1. Telecommuting
Employers are already finding it easier to have their employees and agents work from remote locations. This increases mobility and reduces time spent unnecessarily commuting. With wireless technology ever decreasing in size, more and more job positions will have employees on the move, perhaps visiting clients, and working in a team environment at the same time by means of wireless communications. In time, physical commuting to and from work may become the grind of very few workers who need to physically attend their workplace. In addition, students can study more and more from home rather than travel to a brick and mortar classroom.

2. News Video and Audio
Cheaper and smaller wireless broadcasting devices will enable amateurs and professionals alike to produce content almost instantly and post their content without needing a physical connection to the internet to upload from. The speed at which news recordings can reach distribution sites will be outpaced only by the diversity of sources that will be able to produce and distribute news content with the smaller, cheaper and more widely available wireless technologies.

3. Cordless Telephony
Gradually, cell phones have incorporated the functions of a computer to produce technologies such as the black berry and I-Phone which are practically miniature computers. With the spread of portable wireless routers, laptop computers are now poised to take over from phones all together. VoIP systems and digital phone set up software such as Asterisk will make it possible for businesses and individuals to administer and maintain their own phone systems. Wireless technology will allow these phone systems to allow communication between multiple remote laptop devices.

4. Sensor Security
Wireless security systems can detect a intruders to businesses and private property without the need for flesh and blood security guards or even in conjunction with security guards. With smaller and cheaper microchips, wireless sensor nets can be established even on a modest budget, greatly enhancing a mid-size business or industry to protect itself from potential attackers.

5. Remote Monitors, Speakers and Controllers
Televisions, stereos and video games are less and less tied to their respective cords, wires and switches and are moving toward wireless connections. The mass tangle of cords found behind most T.V. sets since appliances such as VCRs, DVD players, and Nintendos began appearing on entertainment consoles across the world is soon to become a nuisance of the past. More manufacturers than ever before are incorporating wireless transmission into their designs with the explicit aim of eliminating cords than just get in the way when the products are being used in the home or workplace. Most video game systems already feature wireless remote controls.0

6. Wireless Personal Computers
It is expected that personal computers will soon follow the path of old style LAN telephone lines. With increasingly small microchips allowing wireless communication on an unlimited and cost effective scale, most of the functions of a desktop computer can be performed by a laptop or even a handheld wireless system. The internet is no longer confined to Ethernet cables or phone lines. Wireless routers that are the size of thumb or even a pinky finger will quickly make a heavy immobile PC an outdated and uncompetitive machine.

7. Sensor Net Smoke Detectors
The old style smoke detectors found in most homes today will soon be replaced by wireless systems linked directly to fire departments in the local community. Wireless sensors utilize advanced sensor nets to detect smoke or fire within a given physical environment. Since the technology needed to maintain such a sensor net is rapidly becoming cost effective for businesses and even personal residences.

8. Entirely wireless networks
Businesses and offices will no longer need a physical office to have their employees work from. With the proliferation of wireless technology, employees can connect to business networks form just about any remote location, whether they are in transit or at home. The reduced need for physical offices will result in less commuting and greater efficiency for even small businesses.

9. Wireless Advertisements
The greater and greater inundation of advertisements in modern Western society has made it more and more difficult for a would-be advertiser to get a consumer’s attention. Wireless technology will allow advertisers to reach consumers directly on their personal computer and laptops connected to a wireless network. Wireless airwaves are already being used to transmit targeted ads to specific cell phone users and wireless networks.

10. Wireless Anywhere
With new wireless technology, there are few to no dead spots on a modern wireless network. This opens up the technologies usefulness as it can be used from anywhere in a building or space or even a city or state. Imagine camping and receiving wireless network signals way out in the middle of nowhere.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The telephone companies, since Alexander Graham Bell first invented the equally useful and annoying device, have had monopoly over the construction and use of phone lines, and later, or cellular wireless waves. However, with new open source code programs such as Asterisk, individuals can now start up and maintain their own phone line systems using only a personal computer.

Asterisk, the open source program that aims to reinvent the telephone industry, essential transforms a personal computer into a phone line. As far as hardware is concerned, a special card will need to be installed to allow a phone to be connected to the PC is the computer is not already equipped with a LAN line connection.

Since Asterisk is open source software designed to work in any Unix operating system or DOS, it is compatible with Linux and is completely free to use as it is licensed under a general public license as well as the more specific and business oriented proprietary license.

To set up an Asterisk phone line, first, download the free software. Once downloaded, burn the installation and system boot up information to a CD. The PC that is designated to serve as the phone line router, should be switched off and rebooted with the Asterisk installation CD in the appropriate disk drive. The Asterisk user interface will then offer a self explanatory series of prompts to guide the user through the configuration process.

Asterisk will require the administrator of the phone line to create channels and devices to direct the voice communications over the internet. Channels and devices commonly used are VoIP protocols, which channel a voice stream through the internet. VoIP, or IP telephony is particularly useful for users with unused network capacity which can easily carry the voice and data signals being transmitted at a fraction of the cost as they would if they were transmitted through the usual private separate corporate phone network. VoIP uses compressed voice file data packets to transfer digital audio and voice recordings as a whole across the internet.

The digital phone line administrator will also need to establish a dial plan. A dial plan is the pattern of numbers which establishes the expected number and order of digits for a telephone number. A digital Asterisk operated phone requires a dial plan so that users on other external devices such as cell phones or regular LAN line networks or other Asterisk using PCs to connect and receive from the Asterisk network being set up.

Asterisk is controlled by a series of configuration files that define, among other things, what to do when answering an incoming call and how to direct outgoing calls. Asterisk traditionally has used a Linux command line interface that takes a fairly advanced level of computer and technological savvy to operate. The Asterisk system has been reissued as AsteriskNOW and features a graphic interface to aid users in the configuration and installation process.

For users who do not know how they ought to configure their Asterisk home PC IP telephone system, the book Asterisk: the Future of Telephony, by Jared Smith and James Van Meggelen, is a good source for a navigating the options featured by the Asterisk telephone system and figuring out what your communication needs are. For first time users of Asterisk, help with the configuration files is almost a must, as only computer whizzes will be able to get their personal phone line set up unassisted.

If an Asterisk system is to function as a PBX (most are), then a context is needed to determine where a particular device starts its dial plain. These contexts are defined in the configuration files and determine, among other things, the context, limitations and extensions of where a specific signal or dial plan may access. The system can also be altered through the configuration file to recognize and record messages from users and allow the messages to be received and listened to by the administrator. Using loadable module APIs, asterisk software can automatically connect with users communicating with any sort of hardware, from LAN lines to cell phones.

Once set up, Asterisk and other IP Telephony systems, allow the users to conduct conference calls, interactive voice response programs such as voice menus, and automatic call distribution. Essentially, a PC can be configured to act a compact call centre, directing voice and data packets to destinations all over the nation and all over the world.

Many VoIP telephone companies have begun to not only support Asterisk
programs and systems, but explicitly design their telephone service packages to utilize existing Asterisk telephone communication networks. Since so many companies and organizations have unused network space, Asterisk combined with VoIP is frequently a less expensive alternative to costly outsourced communication service providers.

Popularity: 9% [?]