Starting today, we will change over our internet system to include 8 plug-in ports at the oval table on the first floor. Yes, that does mean the end of wireless. There are numerous reasons why this change was necessary, including the fact that China Telecom has threatened to cut our internet altogether if we continue giving our customers access to wireless internet. We hope that the plug-in ports will work as a loop-hole in the system. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

May I suggest adding a notice that users of the plug-in ports should actually sit at the oval table -- leaving the side tables for people to eat at.

So will this be standard with most cafe's. Has China Telecom got a serious problem with wireless modem's??

China Telecom has a fear that wireless routers encourage people to steal internet from their neighbours and therefore not pay. This is quite irrational because every wifi router comes with encryption which most people don't bother to turn on. A campaign to get people to encrypt their wifi signals would be more friendly than a threat to cut everyone's cables.

Unless I'm mistaken, to the ISP a router is a router - I'm not sure how they'd know it was wireless unless they are wandering around Kunming actually monitoring wifi signals. They are more likely seeing a router on the network and getting flustered about that. With that in mind I'm not sure how wired ethernet ports will make much difference. Sure it will stop people stealing the internet but that can be done with encryption.

Some Routers (Netgear, Linksys etc) can fake a MAC address (a unique code assigned to every piece of network hardware) so that you will be showing your computer's MAC address to the ISP rather than a router's MAC address. This might make the ISP think you are connecting a computer straight to the modem and no routers are involved. I've done this at home but not sure if it works - the internet is as slow as ever but I haven't been threatened with being cut off.

Having spoken to engineers at China Netcom (who provide our office internet) they don't seem to have a problem with routers (wireless or wired) and can often be cheaper and faster than Telecom. The big problem is they are the little guy in Kunming (very big in the North of China) and are squeezed out by China Telecom. Most large apartment complexes will have already signed deals with Telecom making it impossible to use another ISP. However, with individual shops directly connected to the road (ie, not a big building) it might be easier to choose your ISP.

I'd be interested in finding out if China Telecom offer any special packages that allow for WIFI if you pay for more bandwidth. It doesn't seem reasonable to stop people using WIFI. For many people using WIFI still means they are only using 1 computer (and therefore the same bandwidth), it is just more convenient. And at the end of the day its safer - a router acts as a firewall. Connecting directly to China Telecom is actually quite dangerous for your computer.

Colin,

So greed isn't always a bad thing. :)

One other benefit you may have or may not have thought of is the health of you and of your staff who are being exposed to the microwave and ELF (Extremely low frequency) radiation emitted by WiFi for long periods of time.

I am also suspecting that we might indeed be seeing lawsuits against employers by employees who exposed to excessive WiFi developed health problems.

I personally know of a number of people who have been made sick from WiFi. The following should give people some insight into the possible dangers:

An Interesting Letter

Dear Ms. Levitt,

My son has been having serious ailments over the last 6 months including: Severe and constant headaches, leg pains, poor sleep, and even heart palpitations. Various specialists were at a loss as to why he had these conditions! The only thing that showed up in extensive bloodwork was a low IgA level. I did some research and figured out that it may be the WiFi Wireless Internet I installed in our home exactly 6 months prior.

So I quietly unhooked the system, and monitored my son so not to tell him of my changes. Sure enough, within hours his headache that he had without pause for 6 months went away. We're about 2 weeks from when I first disabled the WiFi system and my sons ENTIRE medical symptom list has complete cleared up! No longer does he complain of sore legs or headaches, which is a big relief to us.

Most importantly, his blood panel showed that his IgA levels returned to normal. Upon investigation I found that EMF/EMR from Wireless Networks can lower Melatonin, which indirectly lowers IgA - there are studies that confirm this. IgA itself is responsible for fighting a VARIETY of illness. So we can say indirectly that EMF/EMR may be responsible for an extremely wide range of human ailments.

I have found some schools and some countries are already removing WiFi systems because of extremely high levels of complaints from teachers and students about ill effects after their installation. I believe this issue is vastly more dangerous than Cellular towers because of the highly concentrated continuous signal nature of wireless Internet.

I believe there needs to be some detailed and up to date works to reflect the rapid increase of high-powered wireless-Internet networks being installed in schools, homes, and cities nationwide.

Any opinions on this? Kind Regards,

Robert McNaughton

Dear Robert,

Thanks for this email. I will pass it along to appropriate people in federal regulatory agencies, who need to hear this exact kind of information. Just so you know, this is about the 10th such communication within the last year that I have gotten describing pretty much the same symptoms. WiFi is certainly a problem. When I lecture on cell towers, I now say that it never ceases to amaze me that people will fight a cell tower in their neighborhood, then throw in a WiFi system at home which is just like inviting a cell tower indoors. The problem with towers/infrastructure now is that they are using significantly higher frequencies due to the FCC licensing of broadband, i.e. telecom companies can now offer Internet access, TV, text messaging, music downloads, etc. etc. Yesterday's old analog cell tower that could cover a 10-15 mile radius morphed into digital PCS that could cover about a 3-mile radius, and now the "next generation" infrastructure requires antennas/towers every 1-2 miles. These are likely all unsafe technologies, it's just a question of degree and exposure parameters. But personal WiFi domestic systems are by far the worst right now due to it's very close proximity to people and the higher frequencies at which they operate. And of course whole cities are going WiFi. Unfortunately the learning curve on this is steep, there are literally NO research funds available in America, and the FCC, which controls for exposure standards, is a non-health agency. So everyone is learning about this one individual anatomy at a time, literally. Eventually the adage that the "plural of anecdote is data" will come to pass. But someone needs to collect the information and we don't even have that going on. No one wants to monitor this. Everyone just wants it to be fine. People who get into difficulties have no one to tell but a journalist like me. And most MDs are clueless. I am glad that you figured out your son's problems so quickly. That's unfortunately rare. Please let me know how he progresses.

Best Regards,

Blake Levitt

P.S. I wrote about melatonin in my first book on this subject and there is another book called The Melatonin Hypothesis, edited by Stevens, Wilson &Anderson. That latter is mostly about powerline frequencies but it is full of good information.

Hope this measure will boost the speed of connection at salvador's. It's pretty surprised to me that salvador's hasn't encrypted the wifi connection. No matter it's at noon or night, it's very very slow, so i guess someone around the shop steals the internet.

Congratulations China Telecom on kicking China back into the stone age. Have they forgotten 发展才是应道理 ?

that should be 发展才是硬道理 :0)

Some people might think that this technology is rather actually moving people into another stone age - one step forward, one hundred steps back. What indeed might move people forward is a change in or rather a "raising of consciousness." How about a raising out there of the amount of "appreciation" and "consideration"? Personally, I think that would move China forward more than any so-called belief in technology "advances." (In actuality, exposure to the electromagnetic radiation [EMR] given off by this technology seems to make people quite irritable! And when people are irritable they don't treat each other well.)

As Mr. Charlie, a wise Chinese man living in a small town in Myanmar told me, "Technology is not always good."

peace

prd34

Breaking News: Council of Europe Calls for Dramatic Reduction in Human EMF Exposures:

assembly.coe.int/[...]

electromagnetichealth.org/[...]

www.next-up.org/parlement_europeen.php

Some quotes:

8.1. in general terms:

8.1.1. take all reasonable measures to reduce exposure to electromagnetic fields, especially to radio frequencies from mobile phones, and particularly the exposure to children and young people who seem to be most at risk from head tumours;

8.1.3. put in place information and awareness-raising campaigns on the risks of potentially harmful long-term biological effects on the environment and on human health, especially targeting children, teenagers and young people of reproductive age;

8.1.4. pay particular attention to "electrosensitive" persons suffering from a syndrome of intolerance to electromagnetic fields and introduce special measures to protect them, including the creation of wave-free areas not covered by the wireless network;

8.2. concerning the private use of mobile phones, DECT phones, WiFi, WLAN and WIMAX for computers and other wireless devices such as baby phones:

8.2.1. set preventive thresholds for levels of long-term exposure to microwaves in all indoor areas, in accordance with the precautionary principle, not exceeding 0.6 volts per metre, and in the medium term to reduce it to 0.2 volts per metre;

8.2.4. raise awareness on potential health risks of DECT-type wireless telephones, baby monitors and other domestic appliances which emit continuous pulse waves, if all electrical equipment is left permanently on standby, and recommend the use of wired, fixed telephones at home or, failing that, models which do not permanently emit pulse waves;

8.3. concerning the protection of children:

8.3.1. develop within different ministries (education, environment and health) targeted information campaigns aimed at teachers, parents and children to alert them to the specific risks of early, ill-considered and prolonged use of mobiles and other devices emitting microwaves;

8.3.2. for children in general, and particularly in schools and classrooms, give preference to wired Internet connections, and strictly regulate the use of mobile phones by schoolchildren on school premises;