Lausanne World Pulse – Mobile, Glocal & Evangelism

June 2007

By Jonathan Petersen

Wi-Fi is making limitless Internet access possible.

The world is on the move. People can’t stand still. There are more than 600 million motor vehicles worldwide; global bicycle production in 2000 alone totaled 101 million. Over thirty thousand commercial airline flights occur every day in the United States alone, and an endless number of buses and trains depart from countless depots twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all over the world.

With that physical mobility comes the need for technology to follow. People want to stay in touch, keep up to date and remain informed wherever they find themselves. Gone are the days when television, computer and telephone required a person to use that equipment only when they were tethered to a fixed location by an electric cord and cable. They have all taken on the characteristics of the transistor radio when it was first introduced in 1954.

Mobile TV, handheld PCs and cell phones are the norm, no longer the exception. For every one hundred people in the US, Germany, Japan, France and the UK, there are seventy-six cellular phones. In February 2007, Japan passed the 100 million mark for mobile subscribers. This means that the country is fully penetrated with advanced wireless services and only the extremes of society (the extremely young, the extremely old, the extremely poor) are not served by mobile services. The total number of mobile phones in use worldwide exceeds the number of landlines and mobile technology is fast being integrated into the cultures of developing countries.

According to the BBC, “There is growing evidence that mobile phones are more than a fashion accessory and can transform the lives of the people who are able to access them. From Kampala to Mombasa, handset sellers are plying their trade. An enormous number of people, including taxi drivers and tradesmen, now rely on mobile phones to run their small businesses—well over eighty percent in Egypt and South Africa alone.”

Communication is boundary-less. As long as technology works as it is designed, geography and distance are not impediments. Roaming while communicating is a natural part of talking on the phone, text messaging and surfing the Internet. In fact, people have come to demand “relentless connectivity,” whether they are in the middle of a desert or on top of a mountain. The era of Dick Tracy’s two-way wrist-radio/TV is finally here.

Wi-Fi
Wireless broadband, also known as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), is one industrial breakthrough that is making limitless Internet access possible.

All that is needed for a person to ethereally surf the web is a laptop or handheld device with Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless capability, often already built into the operating system, especially in newer models. If not, a Wi-Fi networking card can be purchased for most laptops and many handhelds from major electronics retailers or direct from the manufacturer. Then, a standard Internet-ready browser on any operating system is needed. No additional software is required. All that is left is to locate a Wi-Fi hotspot (where Wi-Fi Internet service is provided, often free), such as an airport, a hotel, a library, a Starbucks coffee shop or a Panera Bread restaurant. There, a person simply types a URL into the device’s Internet browser and is connected to the world.

Jonathan Petersen is director of Internet Marketing for Zondervan. He has worked in network broadcast journalism, print journalism, media relations, corporate reputation management, strategic marketing, retail and direct marketing, Internet marketing, customer relationship management and speech writing. Prior to Zondervan, he was founding religion news editor for United Press International Radio Network in Washington, D.C. (USA). He can be reached at [email protected].