Is Free Nationwide Wi-fi Dead?
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Some smaller ISPs want the FCC to designate an unused spectrum for nationwide wireless broadband.
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LAS VEGAS -- I'm surrounded by anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 of the country's top minds in the computing and consumer-electronics industries, but I still couldn't find a decent WiFi connection in the convention center yesterday or Wednesday. I don't mean to whine, but, really, if we can put a man on the moon, can't we put one lousy reporter on the Internet for more than a few minutes?
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AT&T's wireless data network is down in the Midwest and Southeast U.S.,  and BlackBerry and iPhone users are without data services. AT&T said service was expected to be back up soon.
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By Christie Smythe, Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.  Sep. 9--WEST BARNSTABLE -- The "Unwired Village" project in Orleans,  offering wireless Internet service, is off to a running start after launching  in June.
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SBC Communications said Monday that it is now offering its Wi-Fi service for a special rate to its DSL subscribers. The company said subscribers of the SBC Yahoo broadband service can access the FreedomLink
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Ambitious plans for big Wi-Fi networks to provide free or low-cost wireless Internet access are being abandoned or scaled back by US cities as the economics of the deals turn out to be more challenging than expected.
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(InfoWorld) - EarthLink's current contract to build a municipal Wi-Fi network in San Francisco appears to be dead followingÂ a restructuring of the struggling Internet service provider. The deal, hammered out in months of negotiations last year and completed in January, calls for EarthLink to build a citywide network at no cost to the city and sell high-speed service to residents while Google provides a free, slower service over the same network. But after announcing layoffs of nearly half its workforce and a gloomier financial forecast, EarthLink said Wednesday it won't invest any more money in that business model. "We will not devote any new capital to the old muni Wi-Fi model that has us taking all of the risk by fronting all of the capital, then paying to buy our customers one by one," President and CEO Rolla Huff said on a conference call Wednesday morning. That includes currently planned networks where the company hasn't yet made capital investments, EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso confirmed. In San Francisco and other such cities, networks would have to be built under new arrangements. "We will approach them to discuss the needed changes to the business model," Grasso said. He declined to comment on the state of discussions with any particular city. San Francisco's deal with EarthLink has yet to be approved by the city and county's Board of Supervisors, where it faces fierce opponents. The deal is due for a vote in the Board's Budget and Finance Committee next week that could send it on for full board approval. But the changes at EarthLink appear to make the current contract a dead issue. EarthLink's municipal Wi-Fi woes come as the company struggles across most of its businesses and as the overall climate for municipal Wi-Fi changes. The promise of free networks supported by advertising or residential subscriptions has faded, and EarthLink and other network providers are looking to local government as "anchor tenants" that support the projects by buying services. Chicago, which had been talking with EarthLink and others about a citywide Wi-Fi project, dropped the plan this week, citing high cost and low subscriber interest. The company forecast municipal Wi-Fi capital investments of $30 million to $35 million in 2007 as it completes projects already begun in Philadelphia; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Anaheim, California, but is not forecasting any capital spending on municipal networks in 2008, Grasso said. Aaron Peskin, president of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, approached EarthLink earlier this year with proposed amendments to the Wi-Fi deal that he hoped would make it more palatable to opponents. However, he rejected the idea of anchor tenancy, saying the city's departments weren't ready to use the Wi-Fi network. Neither Peskin nor San Francisco city officials were immediately available for comment.
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By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Jun. 21--Two low-income housing communities in Sacramento will offer their residents free Wi-Fi Internet access and computers later this fall.
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(InfoWorld) - Devicescape SoftwareÂ says it has a solution for the problem of using Wi-Fi hot spots with devices that don't have browsers. Devicescape's free software, formally unveiled on Tuesday atÂ the Demo conference in Palm Desert, California, lets users set up log-in information for multiple Wi-Fi networks and then get on those networks automatically from any supported device. Publicly available Wi-Fi networks, both free and subscription-based, are proliferating in airports, hotels and shopping areas and even around cities. Carriers and other service providers give users access at many hotspots through the same account, but that often still requires entering a log-in and password. That may be hard or impossible to do on a specialized device such as a phone, handheld game console, or camera. Devicescape lets users give their subscription information for all the networks they want to use and register their Wi-Fi devices. When they want to use a given hotspot, that data is exchanged in the background in a patented way before the device gets on the network, according to Glenn Flinchbaugh, vice president of products at Devicescape. Currently, if the user tries to get online in a place where they have more than one choice of operator, the device will automatically choose the network with the strongest signal, Flinchbaugh said. In the future, Devicescape plans to let users set priorities based on the cost of different networks or other factors, he added. Although the service is aimed at consumers, it doesn't conflict with use of a corporate VPN because the log-in process happens before the device goes on the public network, he said. The system works with many of the world's hotspots, including ones provided by AT&T, EarthLink, Google, T-Mobile, and WayPort, according to Devicescape. Devicescape is focused on North America today, but its system will work with network operators in other parts of the world, such as Orange in the U.K. and Softbank and NTT in Japan. The company doesn't need special arrangements with those operators to allow easy log-ins, but it hopes to set up revenue-sharing agreements with them for cases in which new subscribers sign up because of Devicescape, said CEO David Fraser. The San Bruno, California, startup is also working on licensing its software for non-PC devices, either built in or as an add-on. The software, currently in beta testing, is available now as a free download from Devicescape's Web site. It already works with Microsoft Windows XP PCs and Windows Mobile 5 phones, as well as two other devices: the NokiaÂ 770 Web tablet and the CiscoÂ Linksys WIP 300 VoIP phone. It's relatively easy to develop software for those two devices because of available interfaces, but most nonbrowser devices would require a licensing deal, Fraser said.
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After an apparently successful initial test run in parts of Washington State, T-Mobile USA today is ready to roll out its first hybrid WiFi/EDGE phone service: its UMA-based Hot Spot @ Home.  The idea is to enable customers to drop their land lines altogether, without picking up someone else's bundled service that would usurp those savings.
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Free app shares your connection with the world A new piece of freeware can turn a Symbian S60 handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot, removing the need to muck about with Bluetooth connections to get connected when on the move. Just don't tell your service provider.â¦
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Update free with upcoming base-station box Apple has posted software that will allow Macs with 802.11n-capable Wi-Fi adaptors to support the latest incarnation of the as yet non-standard next-generation wireless networking technology. And yes, the company wants $1.99 or Â£1.25 for it, depending on your location.â¦
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Backers of a Philadelphia Wi-Fi project are worried that a bill going through the state legislature would spike a plan to blanket the city with free or inexpensive wireless access. [Broadband Blog]
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The airwaves in the city of Riverside, California, just got a lot more crowded as the city switches on its municipal wireless network. Yet, for many living in the inland empire's capital city, the free internet service isn't a bonus, it's a burden.
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By Dean Kahn, The Bellingham Herald, Wash.  Jun. 8--More local governments are providing free Wi-Fi as a way to attract shoppers and visitors. Even some transit agencies are providing Wi-Fi on buses.
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Certified by September, but spec not due till 2008 The Wi-Fi Alliance has started testing kit conforming to the second draft of the 802.11n standard, expecting certified products to be on the shelves by September, despite the fact that the final version of the standard isn't expected until next year.â¦
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Reuters has a story  about Gavin Newsom finally getting wifi and wanting to hookup San Francisco:  "SAN FRANCISCO  - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has set a goal of providing free wireless Internet activity in his city that sees itself as a vanguard of the Internet revolution."  ""We will not stop until every San Franciscan has access to free wireless Internet service," he said in his annual state of the city address on Thursday. "These technologies will connect our residents to the skills and the jobs of the new economy."  The issue I have is that I'm not sure my tax dollars need to pay for this.  I'm also pretty sure that the city will screw it up.  Why not just do this.  Allow ...