San Francisco's New Wi-Fi Provider Plays it Safe
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As Meraki takes over the project, it applies a strategy to duck the problems that have stalled municipal wireless plans.
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Starting today, users of wireless broadband should find it safer to surf the Web from a T-Mobile HotSpot.
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While 802.11n isn't yet an official standard, Wi-Fi equipment based on the latest draft of the specification is fast, reliable and reasonably interoperable.
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Meraki Networks&#39; plan to cover San Francisco with free Wi-Fi, with residents&#39; help, could be a way around the political and business barriers some municipal wireless projects have run into.The startup, partly funded by Google, believes it will succeed&#160;where EarthLink and Google did not: Building Wi-Fi access throughout San Francisco at no cost to the city. It expects to finish by year&#39;s end, filling the whole city with 1Mbps coverage.The catch is that Meraki is footing the whole bill on this project so that&#160;it can learn how to roll out such networks for profit elsewhere. The good news, if the plan works, is that it could do so for less than $5 million, lower than the cost many other municipal wireless projects have run into. That&#39;s partly because of intelligence in access points and software, making the network more robust with fewer nodes, according to Meraki spokeswoman Erika Shaffer.Meraki will build the backbone of its network with solar-powered rooftop access points and fill out its coverage with smaller repeaters to sit in windows or on balconies. Both will be designed and built by Meraki and provided free to residents and businesses that agree to house the gear on their property in return for better coverage. All the nodes will be meshed, so Meraki won&#39;t have to get wired broadband links everywhere its access points go.The idea has potential in developing countries with little broadband, where Meraki sees its biggest market, but also in highly wired cities such as San Francisco, analysts said.A key advantage is that by asking users instead of the city for mounting rights for its gear, Meraki will bypass the rancorous political fights over contract terms like the one that slowed down EarthLink&#39;s initiative last year. But seeking volunteers also makes sure that however fully Meraki has actually covered the city by the end of the year, it is pretty sure to have coverage where people actually want it.&quot;You know exactly where your coverage needs to be, because someone just asked you for a repeater,&quot; said IDC analyst Godfrey Chua.Meraki believes it won&#39;t have any trouble getting people to host repeaters in their homes, based on its existing test networks in parts of San Francisco, Shaffer said. There are about 500 repeaters today, and about 40,000 people have used the network, she said.Another problem that would seem to solve itself, assuming the network and distribution system run smoothly, is the difficult issue of indoor coverage, said Craig Settles, an independent municipal network analyst at Successful.com. EarthLink&#39;s network was to be built largely on streetlights and electricity poles, which are well suited to mobile outdoor coverage, but not so good for providing home broadband to residents who can&#39;t afford wired alternatives, Settles said. Meraki&#39;s small repeaters are designed for indoor coverage in the home where they&#39;re located as well as to flesh out the whole network.On the San Francisco network, which Meraki will treat as a research and development cost, the company will test advertising as a possible revenue source for future deployments. When it approaches service providers that want to charge for access, it will also offer a billing system. Meraki has trials going on today with carriers in developing countries, Shaffer said.In places where most people don&#39;t yet have broadband, Meraki&#39;s approach could be an attractive low-cost alternative, analysts said. However, WiMax, which requires far fewer base stations than Wi-Fi because it has a longer range, also has relatively low costs and is already a competitor in those markets, Chua said.&quot;I doubt that Wi-Fi would be the dominant access medium in emerging markets,&quot; Chua said.
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Updated Internet appliance adds home networking features.
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After Earthlink and Google scrapped plans to offer wireless in the city, many weren't so sure. But a start-up is promising to finish the job.
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Fans of wireless internet access can now find their nearest wi-fi hotspot using their mobile phone.
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A prospective buyer says the early municipal Wi-Fi service could have thousands more subscribers.
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T-Mobile's new Wi-Fi service for cell phones for the Seattle area requires one of two handsets.
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Philadelphia may spread the joy of wireless Internet access to its citizens.
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A future version of Bluetooth will allow connections to hop on Wi-Fi networks when additional bandwidth is required.
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A startup says it can give subway riders wireless Internet access that&#39;s faster than most home broadband in the U.S.Tests at stations and on a special stretch of track in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system around San Francisco showed that Wi-Fi Rail&#39;s patent-pending technology delivered more than 15Mbps of wireless throughput to riders and people waiting for trains, the company said. Wi-Fi Rail hopes to roll out such networks on rail systems around the world and charge commuters for access.Commuter rail, with thousands of daily riders, could represent a rich opportunity for public wireless Internet access. Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and coffee shops have drawn some paying users, but the hotspots are useful more for occasional than for regular use. And citywide public Wi-Fi networks, often planned out with local governments, have run into political and business problems.Wi-Fi Rail, founded in 2006 and based near Sacramento, would build two kinds of Wi-Fi networks: one in the cars and one around the tracks, said Michael Cromar, Wi-Fi Rail&#39;s CFO. Passengers would log in to access points on each car, and each car&#39;s network would lock on to one access point after another along the rail system. The trackside access points, in turn, would feed traffic onto fiber-optic lines. Roaming would be handled by the in-car network and be transparent to users, Cromar said.Even better than typical home broadband, the network can deliver its average 15Mbps speed both upstream and downstream, according to Wi-Fi Rail. Passengers would share that link, but in tests, there was no noticeable slowdown between one passenger and eight passengers using the network, Cromar said. The system worked with the trains moving at speeds as high as 65 miles per hour.The company tested its technology in both underground and above-ground parts of the BART system. Above ground, Wi-Fi Rail used standard outdoor access points with line-of-sight antennas to form a link from trains as they went by. In an underground test, the company used &quot;leaky&quot; coaxial cable, a technology some rail systems already use for exchanging operational data with cars, according to Cromar. The leaky cable is deliberately unshielded so signals traveling along it can be picked up all through a tunnel.In-car tests took place on a 2.6-mile BART test track last month, as well as on a stretch of tunnel in San Francisco. Another part of the test proved such a service can draw customers, Cromar said. Wi-Fi Rail set up regular access points in four underground stations in downtown San Francisco and let people waiting for trains register and use the network for free. Without any publicity, more than 6,400 people signed up in less than six months, he said.Although BART hosted the tests, it hasn&#39;t made a deal to have such a network deployed, Cromar said. But Wi-Fi Rail has talked with one interested transit system in the U.S. and is working with a partner to approach a rail system in another country, he said. The company said its technology is ready to go and could be used for anything that follows a predetermined path, including highways.
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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 ...
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The update uses stronger encryption and does a better job of letting only authorised users join wireless nets. The improvements have been made to re-assure businesses that wi-fi networks can be made safe enough to be really useful and widely deployed.
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Wireless networking startup Meraki plans to deliver free wireless Internet access across San Francisco by the end of the year.
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A new inkjet-printed technology enables a different kind of wireless connectivity between devices.
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San Franciscoâs mayor, Gavin Newsom, remains committed to a plan to roll out a citywide Wi-Fi network despite EarthLinkâs decision to bow out an agreement to build the system.