EarthLink layoffs signal change in muni Wi-Fi
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While nobody expects municipal Wi-Fi to go away, analysts say that EarthLink's plan to lay off 900 employees shows that business models aren't yet mature.
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The company's wireless security technologies are flying off the shelves.
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Microwave frequencies vital for Earth monitoring are being lost to commercial uses, weather forecasters say.
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Service interruptions reported across the U.S.
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Even EarthLink is scaling back deployments, some cities and regional networks are pushing forward with plans to build citywide Wi-Fi networks.
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'tis the season to be disconnected A new study from AirMagnet has demonstrated that Wi-Fi signal strength can drop by up to 25 per cent when seasonal decorations are in place.â¦
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Officials at Computer Associates (Quote, Chart) announced the availability of an application aimed at simplifying and strengthening Wi-Fi networks.
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Shares of EarthLink Inc. climbed more than 6 percent Tuesday after the Internet service provider said it would cut 900 jobs &#151; or about half its work force &#151; and close four offices in an effort to reduce operating costs.
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(InfoWorld) - The ACLU has turned up the political heat on EarthLink and Google's plan for Wi-Fi in San Francisco, telling the city's Board of Supervisors that the proposed contract doesn't have enough privacy or free speech protections. The ACLU of Northern California said in a letter to the supervisors on Tuesday that both EarthLink's paid service and Google's free offering would fall short of most of the group's recommendations on collection and sharing of personal data and possible tracking of users. Among other things, there are no limits on what kind of information EarthLink can or will collect, and terms for the Google service call for requiring "minimal" information on login without defining "minimal," the letter said. In addition to privacy concerns, the group is worried that knowing information is being collected will cause users to limit what they say and do on the Internet. The city and EarthLink agreed on a contract last month, and EarthLink is confident the closely watched project will get off the ground with deployment of a proof-of-concept network starting in April, said company spokesman Jerry Grasso. But the proposal has been under fire since before the contract was completed, and some members of the board have said a municipally owned system would be better for the city. EarthLink negotiated the deal with the city and would build and operate the network, bringing Google in as a tenant providing the free, slower service. Some critics have warned that San Francisco could be giving a virtual monopoly on citywide Wi-Fi to private companies without ensuring user privacy or complete coverage. The ACLU said a municipal Wi-Fi network should let users opt in or out of any service that collects data on what they look at or search for on the Internet, or their e-mail messages. There are no provisions for that in the paid or free service terms, it said. EarthLink can only save location information for 60 days, but there's no limit to how long it can store personal protected information and no limit to how long Google can store any information, the ACLU said. Users of the EarthLink service can opt out of receiving marketing materials, but EarthLink has free reign to share personal information with partner companies that help it deliver or promote the service. Both service providers can hand over users' personal information for law enforcement or national security reasons without a warrant or notification of the user, though they would require "court-ordered documentation" before doing so. If information is sought for a civil suit, EarthLink or Google would have to tell the user first. EarthLink's Grasso declined to comment on the ACLU's letter, saying EarthLink has not seen it. Google and city representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Shares of EarthLink climbed more than 6 percent today after the Internet service provider said it would cut about half its work force and close four offices to reduce costs.
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With a rash of muni Wi-Fi projects collapsing, companies and cities realize their initial approaches to providing ubiquitous, free network connectivity aren't working. The problem is Wi-Fi is too expensive to deploy, and there's not enough user demand.
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In a May 21 story about municipal wireless projects, The Associated Press erroneously reported that EarthLink Inc. suspended new bids. The company said it won't seek as many bids, but isn't completely ruling out new ones.
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Wireless networking startup Meraki plans to deliver free wireless Internet access, supported by advertising, across San Francisco by the end of the year, it announced Friday.An earlier&#160;attempt by Google and EarthLink&#160;to offer&#160;free city-wide Wi-Fi access in San Francisco&#160;foundered in August when&#160;EarthLink pulled out. They had planned a two-tier service, with faster, paid access provided by EarthLink and a more limited, advertising-funded service to be offered by Google. The search engine giant is also an investor in Meraki.Meraki will base the service on an existing project covering parts of the city, Free the Net, which has signed up 40,000 users over an area of 5 square kilometers since it began last March.To avoid the need for extensive cabling, Meraki will build the backbone of the network using a mesh network of solar-powered wireless repeaters installed on rooftops. The nodes will use some of their wireless capacity to offer Internet access to those nearby, and the rest to haul traffic back, via adjacent nodes, to the network&#39;s core.The company is looking for city residents willing to put a repeater on their roof. Those hosting a repeater will get free access to the service -- but so will their neighbors -- although for them, the signal may not be as strong. Although devices are shared, Meraki aims to deliver data rates of around 1Mbps&#160; to each user.Meraki will pay the cost of rolling out the service, and no public funds are involved, it said. Investors have offered the company an additional $20 million in venture capital to fund the move, it announced Friday.Ozone in Paris offers a similar wireless Internet service based on a network of wireless repeaters. Its service is only free for those who host repeaters, though: others must pay &#8364;18 ($26) a month.
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With EarthLink no longer pushing into the municipal Wi-Fi business, the wireless network it previously wanted to build in San Francisco likely won't happen.
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Radio interference that harms wireless network performance is a way of life, columnist Craig Mathias says. Fortunately, tools are available to help solve that problem.
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EarthLink Inc  said on Tuesday  it will cut about 900 jobs as part of a restructuring to reduce  costs, and its board authorized an additional $200 million  share buyback, sending its shares up 10 percent.
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(InfoWorld) - Two important votesÂ concerning San Francisco's plan for citywide Wi-Fi that were set for this week have been pushed back, delaying what may be life-or-death decisions on the controversial network. One vote of the city's fractious Board of Supervisors could force the project to undergo an environmental impact study. The other, by the board's Budget and Finance Committee, would reject the plan or send it on to the full body for final approval. Hanging in the balance is a proposal that was introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 and has become one of the major initiatives of his administration. As the votes were pushed back, Board President Aaron Peskin was preparing a set of amendments to theÂ contract hammered out by the city and EarthLinkÂ in January. Those changes aim to address concerns of some critics but may not win over vocal opponents on the board. San Francisco is one of many municipalities pursuing wireless networks to make Internet access more widely available, both to close the technology gap between richer and poorer residents and to boost the local economy. Its contract calls for EarthLink to offer 1MbpsÂ service for about $20 per month and GoogleÂ to offer a free service on the same network. Activists and some leaders in the city have raised alarms that echo worries in some other cities, such as how well the network will perform. They have also raised issues that are specific to San Francisco. For example, Google's proposed free service has come under particular fire for allegedly threatening users' privacy and being too slow, at 300Kbps. In one local twist, the San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (SNAFU) has appealed an April decision of the city's Planning Commission that exempted the network from environmental review. SNAFU, which has fought the placement of cellular base stations near schools, hospitals and some other sites, says Wi-Fi access points on light poles could harm residents' health. It will be up to the Board to force the review or let the exemption stand. At a pro-Wi-Fi rally outside City Hall on Tuesday, Newsom and other speakers called for quick approval of the project and scoffed at the environmental concerns. Newsom called the environmental question "a canard." Citywide Wi-Fi is critical to minority communities that lack Internet access and is being fought mostly by people who have it, speakers at the rally said. Leslie Rule, an educational technologist at local public broadcaster KQED, said she had read all of SNAFU's appeal of the Planning Department's decision. "They're worried about things that don't exist," she said. The rally brought together multiple groups from minority communities and drew about 100 protestors waving "Wi-Fi Now" signs. Peskin's proposed amendments, not yet spelled out in detail, include contract terms that would force EarthLink to serve all parts of the city and would boost the speed of the Google service to 500Kbps and protect users' privacy. They also would limit the term of network deal, under which the city would lease its light poles to EarthLink for placement of radios, to eight years and give the city the right to then buy the network. In general, the proposals are things the city tried to get during its own negotiations with EarthLink, said Brian Roberts, a senior policy analyst at the city's Department of Telecommunications & Information Services, which negotiated the deal with EarthLink. The city chose to try to conclude the talks and get the network built rather than press for every term it wanted, he said. "If Supervisor Peskin can get them, God bless him," Roberts said. Peskin said via e-mail on Tuesday that EarthLink had not yet responded to the proposed changes. If Peskin can work out terms he likes with EarthLink, the contract is likely to pass through the Budget and Finance Committee, on which he serves. But on the full board, some long-time opponents question the amendments and other members are also waiting to see more details. Â