Bring wireless connection to your home and office

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.