Bring wireless connection to your home and office

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

People can now more easily and comfortably log on to the Internet at homes and offices, thanks to Wi-Fi technology.

Wi-Fi transceivers, which have been set up in various cafes, hotels, restaurants and airports in big cities across the country, are now available on the market for home and office use, industry players said on Wednesday.

"People are now free from the hassles caused by wire connections to get connected to the Internet. Thanks to Wi-Fi technology, they can log on to the Internet wirelessly," country manager of Intel Indonesia Corporation Budi Wahyu Jati said at a technology showcase.

A branded and high-quality Wi-Fi transceiver, known in the industry as an access point, costs US$200 to $500, while nonbranded ones are available more cheaply, said Budi.

Wi-Fi technology, which is already popular in large cities across the world, has just been introduced to Indonesia. But so far, it is available only at public places here.

In such places, wireless connectivity can be found at locations termed "hotspots" by industry players. These enable people to connect to the Internet using their laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA) wirelessly in cafes, restaurants and airports within a radius of 50 meters of an access point.

Separately, Stephanus Jonatan, marketing manager of CBN, one of the largest Internet providers here, told The Jakarta Post the Wi-Fi transceiver was about 15 centimeters (cm) by 25 cm in size and easy to place in homes or offices.

To make a connection with Wi-Fi transceivers, people should use laptops and PDAs that are "Wi-Fi ready." Otherwise, they have to buy a 802.11b PC card for their laptop. These are available on the market at $100 to $150.

Users should also subscribe to an Internet service provider for an Internet connection, according to Stephanus.

Users thus need only pay Internet connection costs, which are as much as normal Internet connection costs, but do not have to pay for phone connections, he said.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, produces its Wi-Fi chip for laptops under the brand name Centrino and has spent $300 billion on promoting it worldwide. Most laptops produced this year have been equipped with the Intel Centrino chip.

Separately, head of marketing support at Toshiba Novi Suryadi told the Post that of about 2,000 Toshiba laptops sold every month in Indonesia, 20 percent to 25 percent were equipped with Centrino.