Wirelessing the World Quiz

1. CWNs are Community Wireless Networks that allow free wireless access for the community. This allows for equal access to information for all people in the community regardless of socio-economic status. Within society there is a digital divide separating those who have access to new technologies and media information and those who do not. Those with affluence are able to afford computers with high-speed internet access which provides them with a large advantage over communities of low socioeconomic status who can not afford this access. CWNs provide everyone access to the same high-speed information, creating information equality for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

2. Internet users spend a very small percentage of their time on the internet actually using the bandwith allocated to them by their internet service providers. Because ISPs know this, and consumers often do not, providers often oversell their bandwith and consumers are forced to pay higher prices for bandwith that their providers know they will never use. Bundle packages and interoperability also allow businesses to sell products only compatible with other products that they sell. This not only allows businesses to sell more of their products to consumers that truly believe that they can only buy same-brand products for maximum efficacy but it allows corporations to maintain monopolies and push smaller competitors out of the market.

3. Corporations who have the money to spend are able to pay huge premiums to control new technologies before future competition has the opportunity to afford these new technologies. These corporations then make back the money they spent on the premiums by jacking up the prices for their consumers. On example of this is Motorola's buying of XtremeSpectrum (an Ultra-Wideband (UWB)) in 2005. Before this product was even properly tested and before standards were officially set, Motorola purchased thus UWB in an effort to secure its authority over UWB protocol standards. Because these large corporations essentially own the market smaller competitors are forced to declare bankruptcy. The corporations that forced these competitors under then buy the assets of these failed ventures (as T-Mobile bought out MobileStar in 2001) giving these corporations an even stronger monopoly empire and resulting in fewer large corporate conglomerates owning more and more of the wireless market.