Wireless systems have increasingly become the inseparable ingredients of our lives in the last century because of their instant installation capabilities in addition to obviously cutting mammoth amounts of capital and time that was otherwise being wasted in erection and installation & commissioning. But how big and expanded is the wireless systems industry? And how much they touch our lives? And if I am not stretching things too far, are we being controlled by wireless systems? Well, let's take a critical look at these issues which concerns us all.



Wireless Systems and Communication

Ever since Graham Bell and Marconi invented telephone and radio respectively, life has never been the same. Although they didn't revolutionalized things instantaneously they sure caused a ruffle thus signaling what was on the way. Today, without wireless systems communications would grind to a halt. Satellites become dud flying objects of little use if we don't ‘connect' through wireless for billions of gigabytes of data transfer every hour.

Consumer Wireless Equipments

At the bottom, we have wireless toys which are the rage with children. But the most common wireless system everyone is familiar is cell phone without which most of us can conduct our lives the way we need to. Cell phones have rapidly expanded to exit the wired phones in a matter of a few years. Even the basic phones are going wireless with the advent of CDMA technology. The 3G cell phones can transmit up to 2MBPS of data.

Mobile phones reached their zenith of glory when Motorola introduced satellite phones (Irridium) which didn't even require wireless network but worked with satellites directly.

Connectivity is just notional; look at what broadband has done to wireless systems. Internet no more needs ‘wired connectivity' as there is wireless broadband service. IPOD has made world collapse into our pockets. What we imagined till the other year, that wireless systems made useful wireless microphones, was turned upside down by one small pocket gadget called IPOD.

Wireless Gadgets

If we are able to watch news cruising at 50,000' at great speeds, you could imagine what ‘the void' (wireless) can do. Let's take a look at some cute gadgets from the current rage.

1. Push to talk phones: Talk, browse internet, watch TV and connect to all your friends by one button push.

2. Pocket PC and wireless LAN for laptops: Pocket PCs double up as cell phones. Laptops connect to LAN with a wireless LAN card.

3. Toys, game controls etc.

4. Home theater, music systems, network booster and headphones etc.

Long ago, when gods communicated, they were not verbal! They communicated silently. Just where are we heading?