Conclusion

This book describes how wireless technologies meet or exceed the performance parameters of wired last-mile networks and pose a potentially disruptive scenario for telephone service providers. In a market economy, it is inevitable that if competition cannot come in the local loop, it will surely come to the local loop. Given that wireless technologies could potentially match the last mile in terms of QoS, security, range, bandwidth, and economics, 802.11b provides the crucial avenue for competitive service providers to enter telecommunications markets worldwide. Delivering broadband Internet to homes and small businesses has many societal benefits. As a result of the sloth of incumbent service providers in deploying broadband Internet access to the last mile, wireless applications present what is probably the fastest avenue in delivering a huge economic surplus to society.