Wireless networking under siege.

Wireless networking has been one of the few bright spots in the otherwise dismal telecommunications industry over the past two years. Following the adoption of the IEEE 802.11b standard, also known as WiFi (for Wireless Fidelity), millions of wireless network cards and many thousands of wireless access points have been manufactured and marketed. "Hot spots" that provide broadband access have been deployed in cafes, airport lounges, and other public areas and "war-chalking" (markings on sidewalks and building entrances to identify the locations of accessible public and private wireless networks) has become commonplace in urban areas. By some industry estimates, there are more than 2,500 Internet service providers (ISPs) offering wireless access, mainly in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band. In addition, there are several organized efforts, in locations ranging from the Presidio district in San Francisco to the Northern Virginia technology corridor, to establish community-wide "freenets" using WiFi technology.

As the recent proliferation of 802.11 alphabet soup suggests, wireless networking technology continues to develop at a rapid pace. A good example is the recent commercial introduction of network cards and access points implementing the 802.11 a standard and operating at higher data rates (up to 54 million bits per second) in the less-crowded …