Get ready for a wireless world

In a latest issue of Businessweek, the cover story was the new technology of the wireless world. There are five: Wi-Fi, WiMax, Mobile-Fi, Ultrawideband and ZigBee. In general, the benefits are no cables, no spectrum cost and low equipment cost.

Everyone has seen the excellent benefits of using Wi-Fi, but its range is less than 150 feet. For the small business owner or homeowner, there is no longer a need to run cables between rooms since most middle-income homes now need two or more PCs. The main driver of Wi-Fi’s popularity has created a virtuous spiral from the high volumes that brought the cost of Wi-Fi gear down, low cost boosting demand, and strong demand leading to even higher volumes.

WiMax uses radio waves to transport data. WiMax creates hot spots of Internet access within a radius of 25 to 30 miles. A similar technology is Mobile-Fi, where Internet access is available to moving vehicles. (I’m not sure you need Mobile-Fi in Manila since your car does not really move.)

Ultrawideband is for short spurts of big data batches like a movie from your DVD recorder in one room to your TV in another.

Of these new wireless inventions, the ZigBee (a form of RFID sensor) is something that can give cost-cutting zealots like me a turn-on. ZigBee is basically wireless sensors for anything like inventory, weather conditions or room airconditioning.

With sensors in hotel rooms, the aircon can sense the number of people in a room and adjust the temperature accordingly. The aircon is turned off when the room is empty, and turned up if the room is full. Energy is more efficiently used. Given the microclimate of a certain plantation, we can choose to irrigate, fertilize or harvest depending on the microclimate that we now are able to see from the ZigBee sensors. ZigBee in the inventory control helps me decide what I have to sell in real time and assess the inventory in the warehouse or on the shelf.

My Two Cents: Can you imagine the benefit of deploying ZigBees to your MWSS pipes for leaks? How about ZigBees on power lines to find where the leaks are? Unfortunately, we cannot put ZigBees in the cash that moves between the Jose Velarde and similarly gray accounts. Choose The Right Leader With A Vision

We still live in an environment of fear, uncertainty and doubt. The war in Iraq and the war on terror stills go on. Foreign direct investment is still a holy grail that eludes this country. The power sector is now in potential dire straits as companies are reluctant to invest, unsure what their returns will be. The water sector continues to have leaky investment provisions. Uncertainty abounds as the country decides on its leadership for the next six years.

In the next two weeks, this nation goes to the polls. Since this is not a political column, I do not endorse anyone. I just need my readers to think through their choices. People Power is really not the solution to making the wrong choice. We have used it twice with mixed results.

As I was shooting the breeze with my friends I gathered a few out-of-the-box ideas for the country.

One, how about hiring someone with a track record – someone who has successfully achieved his or her country or company’s mission, like former Malaysian PM Mahathir or Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE? I’m not talking about a senior adviser but actually one who can be given decision-making authority. There is no more public a company than the government, where the president needs to put together a leadership team to execute the nation’s mission of economic growth and reduction of poverty. Unfortunately, most if not all of the candidates are basically elected for their popularity and not for their competence. I know this is not palatable politically but sometimes in the corporate world you need to hire from the outside to change the culture.

Two, (my friend gave me this one that we think is doable) take a few lessons from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and prime the pump. FDR’s works program literally kept the US working on its infrastructure while the Depression was going on in the early 30s.

We are talking about a mega-project that is a pan-Philippine highway and railway system. The project is envisioned as an eight-lane highway connecting Aparri to Basilan. A strong president will be needed to sell this as a jobs program, technology transfer and unifier of the nation. Congress will need to pass a law that will exempt this project from the typical legislative nightmares as right-of-way issues and other roadblocks. The provincial governors and the big landlords will support it as it will bring a quantum leap in value to their lands and give employment.

Think of domestic commerce where the produce of Baguio can now be delivered in three hours or less to Manila. Fruits and other produce from Mindanao will take less than 12 hours to get to Manila. People will move to Pampanga as their commute can now be had in less than an hour. Traffic will be decongested in the nation’s central business districts as urban sprawl can now happen at a faster rate.

Assuming it costs P5 million per kilometer and we are talking about 10,000 kilometers. The highway alone will cost about P50 billion. Bridges and other costs would probably quadruple this to about P200 billion. The railway project would probably be another P200 billion. At P400 billion (which is about the country’s GDP in 2002), we are talking close to about $8 billion as project cost. Here is the rub, my friend thinks we can do it without government financing if we have the legislative super exemptions (no tax incentives) that this project would need to structure and interest the project finance community.

The magnitude of the project is huge but if done right, the impact on the country is that it will inject a new spirit of positivism, a new sense of direction, a new momentum. Think of the jobs, think of the taxes.

My Two Cents: If you build it, they will come.

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Dickson Co is CFO (C is for Cheap) for Dfnn, Intelligent Wave Philippines and HatchAsia.com. For comments or suggestions, e-mail [email protected].