Posted: 18th May, 2004 By: MarkJ
Public wireless (Wi-Fi) access is arguably both faster and cheaper (just) than 3G mobile phone technologies, yet security is another matter entirely. It's for this reason that mobile operator Orange has begun touting 3G as a better solution than Wi-Fi for businesses:
IT managers need to take greater control of mobile security projects to protect corporate information from falling into the wrong hands, said Nigel Shardlow, head of innovation at Orange UK.
Speaking at the IT Directors' Forum, Shardlow said: "3G will provide the security that public wireless local area networks (Lans) can not, and it will probably be cheaper as well." Orange plans to make a 3G datacard available in the second half of 2004.
"When looking at mobile security, IT managers should either install a virtual private network client solution or they can even connect the corporate Lan directly into a GPRS or 3G network, meaning that data does not have to go over the public internet," explained Shardlow.Currently, neither 3G nor Wi-Fi is especially good; waiting until early 2005 for the other operators to launch would be a wise move. More @
VNUNet.