IT Managers Clueless On Their Own Wireless Connections

Many people in the wireless industry seem just a bit too focused on the numbers and letters of this or that standard or technology, and miss the bigger picture about explaining why this is useful. When this is pointed out, one typical response is that "those who need to know, do know." Of course, that raises the question of who "needs to know." A new survey of IT managers (who you might think "need to know") has discovered that, while many offered wireless services to their employees, a large percentage had no clue what kind of wireless they were offering. Perhaps while the industry has been so focused on the technology and standards, these IT managers went out and figured out the benefits for themselves. More likely, however, is that they're choosing rather blindly and not all that aware of what they're buying vs. what else is available. In the wide area cellular arena, 40% of IT managers had no idea, while the rest knew that they were using either GPRS or 1xRTT offerings (the 2.5Gs between 2G and 3G networks). Meanwhile, in the WiFi world, 26% had no idea if they were offering the still quite popular 802.11b - or the speedier 802.11a or 802.11g varieties. It would be nice to think that all these IT managers focused on the benefits instead of the specific technologies, but right now that seems unlikely.