Wireless technology dominates at CeBIT 2001

By N. N. Sachitanand

HANNOVER, MARCH 26. The weather could not have been more foul at Hannover - a depressing combination of rain, snow and chilly wind. But this did not deter hordes of visitors of all types - professionals, laymen, mediapersons and industrymen - from thronging what is billed as the world' largest information technology fair, CeBIT 2001.

This is an annual event and this year's CeBIT is the biggest ever with over 8,000 exhibitors from 60 different countries setting up shop on more than 4.22 lakh square metres of net display space. This time a big contingent has come from the Asia-Pacific region, some 846 exhibitors filling an impressive 22,700 sq. metres of display space. The largest from this region is Taiwan which has 522 companies participating. India has 25 exhibitors.

The official slogan of CeBIT 2001 is ``Get the spirit of tomorrow44. But the dominant theme of the show seems to be ``the world is going the wireless way44. The products on display emphasise such scenarios as the wireless office and home, mobile commerce, sending voice, video, text and data over mobile links and the like. Several products shown utilise the latest high bandwidth wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wireless LAN (local area network) based on IEEE 802.11 B standards. Other technologies prominently displayed include ISDN telephones, Internet telephony, large flat panel displays using LCDs and plasma, DVD rewrite drives, Internet radios and fibre optic devices.

If one were to visualise the future based on what is being shown at CeBIt 2001, it would be a world where anyone could send any sort of message (voice, video, text or data) to anyone else anywhere on earth.

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Section  : Business
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