Untethered: getting wired? That's so 20th century.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Information Technology

IT MIGHT BE AN overstatement to say that wires are on their way to the trash heap of history when it comes to information-technology connectivity. But wireless options are clearly moving to the forefront, and new wireless technologies are just around the corner.

It's not unusual now to spot business people and students accessing the Inter net wirelessly in the office, at Starbucks, in the classroom, at the library and, increasingly, in the backyard. But also growing is the use of the same wireless technology to link desktop machines in a corporate setting, bypassing the need to run cables when building or reconfiguring an office or factory Meanwhile, the technology lexicon that only recently adopted the terms Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will soon add such wireless concepts as WiMax, ZigBee. Mobile-Fi and Ultrawideband.

And while so-called point-to-point transmission has been around for some time, allowing businesses to wirelessly link multiple locations across town, the concept is growing, improving and evolving into what is sometimes called point-to-many-points, which holds promise for delivering broadband connections in more rural settings where hardwired connections are not feasible.

Wireless technologies already seem practically ubiquitous, and experts say we're seeing only the beginning of a flood of wireless connectivity. The tech-savvy investment bank Rutberg & Co. tracks venture investments and has found at least $4.5 billion pumped into up-and-coming wireless technologies in the past five years.

An early adopter. Wireless may be all the rage now, but it's nothing new for a Ligonier-based company called ERS Wireless Communications. Launched in 1948 as Emergency Radio Service, "the company specifically deals with wireless technology, which can be anything from two-way radios to data," says co-owner Brian Hull.

"We transmit data where wires are unavailable, expensive or not convenient," Hull says. "It can be as simple as a laptop computer on a desktop in an office building wirelessly connecting to a network. Or we can transmit building-to-building wirelessly with data, video, voice or voice-over-IP."

It opens up all sorts of possibilities when planning a corporate IT infrastructure, whether for a small office or a large corporate campus. What once may have required miles of cabling and costly telecom data connections can be set up much more quickly and cost-effectively. "Though point-to-point has been around for a long time, the newest technologies offer...