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The latest in public access Wi-Fi and wireless broadband: Philly gives the okay; Clearwire wants $400M IPO; AT&T hotspots to provide TV programs; and more.(www.wi-fiplanet.com Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The contracts between the city of Philadelphia and future city-wide Wi-Fi provider Earthlink are approved and on the way to the mayor and city solicitor for signatures. The city council unanimously gave the network the go-ahead. They expect to have the 135 square mile network deployed by September 2007. Earthlink has a 10 years to run the network, but will start with a 15 square mile test network in the north and south of the city. While it seems like a lot of time has gone into this process too much, according to some analyst Craig Settles says, "cities would do well to realize that Philadelphia sets the gold standard for its thoroughness in planning." Clearwire , the wireless broadband provider, filed yesterday with the SEC for an initial public offering on the NASDAQ. The company wants to raise $400 million that will go back into building out its pre-WiMax-tech network and buying up spectrum to use in the future. Clearwire plans to start using actual WiMax technology with equipment powered by Intel (also an investor). Last year Clearwire reported a $140 million loss. May 10, 2006 AT&T is working with MobiTV to bring TV programming to AT&T's hotspot network . MobiTV will make 15 channels, including news, sports and music, available to customers logging in at the 7,000 hotspots in the AT&T footprint, if they pay $12 for a month of unlimited access, or $6 for a 24-hour session. Those prices are over and above paying AT&T to get Internet access at the hotspot. There are 11,000 hotspots in AT&T's network, which now incorporates what used to be SBC FreedomLink. You can find them at, for one example, Barnes & Noble bookstores. May 9, 2006 Who's next on the list of cities looking to unwire? How about Phoenix, Arizona? It's already in the middle of that Arizona belt o' Wi-Fi provided by MobilePro/NeoReach, after all. The Downtown Phoenix Partnership, working with the city, Maricopa County and Arizona State U., wants to start with an area running 90 square blocks by next year. Their RFP is out, looking to find a tech consultant to get them started. Are Google 's city Wi-Fi plans (some in conjunction with EarthLink) on the skids, or a major threat? London-based analysts at visiongain say the search giant "will increasingly pose a threat to US mobile operators" in a new report, which also touches on the company's power in mobile search. The caveat is that Google needs to convert its advertising model to include local ads as well, which will make their free Wi-Fi services a major attraction. At the same time, though, Business 2.0 said that the network Google is installing in its hometown of Mountain View, California (without EarthLink) has glitches in coverage, which is going to require more access points, a move that could "change the economics behind Google's free Wi-Fi plans." Speaking of free Wi-Fi, AnchorFree Wireless was offering free hotspots in San Francisco long before Google thought of it. AnchorFree lost out on the bid to unwire the whole city, but the company is still working at it. Today, they announced the purchase of the Web site MetroFreeFi.com, an online community and directory of 10,000+ free hotspots around the world. The company has also updated the wiPod utility , which provides a list of free hotspots that you can carry right on your iPod. Boingo Wireless has tacked on a whopping 14,000 new hotspots to its footprint via a roaming deal with KT of South Korea. Locations on KT's NESPOT network include Incheon International and Gimpo Airports in Seoul, plus restaurants (Hard Rock Cafe, House of Blues, McDonald's) and hotels (Hilton and Intercontinental). This pushes the total count of Boingo venues to around 17,000 in Asia, and 45,581 worldwide. If you're lucky enough to be at the world's loudest tradeshow this week the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) in Los Angeles from May 10 to 12, where the speakers are always set at "11" stock up on the 25,000 free coupons Mickey D's is handing out. They're good for an hour of free Internet surfing using the Wi-Fi (powered by Wayport ) at the 7,000 McDonald's restaurants. Oh, and Ronald and friends are sponsoring the Wi-Fi network for all 60,000 game fanatics at the show as well. Pomona, California says it has finished installation of a pilot Wi-Fi hotzone downtown. Installed by city IT provider Affiliated Computer Services working with Cheetah Wireless Technologies , using equipment from Tropos Networks (all hooked to T1 lines!) and Nomadix , network coverage spans one square mile and will be used by residents, the city hall, first responders, Western University, and many more businesses. The mayor says that "wireless access is only the tip of the iceberg in Pomona's digital advancement goals," and that they're looking to expand the network to more city agencies, school and others. May 5, 2006 Maybe Philadelphia won't be the only big city in Pennsylvania providing citizens with Wi-Fi. The city council in Pittsburgh has approved use of light poles and other property for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership to make a downtown hotzone the fee is waived if the provider ( US Wireless Online will run the network) puts access into areas with low-income families. Eventually, it could go citywide. Speaking of Philadelphia, the Associated Press says the city may finally sign contracts next week to get EarthLink started on deploying their much ballyhooed citywide network. Since they announced the contract award last year, they've been haggling, but earlier this week it was announced that the technology and information services and public property and public works committees pushed things forward for a vote after making sure that businesses owned by women, the disabled and minorities would be able to participate in the deployment. EarthLink has a contract to run the 135 square mile network at an estimated cost of $22 million over 10 years. Non-profit WinstonNet of Winston-Salem, North Carolina has issued a draft request for proposal (RFP) for building out a citywide (at least -- covering 109 square miles) or (possibly) countywide wireless net (at 402 square miles). A final RFP goes out next week. WinstonNet controls over 25 miles of fiber optics that can probably be put to use in the network. The campus of Denison University in Granville, Ohio is joining the world of wireless with a deployment of 5G Wireless Communications ' cellular-style base stations. The equipment will keep the 1,000-acre campus bathed in Wi-Fi signals. UK-based Wi-Fi service provider iBAHN did a survey of 150,000 people, and found that 55 percent of business travelers are concerned about Wi-Fi security. 30 percent are concerned about hotspots in hotels and airports and the like, while 20 percent don't like using any unfamiliar Wi-Fi. A full 68 percent said they use Wi-Fi devices today. May 2, 2006 If you're a city that's been devastated by a disaster, and you used a free wireless LAN to help communicate afterwards and also as an incentive to get people to come back, isn't it only natural that your incumbent telcos would want to shut that down? Welcome to New Orleans, where the local weekly paper CityBusiness says that on Saturday a vote will take place to decide whether or not to allow the free metropolitan wireless network to continue. The telcos, specifically BellSouth, say it's unfair, since the government can "cross-subsidize" by taking money from one area to pay for the network, and that's why Louisiana has a law against such networks where local governments compete with private companies municipalities are limited to providing slow 144Kbps download speeds. The new bill would allow wireless Internet networks to continue in New Orleans and elsewhere in the state because they're used to ensure public safety and security. It turns out EarthLink is ready to sink as much as $15 million into a permanent wireless infrastructure for the city if the new bill passes and EarthLink would pay it all and run the network. Of course, BellSouth and Cox Communications don't like that option much, either. Several new Barnes & Noble bookstores have opened (or plan to open) around the US, and all will come equipped with Wi-Fi service from AT&T (formerly the SBC FreedomLink service). Locations include: Magnolia Mall in Florence, South Carolina; Clackamas Town Center in Portland, Oregon; Pearland Town Center in Pearland, Texas near Houston; The Promenade at Sacramento Gateway in California's capitol; Metropolis in Plainfield, Indiana; Southlake Town Square in Southlake, Texas; Silverdale, Washington near Seattle (plus one at Seattle's Northgate Mall); Montclair Plaza in Montclair, California; Blue Back Square in Hartford, Connecticut; Mall at Turtle Creek in Jonesboro, Arkansas; and at Fairlane Greene in Allen Park, Michigan. The cost is $4 for two hours or $20 a month for unlimited access. AT&T has 10,700 hotspots in its network. May 1, 2006 ICOA has signed a roaming agreement with Trustive , a hotspot aggregator out of Europe. Now, anyone with a Trustive account can surf on the ICOA hotspots found in airports, marinas and elsewhere in the United States. Trustive's footprint now spans 11,000 hotspots in 49 countries. Vendors and providers have until September to respond to the request for proposal (RFP) issued by Wireless Silicon Valley (whose real name is Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network ) late last week. The group has been working since 2004, and the 75-page document spells out what they want from the 1,500 square mile network, which should cover the areas between Daly City, Morgan Hill and Santa Cruz. The plan, as usual, is for a private company to shoulder the burden of deployment and management. Among the possible contenders are MetroFi and EarthLink -- though even AT&T might be interested. April 28, 2006 Suffolk County on Long Island home to everything from suburbs to horse farms is planning a 900 square mile wireless network that would bring free service to 1.5 million people, according to the New York Times . It might even extend into the ocean for boater use. So far, the county has a 15-person committee working on the details. No word on when or if an RFP will be issued to vendors/providers who might build the network. April 27, 2006 21 out of the 41 trains operated by GNER in Britain are now outfitted with Wi-Fi, according to the company. The plan is to roll it out to the entire fleet of cars traveling the East Coast. They expect to finish the project nine months ahead of time (by August 2006) due to customer demand. GNER uses roof-mounted satellite dishes and mobile phone antennas for backhaul. Access is free in first class, with pay-as-you-go fees starting at 2.95 for 30 minutes in standard class. Time for some citywide network requests for proposal (RFPs): Chicago will post a draft of their RFP in May before it goes out to vendors, in order to solicit suggestions. The St. Petersurg Times of St. Pete, Florida says the seaside city next to Tampa is going to issue a Wi-Fi RFP. Not far away, Treasure Island City is thinking about a network for use by citizens, businesses and first responders. And Riverside, California , with 300,000 residents just east of Los Angeles, has approved plans to put out an RFP for public access and city usage (like meter reading). The INFORUM building in downtown Atlanta is becoming the hub of a broadband wireless network. First Mile Communications is working with Southern Telecom on the project, which will provide access to 5,600 business around the 990,000 square foot building, with the signal stretching out over a radius of five miles. April 26, 2006 If you're an employee of a corporation with iPass service for remote access, but you hate lugging around a laptop, you may be in luck if you have a Nokia phone. The iPassConnect client software used to get access to the 50,000 hotspots in its virtual network is coming soon to the Nokia 9500 and 9300i devices (by the summer), as well as the E series phones (by the end of the year). Nokia is going to start by trialing use of iPass for its own employees. iPassConnect also runs on Windows, Mac and Windows Mobile. San Francisco TechConnect apparently didn't listen, and picked vendors without a decent privacy policy in place to unwire that city. Now the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Electronic Privacy Information Center's West Coast Office (EPIC West) want the Wireless Silicon Valley Task Force to consider those factors as well before they make a choice. The Task Force will be issuing an RFP later this week. The ACLU, EFF and EPIC want privacy wording in the RFP, but the Task Force has apparently told them the end user license agreements (EULA) from each provider should do. PrePass weigh station sites, which number about 259 on U.S. highways, will soon be hotspots. The company signed up with SiriCOMM to deploy its network (which will now exceed 700 locations) at the weigh stations, as soon as PrePass has the okay from the various Dept. of Transportation offices it deals with. April 25, 2006 Boingo Wireless continues to sign new overseas roaming partners to its virtual hotspot network. The latest is 900 new locations in Taiwan through Chunghwa Telecom (including Taipei Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport and other domestic airports, plus restaurants like KFC and McDonalds) and 300 locations in France through mobile phone provider SFR. Most are in restaurants, but the additions include convention centers and the Toulouse and Bale-Mulhouse airports. Even the Cannes Film Festival's home will be open for Boingo subscribers in the future. The company claims to have 30,581 hotspots in its footprint. Late last week, Clearwire , a wireless broadband provider found in 200 select cities across the US, bought out six-year-old Winbeam of Pennsylvania. Winbeam will become a wholly-owned subsidiary and will continue to operate in its current markets in New York, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania using wireless equipment in the licensed 2.5GHz band. The Associated Press says the month-old, 15-square-mile free Wi-Fi network in St. Cloud, Florida is already feeling a consumer backlash because there are too many dead spots. The network was set up by HP, but paid for by the city at a cost of $2.6 million plus $400,000 annually to run. The city expects to make that back by saving on fees when city employees use the free network for Internet access and voice communications. HP says the problem isn't that bad if you go by the number of help calls it got (842) versus the number of user sessions it's had (50,000 in 45 days). The East Bay city of Concord, California is lighting up some hotzones, according to the Contra Costa Times . They'll start with two free "Internet portals" in the Todos Santos Plaza, and move to a citywide network next year. The initial network in the town square will be installed by local provider Astound Broadband ; the citywide net will be installed by MetroFi , which provides free services with ads at a low download speed. A hotzone is launching in Annapolis, Maryland, run by Annapolis Wireless using equipment from Nortel . There are plans to go citywide with the network over the summer; for now, it only covers the City Dock to West Street and Eastport. Like most of the big-city wireless networks planned these days, it will be built without taxpayer money, funded by selling advertising space to local businesses on the network's log-in splash page. Sprint Nextel's EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) 3G network, Spring Power Vision, has moved into western Oregon, including the cities of Portland, Salem, Eugene and about 17 others. Laptops can connect for $40 a month for 40MB worth of downloads, and it costs 1/10 of a cent per kilobyte after that (or $80 for unlimited use). AT&T is lowering the price of Wi-Fi connections it got in the SBC acquisition at a couple of airports (Dallas Love Field and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport), and other Ohio spots (Quicken Loans Arena, hotspots on the Ohio Turnpike). The price will go from $7.95 down to $3.95 for two hours of connection time (which is still overpriced); monthly price is $20 for unlimited access to all AT&T hotspots, many powered by Wayport. AT&T customers who bundle the service with AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet pay only $1.99 a month more for the hotspots. April 21, 2006 You know how Google says it doesn't plan to expand its wireless network plans beyond Mountain View (its home city) and San Francisco (which it is helping unwire with EarthLink)? Well, maybe not so much. Apparently, during the latest company first-quarter earnings call , co-founder Larry Page did not rule out bidding on unused wireless spectrum soon coming to auction, as Google looks for ways to expand Internet access for end users. Not hard to believe when AT&T wants to charge them extra for using their pipes. Why pay when they can use their $9 billion in reserve to become a provider? In November of last year, a law was proposed in Westchester County in New York to force businesses to make sure their networks are secure. Apparently, the law, definitely the first of its kind, was signed yesterday -- and the details are a bit more clear thanks to a story from the Associated Press . The law targets networks that would store financial info (such as credit card numbers) in an effort to prevent identity theft so that means even cafes where you pay with plastic. Businesses have to make sure they've got firewalls and aren't using default SSIDs on access points. Businesses with public Internet access like hotspots have to post warning signs suggesting users get software firewalls or other security measures (such as VPNs) installed on their laptops. Law breakers get a warning at first, and fines could be as high as $500 for a third offense. Free access at open APs in Westchester ends in six months, so plan accordingly. Long Beach, California's marina has signed on with ICOA's iDockUSA service to get Wi-Fi service at the 4,000 boat slips there a number that represents a full 20 percent of the service iDockUSA provides. The signal will also cover nearby businesses and retail outlets. The marina is home to the Congressional Cup, Transpac and Olympic trial races. The San Antonio Express News reports that the Alamo City is going to look for bids to build a network for downtown and perhaps the rest of the city. Most access will be free, but details are unknown, even though city council says it could be done in a year. The plan is, no surprise, to provide free or low-cost broadband to all, and to let city workers use the wireless network to increase productivity. Mesa, Arizona a city in a state rife with citywide Wi-Fi already is putting out an RFP to get a privately owned and operated Wi-Fi network. So says the Arizona Republic . Yuma, Arizona isn't wasting time and has already picked MobilePro/NeoReach to install a network, just like that found in the Phoenix suburbs of Tempe, Gilbert and Chandler. They expect to start slow, but eventually could cover the entire 106 square miles of Yuma. MobilePro has been crowing lately not only about the growth of use of its WazTempe network, but also that revenue there is growing. Also well past the RFP stage is Foster City, California, which this week picked MetroFi to build a 3.8 square mile network for its 30,000 residents. Like other MetroFi networks, the service will be free with advertising up to 1Mbps downloads, or they can pay $20 a month for faster speed with no ads (a business plan that's quickly becoming the standard in muni wireless). They expect it to be live in about six months, at no cost to the city. MetroFi is also providing similar service to nearby Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. April 19, 2006 Fort Wayne, Indiana is the home of a new Wi-Fi hotzone. It's run by ISP Indiana Data Center , which is using Colubris equipment, including dual-radio access points. The network covers downtown, the airport, the convention center, the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, even parts of the public library and hospital. IDC is also powering hotspots in 25 other communities in the northeast of the state. Public safety access is free, as it is for most city government use. Access at the airport is free to all -- residents pay as little as $25 a month for wireless service if they prepay for equipment and installation. The Bellevue Collection shopping areas of Bellevue, Washington, all run by real estate developer Kemper Development Company (KDC), are going wireless. The Collection's retail (250 shops) and entertainment centers (a 16-screen cineplex) include Lincoln Square, Bellevue Square and Bellevue Place; Lincoln Square is getting the first deployment of a MobileAccess Universal Wireless Network, installed by integrator Tri-Power Group . The network will be used by customers and businesses. According to Brown University's Brown Daily Herald , the state of Rhode Island is poised to install a statewide wireless network (on which Brown is a partner and will run the pilot location). The non-profit Business Innovation Factory is leading the project. Japan's ACCA Networks is going to deploy Alcatel 's Evolium equipment in a WiMax trial in Tokyo. It launches in June and should include Internet access, video streaming and VoIP. April 13, 2006 Portland, Oregon was labeled the " Most Unwired City " in the United States in 2003 based on the sheer number of hotspots it had... but it dropped to #4 last year. Now, Portland is ready to launch a citywide network. MetroFi has landed the contract to install it, using mesh equipment from SkyPilot Networks . The two companies are also partnered for networks in Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, California; and in Aurora, Illinois. Like other MetroFi networks, access will be free if you're willing to look at advertising; otherwise, the price will be about $20 per month. The cost to MetroFi to install the 134 square mile network (sans any public funds, as is the norm) is expected to reach $10 million. This MetroFi win probably helps make up for losing the San Francisco deal to Google and EarthLink earlier this month, as EarthLink was one of the other Portland finalists. The Jacksonville International Airport in Florida is now providing free, 24/7 Wi-Fi access to all travelers through a network installed and run by IBM . They promise the ability to handle 300 simultaneous connections; six million people pass through JIA each year. April 12, 2006 North America's first mobile WiMax is coming in June to Muskegon County, Michigan . 802.16e equipment (not certified by the WiMax Forum, but close enough for jazz) from Samsung will be deployed by Arialink Broadband (local to Lansing, Michigan). The installation is being funded by Arialink, a federal grant and a loan from the state's Economic Development Corporation. The service will cost residents $19 a month to get 3Mbps downloads, with faster service for businesses and consumers. Deployment will start in Egelston Township. iPass recently tacked on 8,000 new hotspots to its virtual network in Europe. This week it added a few thousand more in deals with The Cloud in the United Kingdom (over 6,000 hotspots and hotzones) and Swisscom Mobile in Switzerland (1,000 hotspots). The Cloud deal will include hotzones to be launched in cities like Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and the Square Mile Network in London. The Swisscom sites include airports in Zurich, Geneva, Lugano and Berne, plus many rail stations and hotels. April 11, 2006 Clearwire , the wireless broadband provider using a proprietary, WiMax-like technology for service in about 200 cities in the United States, is now going to offer a voice over IP service. Stockton, California is the first market. The service was developed jointly with Bell Canada, and supports Enhanced 911 (E911) for emergency calls. MobilePro says the usage of the WAZTempe hotzone after 60 days has been good, with 650 paying customers so far and many more using the Free Zone area. The 40 square mile Wi-Fi cloud covering 95 percent of the city launched in February. Also as of this month, all the WazMetro customers in Tempe and elsewhere will be able to get phone help, as the Tucson Wireless Broadband Call Center will be used for customer service (call 866-929-9434). In January, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan issued an RFP for providers who could build a vendor-neutral, privately owned and operated wireless network. Muniwireless.com reports that 20 companies have responded including a couple of the usual suspects (EarthLink, Azulstar, Clearwire, MobilePro's NeoReach) and many others (4 G Metro Mesh, BroadBreeze Communications, MEI MAYLONE Enterprises, ACD.net, AmeriNet, NetApex, Arialink, FreedomNet Solutions, Ricochet, AT&T, IBM, Pronto Networks, INS (Lockheed Martin), WiFiCITY, Blue Moon Solutions and Lakeside Wireless). The net will cover 45 square miles. April 6, 2006 MobilePro and Galaxy Internet Services will be bringing the town of Brookline, Massachusetts into the wireless age. The town selection committee has picked the two providers to create a "border-to-border wireless network." It has yet to be approved by the city's selectmen, but the chances look good for a network including 802.11a/b/g and 4.9GHz for public safety to be installed, probably with equipment from Strix Systems, a MobilePro favorite on previous deployments in the state of Arizona and elsewhere. The town will be the first around the Boston metro area to have 4.9GHz for emergency services. The network is expected to support not only Internet connections but VoIP and video as well. Citywide Wi-Fi is all the rage, but it's still not found where perhaps it's needed most: trains. (Just ask any commuter: they'll tell you.) A Request for Information (RFI) has gone out from the BART/ Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCPJA), however, to find out how it can get wireless broadband on the trains running the 170-mile California Capital Corridor route, with an eye toward technical trials to see if it's even feasible. Wi-Fi will provide the connections inside, with backhaul as a mix of WiMax or 3G base stations along the route, as well as satellite connections. CCPJA wants it all for those using the network: Web surfing, VPN pass-thru, VoIP, video and audio streaming, and even using it for surveillance cameras and train diagnostics. No bids allowed until early 2007. (Those serious about wireless on the rails should check out the Train Communications Systems 2006 Conference coming to London, England in June.) April 4, 2006 T-Mobile will be providing hotspot services at three Los Angeles county airports (Los Angeles, Ontario and Van Nuys). Cost will be $10 for a 24-hour period, though existing T-Mobile Hotspot customers can, of course, get access without extra fees. The contract with the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners goes for three years with options to add on years at the end, and T-Mobile will be ponying up 25 cents to the Los Angeles World Airports for each connection made plus a minimum annual $4.8 million each year for the first three years. Ouch. The Lincoln, Nebraska JournalStar says the city council has taken the first steps towards wireless broadband. A work group is looking into the possibilities. Nebraska is one of the states with an anti-municipal broadband law, but they'll get around it like most do, by making sure the vendors and providers involved pay for it. (The paper says the city can barely come up with enough cash to fix the streets.) They also say an "important consideration" is that the system be compatible with WiMax, making it sound like WiMax is going to replace Wi-Fi in laptops. Wayport has bought out a Scandinavian WISP named NetPower Wireless Solutions AS , giving Wayport another 60 venues on top of 200 already-established locations in in Europe. Service can be found in the Scandinavian Rica Hotel chain, the Radisson SAS chain, airports and restaurants. Wayport's European HQ is in Copenhagen. Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess , the company's close-to-nationwide EV-DO network, just added northern California's San Benito County to its list of locations. The county covers from Sacramento down to Hollister, San Juan Bautista and Tres Pinos. Cost is $60 a month with a two-year agreement. With all this wireless broadband happening, what will happen to dear old wired broadband? According to Probe Financial Associates , the DSL and cable guys are scared to death. Or at least they have "more to fear from wireless than has generally been projected," according to a PFA statement. It's part of a new report PFA has out, looking at broadband through 2010 and how wireless is going to "erode fixed broadband faster than anticipated" -- even faster than cell phones replaced landlines. Look for it to get serious by 2008 or 2009. March 30, 2006 The same folks who rank the Most Unwired Cities in the United States Sperling's BestPlaces , with sponsorship by Intel today announced the " Best City for Teleworking " as Washington D.C., based on factors like average commute time, fuel prices, and broadband availability. The study defines teleworking as the ability to have work come to you wherever you are, not just the standard telecommute of staying at home (and of course they note that more people can do that because of wireless technology such as Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology in laptops). They rated 80 metro areas and ranked them by "extra large" (Boston, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco, among others), "large" (San Jose, Baltimore, Denver, San Diego, Indianapolis), "medium" (the Bridgeport area in Connecticut was #1) and "small" (Boulder, Colorado). Ratings were based on the percentage of office workers in each area, and how much gas and hours of labor could be saved per year with more telework. Washington businesses, for example, could save over $1 billion by letting office employees work where they want. The city of New York could save $3.2 billion. March 29, 2006 The free municipal Wi-Fi mesh network of New Orleans which the city's CIO calls "the lifeblood of so many businesses" in the town still recovering from the wake of Hurricane Katrina was supposedly threatened with a shut down. Turns out the emergency Wi-Fi network, which was set up after the storm through use of previously installed equipment as well as new volunteer efforts with donated equipment, ran afoul of a Louisiana law prohibiting free, municipal broadband networks that run at 144 Kbps or faster. Who cares, right? By all reports, BellSouth did, and wanted the network shut down. USA Today reports that BellSouth claims it hasn't challenged the network at all. That's directly the opposite of how the city CIO, Greg Meffert, interpreted BellSouth's intentions when he spoke to them. Hopefully, it won't matter either way: New Orleans has called EarthLink in to take over running the network. The ISP will spend $15 million on it over the next three years to go citywide. With the municipality no longer providing the service directly, it won't be in violation of the state law. Everyone wins (except maybe BellSouth). Today, 10,000 people use the New Orleans Wi-Fi regularly. Bryant Park in New York City one of the first in the country with free Wi-Fi for visitors, and the first with service sponsored by Google before it started applying for citywide projects now has a form of secure access through Wibiki . Users can still log in for nothing, or they can download the Wibiki software for Windows or Macintosh and use that to get a secure connection without all the hassles of keys and authentication names. The main Wi-Fi service of the park is provided by the Public Internet Project . Boingo Wireless has announced a major expansion of its virtual hotspot network. The company added 30 locations in Indonesia through Centrin Communications (including McDonald's restaurants), and 60 venues in Thailand through MilCom Systems, including three airports. In Belgium, Boingo is working with Telenet NV, which has 1,000 hotspot locations, including airports, train stations, conference centers and hotels, even gas stations. And back home in North America, the roaming network has 25 new airports online, including big city international terminals like Chicago's O'Hare and Midway, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, Indianapolis and Montreal. Boingo now has 125 airports in its network in North America, 225 airports worldwide, and a grand total of 25,571 venues worldwide. Burleson, Texas will have a new citywide Wi-Fi network soon, courtesy of Chevron Energy Solutions and RedMoon Broadband . It will be used, at least to start, in a trial of automatic meter reading (AMR), specifically on 30 water meters retrofitted with wireless transmitters. Verizon Wireless says its BroadbandAccess EV-DO network is now available in all five boroughs of New York, after it recently finished deployment for Staten Island. Cost is $60 a month with a two-year commitment. March 22, 2006 EarthLink has bagged another customer: the city of Milpitas, California. The city, on the south end of San Francisco Bay, will have a 6.5 square mile mesh network (likely installed by EarthLink's preferred vendor, Tropos Networks, though it isn't mentioned in the release). As with other announced networks, EarthLink will let other providers get access to sell services over the network. EarthLink also has a similar deal with Anaheim, California, and of course with Philadelphia. Milpitas is a close neighbor to the Silicon Valley cities of Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, all of which are getting metro-scale Wi-Fi from MetroFi to be provided free if you look at ads. To date, EarthLink hasn't announced any free options with its wireless broadband plans. It's not enough to use your Wi-Fi on a plane to surf the Internet while you're traveling think about the gaming possibilities. Connexion by Boeing has, and through customer Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) (and with partner Intel), it's today hosting a flight filled with gamers going from Copenhagen to New York for the Global Gaming League's AmeriCup vs. EuroCup competition. While in the air, the gamers will use laptops to battle each other live while at 30,000 feet in games like Quake 4 and Counter-Strike. Connexion says in the announcement that its service is on 133 planes traveling 170 routes every day. TengoInternet has signed a contract with Outdoor World to put TengoZone Wi-Fi network service into the latter's 15 campgrounds found in states up and down the eastern seaboard (and Illinois). That state, plus New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia, are all new locations for TengoInternet, giving it a presence in 28 states and Mexico. TengoZones cost $3 to $7 per day or $13 to $15 a week for access depending on the campground, though serious travelers can get monthly on up to annual roaming prices: $35 a month or $240 a year to use any TengoZone you want any time. Infonetics Research of London says the future of wireless networks is mixed. Not that it won't be great, just that it will mix all sorts of wireless technology, from Wi-Fi to WiMax to EV-DO, etc. The study says that 18 carriers in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific spent $2.9 billion on such networks last year, and that will go up almost 41 percent by 2007 to $4.1 billion, all in hopes of replicating the success of the wireline broadband days. 3G and WiMax will probably see the most dramatic growth. March 20, 2006 St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean is home to a new wireless mesh network hotspot. Installed by local provider Choice Communications using equipment from BelAir Networks (and back-end software from Airpath ), the network provides broadband around Havensight Mall , covering about a square mile, including nearby businesses and the docks for cruise ships, so travelers and crew can use it to go online. Earlier this month, Laguna Broadcasting Network (LBNet) switched the hotspot in downtown Laguna Beach, California to a free model (they used to charge $20 for 500 minutes). They say it's relatively low-speed and requires viewing advertisements, but they still offer high-speed with no ads for $15 a month for residents or those who just hate commercials. March 17, 2006 ABI Research thinks that metropolitan Wi-Fi networks of the world will go from the piddling 1,500 square miles of coverage they had in 2005 to 126,000 square miles that's 325,000 square kilometers by 2010. Note, that's bigger than the entire state of New Mexico. That deployment will require 1 million mesh routers to ship in 2010, resulting in revenues of over $1.2 billion. That is, of course, assuming that mesh doesn't get supplanted by WiMax or some cellular type of technology, but the report focuses on the mesh equipment providers new and old like BelAir Networks, Cisco Systems, Firetide, MeshDynamics, Motorola, Nortel Networks and others. MuniWireless.com says the city of Rome, Georgia has awarded an RFP to Gibson Technical Services (GTS) to install a Wi-Fi hotzone in the downtown area. GTS plans to use equipment from Tropos Networks and Pronto Networks, with Internet service from Air Infinite. March 13, 2006 T-Mobile Germany is going to be the first provider to offer seamless roaming across disparate wireless networks such as HSDPA, GPRS and Wi-Fi. The capability, set for launch in the summer, will be deployed by Nortel Networks using Azaire Networks ' IP Converged Network Platform (IP-CNP). Azaire calls it an "integrated hybrid network," and says it's more cost-effective for operators who've already invested in one type of network. T-Mobile will be able offer SIM authentication for secure roaming, plus completely integrated accounting and billing for enterprise customers. The companies demonstrated the technology at CeBIT in Germany last week. SingTel Optus in Australia will also be using IP-CNP for its Optus Wireless Connect services. Azaire says it is the only fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) technology vendor with actual customers deployed instead of just trials. March 8, 2006 Not all the McDonald's restaurants in the US have had their Wi-Fi from Wayport turned on yet. For example, the 40 locations in the city of Austin, Texas get high-speed wireless with fries on March 13. Cost is $2.95 per day, but exclusive to residents of Austin, they can sign up for a $5-a-month membership that has no annual commitment, with no charge for the first month. Each paid Wi-Fi connection until June 16 will also mean one dollar donated to the Ronald McDonald House being built in 2007 at the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas. (Wayport says it's still installing service at McDonald's locations at a rate of 100 venues per week.) The non-profit Toronto Hydro Telecom (a subsidiary of Toronto Hydro Corp., which is in turn owned by the city of Toronto) announced this week its plans to turn Canada's largest city into a metro-sized hotzone. The network will launch in five phases, each covering different areas of the city, and each will have 100 percent coverage when completed. Phase one will cover the Bay Street financial district. Access will be free for the first few months, and later, charges will be competitive with local broadband services. Toronto Hydro is paying for everything, but no word on who the integrator or equipment supplier is yet, as the RFP only went out on February 8. The nearby city of Hamilton , Ontario is applying for a $400,000 grant to do the same thing downtown. March 7, 2006 Madison, Wisconsin's Mad City Broadband project, which Georgia-based Cellnet is installing for use by citizens, businesses and first responders, will be powered by mesh equipment from Cisco Systems (the 4400 Series WLAN controllers with Aironet 1500 Series dual-radio APs). By the end of this month, they expect to have 150 access points in place covering a 10-mile radius around the capitol building. The network is another municipal install that cost the city nothing, and will be sold wholesale to other ISPs who want to provide service in Madison. Nintendo says it has signed up 1 million unique users on its wireless gaming service for the Nintendo DS handheld game system, using Wi-Fi connections at home and in hotspots such as McDonald's. Nintendo says it's an all-time gaming record. Also, two new Wi-Fi enabled games are out for the platform: Tetris DS and Metroid Prime Hunters. Hotzones could be a good investment, at least if you have the right tools: RoamAD claims that the Perth, Australia metromesh network run by aCure Technology has already made a 100 percent return on investment (ROI) after only nine months of operation. RoamAD runs the software in the background of the network, which metromesh says saved them 60 percent on upfront costs. The cops, firefighters and EMTs of Plano, Texas will soon be on the wireless horn with each other, thanks to the city's plans to deploy Motorola's Motomesh equipment along with Motorola Canopy for long-distance wireless backhaul services. 200 police cruisers will have full-time wireless data communications running in the 4.9GHz band, which is reserved by the FCC for first responders. First phase will have access points deployed in specific areas, with the second phase completing a wireless cloud over the city. March 6, 2006 Want free access at T-Mobile Hotspots (like those found at Starbucks)? Well, you can, on weekends. But only if you're a user of a T-Mobile cellular phone plan. Just visit any of their 6,500 locations on Saturday or Sunday (until 3am ET on Monday morning) and open a Web browser to enter your phone number. T-Mobile will send your phone a text message with a code you enter in the browser to get your free access. Try it while you can; T-Mobile says it s a limited promotion. Tropos Networks poised to provide mesh equipment for big deployments in Philadelphia and elsewhere says the city of St. Cloud, Florida is the first in the nation with 100 percent free citywide wireless coverage for all residents and businesses. The network was installed by HP and MRI. St. Cloud expects to extend the network from its current 15 square miles to 24 over the next decade, serving 74,000 residents. March 2, 2006 Portland, Oregon-based VeriLAN has taken in some extra funding, and will use it toward a new proposal submitted to Long Beach, California for a citywide network. VeriLAN is a finalist to provide similar service in its hometown. The Associated Press announced the financials of the Wireless Philadelphia deal that was finalized this week. EarthLink will rent use of 4,000 light poles in town (at $74 per pole per year, that's $296,000 annually) to cover 135 square miles with a mesh network and subsidize cheap access for low-income families ($10 per month). EarthLink will pay Philly $2 million up front, an advance on the first two years of revenue sharing, which the city will use to buy laptops for the poor. With Philly only contracted to get 5 percent of EarthLink's revenue, that means the company is expecting to make around $20 million per year. The WISP expects as many as 80,000 signups in the first two years, with the city government getting 3,000 accounts gratis or on the cheap. None of this happens, though, until EarthLink sets up a 15 square mile test network. MuniWireless.com says Miami-Dade County in Florida is considering a county-wide wireless network that would cover 2,000 square miles. It would be done sans taxpayer money, and the final cost, while not yet determined, would be "roughly the price of current dial-up," according to the site. The current plan calls for pilot programs to be running by November 2006 and the entire county covered by 2007, but if you consider how long it took Philly, add a few months to a year to that final date. March 1, 2006 Craig Settles reports that the mayor of Philadelphia is in a press conference today to say that all the negotiations between EarthLink and the city are resolved time to start deploying a major citywide Wi-Fi network. Settles says, despite telco naysayers on the financial viability of the project, the city stands to save $2 million a year by not having to pay said telcos for network access in city operations. ICOA 's iDockUSA has installed Wi-Fi service at several new marinas in the California cities of Brisbane, Martinez, Catalina Island and Corona del Mar. A few other new iDockUSA venues are becoming part of the total footprint of 50 locations through acquisition of services that are being rebranded. New and forthcoming Barnes & Noble bookseller locations that are coming equipped with SBC FreedomLink Wi-Fi service can be found in Mankato, Minnesota; Buffalo and Colonie, New York; Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Lahaina, Hawaii; Sugar Land, Texas; Fairbanks, Alaska; and San Jose, California at Eastridge Mall. Internet.com Corp. Copyright 2003 Jupitermedia Corp. All rights reserved. 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