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Chew On This

Entrepreneur, May, 2000 by Mike Hogan

The network-connected home of the future is upon us. Don't forget to leave some scraps for Astro.

Where do you work? Increasingly, the answer is "everywhere." The technology making that possible is one of those good news/bad news deals that's erasing the line between work and home--not to mention car, airport and vacation cottage.

Increasingly, business associates will be reaching out and touching your cell phone or pager while you're Out in the back yard, and--no matter how you feel about that--you at least want to make a buck off the intrusion. You need to. No doubt your toughest competitor spends the wee hours up in his or her home office growing their market share at your expense. And the technology making that possible only becomes more pervasive from here on out.

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It seems like every recognizable name in computing (and a passel of lesser-knowns) is pulling out all the stops this year to create its own version of a fully "wired" world. That extends to places where you can't actually string wire, like your PDA, cell phone or car. But the most obvious place to bump up productivity with a little capital equipment is that satellite location where you occasionally eat, sleep and get a glimpse of your smallest team members. (Did they make quota last quarter?)

If you're gradually becoming one of those managers who doesn't have any boundaries, you need a wired home--even if it's "wired" wirelessly. You can use one of your multiple computers as a central server that will control all of your home PCs, appliances and the various digital gadgets like cell phones and security cameras you now own--or will very soon, at least.

The media tend to focus on snazzy consumer gadgetry whose business relevance may be hard to appreciate at this point--like refrigerators that order groceries or microwaves that hunt for recipes over the Web. In the home of the future, Microsoft demos envision the less-than-successful Windows CE controlling your home's heat, lights and appliances from the digital displays-just like Bill does at his $60 million Lake Washington home. Whoopee! Right?

But it all goes toward building the networking infrastructure that home office entrepreneurs and telecommuters can exploit to keep the money machine running 24/7. Maybe you'll be sending e-mail from your clothes dryer some day. Who knows? Who cares? The point is to get connected.

NETWORKING WITH A CAPITAL "N"

There's been beaucoup hype about electronic convergence so far this year, and we've got miles of hype to go before the million-dollar-deal-from-the-beach vision that the marketers spin is a reality.

Don't expect sudden changes in the mostly incompatible systems we now use for connectivity-land phone, cell phone, fax, e-mail, office LAN, portable PC, PDA. Each has multiple standards (with more being born every day), and sponsors aren't exactly rushing full speed ahead to give up their individual franchises.

But the Internet is the wild card that lowers technological and marketing barriers, and will eventually drive these mediums together. It's the backbone that companies large and small are relying on to build personal networks at home and beyond.

Example: Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com), a provider of Internet equipment, is getting into home networking with its Internet Home Gateway--a set-top box about the size of an answering machine that provides both high-speed Internet access and home networking. The Home Gateway uses "always-on" DSL (digital subscriber line) access to provide four phone lines and additional data channels whose number depends on data type. Cisco uses the Home Phoneline Network Alliance (HPNA) protocol to route phone calls and data traffic (including video) over your home's phone wiring at up to 10Mbps. By year-end, ISP's and major phone companies like GTE will offer Home Gateway bundled with their DSL services for anywhere from zero to $400, depending on your subscription plan.

A very similar Internet gateway/networking product called the Home-Portal could be coming from Milpitas, California, start-up 2 Wire, located within the Silicon Valley, as early as June. Like the Cisco product, the small Home-Portal box uses the 10Mbps HPNA protocol to communicate with and also manage any electronic device that can be hooked up to a phone jack, including the telephone. It, too, will be sold through various Internet and telephone service providers at subsidized rates, which will likely be less than $300, according to 2 Wire. But if you already have a cable or DSL hookup, you'll be able to purchase HomePortal directly from the 2Wire Web site (www.2wire.com) for less than $400.

Further forward, Avio Digital (www.aviodigital.com), a San Carlos, California, start-up, is working on MediaWire digital home networking technology to provide homes with an absolutely astounding 100Mbps of bandwidth. By summer, Avio plans to start shipping its MediaWire chipset, which will enable devices from third-party product makers to communicate at up to 100Mbps over either TV cable or telephone wires, leaving room for dozens of separate audio, video, data and phone channels to run throughout your home simultaneously. Media Wire-enabled adaptors for PCs and such could start showing up by year-end, according to Avio.

Business Services Industry

Chew On This

Entrepreneur, May, 2000 by Mike Hogan

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