[May 27, 2012] Cable firms expand access to Wi-Fi Tweet TAMPA, May 27, 2012 (Tampa Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Visitors to the Ballast Point pier can fish, watch the pelicans dive and, now, use free Wi-Fi to check email or post to Facebook -- if they're Bright House customers. The pastoral spot is one of hundreds around Tampa where Bright House Networks is building or opening up existing Wi-Fi connections to smartphones, notebooks and tablets. Add to that a slew of high schools, soccer fields, shopping malls, city parks and beaches stretching from Pass-a-Grille to Land O' Lakes. Welcome to a new battleground in the competition between Bright House Networks and Verizon: Wi-Fi. Both companies are opening up new Wi-Fi hotspots around the region, and in turn they're offering a new perk for customers: Jump off the cellular network and onto Wi-Fi, and families can suddenly stop eating up megabytes in cellular data plans. This week, several cable companies joined forces to offer subscribers access on each other's Wi-Fi networks, and for good reason. They're interested in reaching out to customers in new ways -- just as companies like Apple and Netflix work to attract more viewers. "Will it be successful is the big question," said telecom analyst Jeff Kagan. "They have not been successful outside their core yet. ... Cable television is under threat and they must reach out and become much more innovative and competitive to survive." Rather than carpet every street corner with Wi-Fi, Bright House is taking a tactical approach by opening hotspots in high-traffic areas. Dozens of hotspots are along busy streets like Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa, as well as West Shore Boulevard, Dale Mabry Highway and Bayshore Boulevard. Both the International Plaza and WestShore Plaza malls are hotspots, as are dozens of hotels along the beach in Pinellas County. To sign in, customers trigger their cellphone, tabletor computer to seek out Wi-Fi links. If one appears that says "Bright House" or "Cable WiFi," they log in with their home account name and password. To plan in advance, customers can look up locations at cableWiFi.com. The access comes at no extra cost to home cable broadband subscribers. For travelers at hotels that charge for Wi-Fi, it's worth checking to see if Bright House provides that access because the hotel may charge a daily rate for Wi-Fi while it's free to Bright House subscribers there. The same holds true for International Plaza, which charges a daily rate for access while the service is free for Bright House subscribers who log in with their credentials. Verizon had a head start in the public Wi-Fi drive and started offering free access to its customers about three years ago in some locations. Now, Verizon counts more than 5,600 hotspots nationwide, primarily at places like airports and hotels. One difference however: The Verizon system only works with computers and requires a software download. That means it won't work with smartphones or tablets. Customers also must subscribe at home to broadband speeds of 15 Mbps or faster on FiOS or 1.1 Mbps or higher for DSL service. For now, Verizon lists 12 hotspots in central Tampa, including Tampa International Airport, several nearby hotels and two restaurants on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. Officials with Verizon Wireless, the cellular side of the company, strongly encourage their cellphone customers to hop on Wi-Fi whenever they can. That's partly because cellular data traffic is doubling each year and cellphone companies increasingly say they face a shortage of wireless bandwidth to connect phones to cellular towers. The number of smartphones in the United States jumped 43 percent last year to 111 million, and the number of wireless-enabled tablets, laptops and modems jumped 49 percent to 20 million, according to the CTIA cellular trade group. In addition, Americans sent 388 billion megabytes via mobile devices, up 123 percent from the year before. Put another way, if you were walking and listening to five MP3 songs per mile, you'd walk 6.5 million times around the Earth to use up that much data. Shifting customers to Wi-Fi hotspots takes them off clogged cellphone towers and directs their photos, tweets and Facebook posts down into land-based networks that are far faster and run by other companies. That's a big value, said Scott Hatfield, chief technology officer at Syniverse, which handles much of the cellular traffic between companies and has a new project to help various companies handle Wi-Fi customers. "A number of people are now in these tiered data plans, and Wi-Fi allows them to avoid that data charge they might otherwise face," Hatfield said. "It won't be ubiquitous, but the cable operators are trying to give you more utility, and address your mobility needs." They have good reason, Hatfield said. Cable companies may offer cable TV, broadband and telephone service, but they've had less success offering cellular. Customers with new 4G cellular links can use them nearly anywhere and may find them just as good as home Wi-Fi -- and consider dropping their home broadband subscriptions. ___ (c)2012 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) Visit the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) at www.tampatrib.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]