Gates launches Wi-Fi provisioning at ITU
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
Bill Gates will use his keynote address at the ITU World Telecom in Geneva this week to unveil Wireless Provisioning Services (WPS) for subscribers to public access hot spots. WPS will become available as a downloadable software upgrade to Windows XP and as a Service Pack release for Windows Server 2003 in the first quarter of 2004. WPS will create a Microsoft standard for accessing IEEE 802.11x hot spots from participating Wi-Fi providers.
Users signing on to a public access hot spot must currently navigate through each provider's unique user interface to gain access to the network. The WPS code, which will be embedded in XP and Server 2003 and will be available as a free download in first quarter 2004, promises to simplify that task.