Scientists Promise Ten Times More Bandwidth With No New Hardware

A team of researchers promises it can increase wireless bandwidth by an order or magnitude, without any new hardware whatsoever. All that’s required, it claims, is a little extra math. More »

New National School Speed Test hopes to help all K-12 students get effective digital learning

EducationSuperHighway launches National School Speed Test to help all K12 students get effective digital learning

With 99 percent of the nation’s K-12 schools hooked-up to the internet, you’d think online learning was an educational staple. Sadly, it’s also estimated that some 80 percent of those connections can’t provide the 100Mbps per 1,000 students bandwidth the State Education Technology Directors Association recommends. That’s why NPO EducationSuperHigway has announced the National School Speed Test initiative, with the goal to take actual stock of the state of internet connections in our schools. The NSST hopes to measure the internet capabilities of every K-12 school, and identify those that are lagging behind. Educational staff and students can also help out by checking their own school’s speeds on a dedicated website (linked below). The results of the NSST will be open to the institutions themselves, districts and state departments of education, enabling them to better plan upgrade strategies for the future.

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New National School Speed Test hopes to help all K-12 students get effective digital learning originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T reveals new multi-beam antenna tech for live events, could offer data speeds five times faster (video)

AT&T reveals new multibeam antenna tech for live events, promises five times the speed

AT&T’s improving its coverage at live events by establishing a new (impressive sounding) setup — the five-beam multi-beam antenna. It works by dividing its customers’ signals into five narrow parts, illustrated above by the color bands, upping the bandwidth by splitting traffic to each segment, enabling up to five times the data traffic. Ma Bell even used similar technology to craft a “super” multi-beam antenna, which expands the same idea into two rows of nine, possibly offering up to 18 times the speed of a typical single-tower arrangement. AT&T adds that this setup also reduces dropped calls and failed uploads, and is apparently already being put to use at live concerts and games. Not quite wrapping your head around it? Check the video after the break.

Continue reading AT&T reveals new multi-beam antenna tech for live events, could offer data speeds five times faster (video)

AT&T reveals new multi-beam antenna tech for live events, could offer data speeds five times faster (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cisco Connect Cloud Lightning Review: Manage A Network’s Competing Connections [Lightning Review]

If you have a bunch of devices sharing a network, the bandwidth can get bottlenecked. For new Linksys routers, Cisco is solving that problem with Connect Cloud, a platform that lets you manage all of your connections from anywhere. More »

Facebook Invests in Asian Gateway Undersea Internet Cable

Anyone on a slower broadband connection like I am, or heaven forbid on a dial-up connection, knows that modern websites assume you have a decent amount of bandwidth. Downloading all those photos and videos can take ages on a slow connection and Facebook knows the lack of bandwidth is one of the reasons people in some parts the world don’t join the network. Facebook has a plan to fix that, at least in the Asia-Pacific Gateway area.

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Facebook has announced it will be investing in a project that will cost a total of $450 million to run an undersea fiber-optic cable. The cable will run from Malaysia to South Korea and Japan with branches splitting off for other countries. The new undersea cable will reduce the number of hops data has to take making downloads and uploads faster.

Facebook won’t say exactly how much money it invested in the undersea cable project. The project is also backed by major Chinese Internet providers and a number of other companies. “Our investment in this cable will help support our growth in South Asia, making it possible for us to provide a better user experience for a greater number of Facebook users in countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore,” a Facebook spokesman said.

[via BBC]