless, such services are necessary for business - or so the equipment and service vendors claim.

Unfortunately, the baggage of existing second-generation (2G) technology developments has weighed down the 3G movement. One of the biggest mistakes made by the mobile networking community when putting together 2G infrastructures (which evolved from 1G analogue networks) was to develop them in an insular fashion.

Europe didn't communicate with the US when standards were being developed, which means that there are multiple 2G standards.

Europe uses Global System for Mobile Communication, while the US uses Time Division Multiple Access. A third standard - Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) - also muddies the waters in the 2G wireless market.

The move to create a more unified set of 3G standards began in earnest when the Information Telecommunications Union tried to establish a standard called IMT-2000. It was hoped that this would create the conditions for universal mobile network access, but different camps developed.

The Wideband CDMA standard, supported both by the Japanese and the European GSM community, comes under the Universal Mobile Telecoms System, or UMTS, umbrella.

UMTS is more of an initiative than a protocol, explained Henry Harrison, senior consultant at telecoms consultancy Schema.

CDMA2000 was also developed and supported by US companies that had originally supported CDMAOne, a 2G standard.

According to information from mobile analysis company Mobile Lifestreams, a third operational mode - UTRA FDD - is also on the cards. This will probably be deployed in the Chinese market.