Now this is what I call a REAL Wi-Fi network! Complete with VoIP and video, this is the sort of wireless Internet that I can really rest my hat on. The idea of bringing these technologies over to the Wi-Fi arena just tickles me pink. Check it out:

Dartmouth plans video, VoIP on its Wi-Fi network: Dartmouth is the college that discovered nearly two years ago that it’s cheaper to offer free U.S. long-distance calling to all campus lines than it was to manage the accounting and billing process for said service. Last year, they started trying VoIP over Wi-Fi using special phone. Now they’re planning for video over 802.11a and a more rapid transition to VoWLAN calling.

Dartmouth chose 802.11a not just because it lacks interference from lots of non-WLAN devices, but because they are using 802.11b-based VoIP phones, which means that these phones can steal quite a lot of time slots at each access points just by being in use if they had gone with 802.11g for video. Instead, video will stream at 802.11a, while voice and data can remain on 802.11b and 802.11g. (A commenter below notes that the article incorrectly states that the entire network drops to 11 Mbps when an 802.11b device associates: in fact, the 802.11b device just takes up more “space” on the network reducing the ability of 802.11g devices to broadcast by reducing the amount of open signal time.)