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Alors que de plus en plus de personnes souffriraient de "nomophobie", la peur de perdre son portable ou son accès à Internet, qui conduit par exemple à garder un filet de connexion (comme un portable de secours), des pionniers du numérique font le choix inverse. Richard Stallman, le gourou du logiciel libre, explique qu'il travaille désormais déconnecté. "La plupart du temps, écrit-il sur son site, je n'ai pas Internet. Une ou deux fois par jour, parfois trois, je me connecte pour envoyer et recevoir mes courriels. Je relis tout avant d'envoyer." Se déconnecter est devenu un acte volontaire. Aujourd'hui chercheur à la Carnegie Mellon University, Fred Stutzman avait pris l'habitude de travailler dans un café pour pouvoir rédiger sans être interrompu. "Il fallait que je m'échappe de la frénésie d'Internet." Sa méthode a pris l'eau quand un voisin s'est équipé d'un routeur qui a arrosé le café de sa connexion Wi-Fi. Voilà qui l'a conduit à développer Freedom, un logiciel, qui, pour 10 dollars, bloque votre accès à Internet jusqu'à huit heures de suite, et vous oblige à redémarrer votre ordinateur pour le réactiver. Son autre appli, Anti-social, permet d'avoir accès à Internet mais pas à toutes ses joyeuses distractions : Facebook, Twitter... "Les ordinateurs sont devenus des machines à distraction. On s'équipe aujourd'hui de fonctionnalités qui les ramènent à un usage de machine à écrire", note-t-il, amusé. Plusieurs navigateurs ont installé des options de ce type. "C'est une façon de s'acheter du temps. Internet est partout, la seule réponse possible maintenant est individuelle."

" Researchers from A*STAR's Institute of Microelectronics (IME) have developed the first compact high performance silicon-based cavity-backed slot (CBS) antenna that operates at 135 GHz. The antenna demonstrated 30 times stronger signal transmission over on-chip antennas at 135 GHz. At just 1.6mm x 1.2mm, approximately the size of a sesame seed, it is the smallest silicon-based CBS antenna reported to date for ready integration with active circuits. IME's innovation will help realize a wireless communication system with very small form factor and almost two-thirds cheaper than a conventional CBS antenna. The antenna, in combination with other millimetre-wave building blocks, can support wireless speed of 20 Gbps - more than 200 times faster than present day Wi-Fi, to allow ultra fast point-to-point access to rich media content, relevant to online learning and entertainment."

"Today, Wi-Fi is nearly everywhere in Estonia-- you could walk 100 miles and always have an Internet connection-- and it is free. In 2011, 94% of taxes were done online-- usually within five minutes. Cabinet meetings are paperless. Prescriptions are issued electronically. In the larger cities, you can pay for bus tickets and parking by texting-- you can even text for your beer in some establishments. You can sign legal documents from your smart phone. You can vote from your laptop. President Toomas Ilves voted in the last election, presumably for himself, while he was visiting Macedonia. Ninety-nine percent of bank transactions are online. It is possible to start a business in a few hours by logging onto a government web site and filling out a form."

"A Google spokeswoman said that promise of wireless Internet connections refers to systems it will install at more than 400 locations around the city for free. Google promised the free hookups for locations to be determined by officials in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., as part of the agreement in setting up its network. The two cities have, as part of the same agreement, given building space to the company and assigned staff to fast-track permits for the construction of the Internet service."

"Conferences, airports, cafes - they might offer free WiFi to visitors, but they are often sluggish in their operation because everyone else is hogging the connection. This issue might become a thing of the past, after a team of engineers at NC State University (NCSU) announced the development of WiFox (via ExtremeTech), a new software protocol that could theoretically be added to existing Internet routers and is capable of boosting WiFi performance by 700 percent."

"A dash of algebra on wireless networks promises to boost bandwidth tenfold, without new infrastructure."

"Declaring expansion of broadband Internet access the nation's next great infrastructure challenge, federal regulators on Monday unveiled an ambitious, decade-long strategy to make super high-speed connections available in every corner of the country. The plan by the Federal Communications Commission sets a goal of making sure at least 100 million homes have affordable access to networks that allow them to download data from the Internet at speeds of at least 100 megabits per second - at least 20 times faster than what most people get today. The proposal, which will be sent to Congress, also seeks to put ultra-fast Internet access of 1 gigabit per second in public facilities such as schools, hospitals and government buildings in every community."

La société britannique Tep Wireless vient de lancer une offre d'accès Internet mobile low-cost qui fonctionne dans 38 pays d'Europe et permet aux voyageurs de disposer d'une connexion permanente sans se ruiner en frais de roaming.

"Bientôt dépassé, le WiFi? Les États-Unis commencent à tester une nouvelle technologie sans fil, un «super WiFi» plus puissant et de plus longue portée, qui pourrait notamment apporter l'internet à haut débit dans les zones rurales."

"One of the problems bedevilling carriers is how to deliver faster broadband speeds to rural customers as they boast about the speeds their urban clients can get. SaskTel said Monday it will test a new approach starting in December in three Saskatchewan communities: Fixed data and voice wireless service using the LTE standard. The carrier announced from Bejing that it has signed an agreement with Huawei Technologies for a nine-month trial to see if the technology is economically feasible."

"Despite being announced three years ago, many Australians still have little idea what the NBN actually is. This coupled with some of the worst media coverage of anything, well, ever plus a raft of politicians and commentators saying things about it which are disingenuous or simply not true has led to the primary discussion surrounding it focusing on who said what. Today we're ignoring the politics and reviewing the NBN as though it were a new television or a phone: rating it according to performance, features and value."

Over the past three years, cities across the United States have announced ambitious plans to build community and municipal wireless networks.  The phrase 'anytime, anywhere' has had a powerful impact in shaping the way in which debates about these networks have been framed.  However, 'anytime, anywhere', which alludes to convenience, freedom and ubiquity, is of little use in describing the realities of municipal wireless networks, and, more importantly, it ignores the particular local characteristics of communities and the specific practices of users.  This paper examines the media representations and technological affordances of wireless networks as well as incorporating the practices of those that build and use them in an attempt to reframe these debates.