The high speed Wi-Fi network I have set up in my apartment has changed the way I live my life. Information is never further away than a few keystrokes on my laptop, I can stream music from my desktop (which I have turned into a home media server), etc. I really love wireless access. I really hate when I leave my apartment and I no longer have an internet connection.
The idea of ubiquitous connectivity, the ability to connect to the internet from anywhere at any time, has been a dream of many since the internet became broadly used back in the mid 1990's. That dream appears well on its way to becoming a reality with a new service from Verizon called EV-DO (an abbreviation for Evolution-Data Optimized). The service which is now available in San Diego and Washington D.C. offers download speeds of between 300 and 500 kilobits per second... close to DSL speeds!
I head about EV-DO (along with a competing offering from AT&T called Edge) a LONG time ago. As a consumer who can't get cell phone reception in the middle of Boston I was highly skeptical of the service and decided I would wait to try it before talking about it. So why am I talking about it now? Well, Walt Mossberg, the famous technology writer from the Wall Street Journal wrote a glowing article about the EV-DO service. Walt is one of the most influential reviewers of new consumer technology products and he is a hard person to sell on a product or service. When Walt puts his seal of approval on a product/service, he really likes it. Well his review of Verizon's EV-DO offering was GLOWING. He talks about how he could drive around in a car and not lose the connection, and he didn't lose a connection to the high speed service until he was 25 Miles outside of D.C.
I really think high speed ubiquitous connectivity will change my life more than my Wi-Fi connection ever could. Imagine having an always on connection to stream music, videos, get email, etc. This type of new connectivity will open up opportunities for entrepreneurs to create really great new services that we haven't even dreamed of!
For those of you with subscriptions to the WSJ here a link to Walt's review of EV-DO. I apologize about all the blogs around WSJ articles... I will try and cut back a little.
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