Taipei Plans City-Wide Wi-Fi by End 2005
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Taipei plans to make wireless Internet  access available across the Taiwan capital by the end of 2005,  joining a small number of cities offering Wi-Fi networks.
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Agreement with Verizon will allow deployment of a citywide wireless network.
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AT&amp;T Inc. is the lead candidate to build a citywide wireless network for Springfield, Ill., marking the company's first success in the developing market to blanket municipalities with ubiquitous Internet access.
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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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It&#39;s been a year since a Mobile WiMax service was launched in Seoul and one of the world&#39;s most wired cities became one of the most wireless.
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Taiwan is ready to meet China&#39;s demands for resumption of cross-Strait charter flights, paving way for direct transport links disrupted by more than 50 years of dispute over sovereignty.
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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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Municipalities that plan to use new Wi-Fi networks being built in their cities will likely drive future growth of the citywide Wi-Fi movement.
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In a few years, every new electronics device will likely have a network address.
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InfoWorld - T-Mobile USA planned to launch its converged Wi-Fi and cellular service nationwide Wednesday, following the&#160;introduction of the service&#160;late last year in Seattle.
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San Francisco city officials could bring the city&#39;s proposed Wi-Fi network closer to reality at two meetings this week as a key leader proposes significant changes to the plan.
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(InfoWorld) - San Francisco city officials could bring the city'sÂ proposed Wi-Fi networkÂ closer to reality at two meetings this week as a key leader proposes significant changes to the plan. The network, to be run by EarthLink, has been closely watched because it is one of the biggest of many proposed municipal networks in the U.S. and because it would include a free service offered by Google. The city would sell EarthLink access to some of its streetlight poles and other locations for Wi-Fi access points. Some leaders and activists in the famously liberal city haveÂ slammed the dealÂ on issues including privacy and service and called for a network owned by the city. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will reconsider an April decision by the city's Planning Department to exempt the network from an environmental review. The San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (SNAFU) appealed the April ruling, saying the access points could cause health problems. The board could let the Planning Department's decision stand, strike it down or decide to study the issue further. On Wednesday, the Board's Budget and Finance committee will vote on the full Wi-Fi proposal. Unless the vote Tuesday requires an environmental review, the only remaining hurdle then would be a vote by the full board. The Budget and Finance panel will hear proposals by board President Aaron Peskin that may boost support for the politically troubled plan. Both the mayor's office and EarthLink are aware of the proposals, Peskin said in an e-mail interview. The mayor's office seems to approve of them, but Peskin doesn't know where EarthLink stands. Peskin's ideas affect aspects of the proposed contract that have drawn much of the fire. Key points include: - Increase the speed of the free service from 300Kbps to 500Kbps. (A service priced at about $20 per month would still deliver 1Mbps.) - Provide for user privacy on the free service. - Add an enforceable requirement that the network provide adequate service in all areas of the city. - Shorten the maximum term of the contract from 16 to eight years and let the city buy the network at full market value at that time. As it stands, the contract initially would be for four years and could be renewed three times, an eternity in the world of wireless technology. - Ensure the city is properly compensated for giving EarthLink access to its light poles. The city and EarthLink settled on the terms of a contract in January. It gave EarthLink the right to pull out if the plan wasn't approved by the Board within 180 days. That time has passed, according to EarthLink spokesman Jerry Grasso, but the company hasn't given up. The plan calls for building a two-square mile test network first before deploying the whole system. Â
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Philadelphia has finished testing  its wireless Internet project, setting the stage for America&#39;s  biggest citywide Wi-Fi network that will also offer access to  low-income households, officials said on Thursday.
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The partners will develop and market mmWave technoloogy to replace Wi-fi.
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City-wide wi-fi networks are growing but how do councils and citizens get the most out of them?
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(InfoWorld) - Thirteen companies have applied to bid for the right to build WiMax high-speed wireless Internet networks in Taiwan, an effort one group hopes to derail out of health concerns. The agency responsible for vetting applications, the National Communications Commission, said nine companies will vie for licenses in northern Taiwan, while 10 companies are competing for licenses in the south. Taiwan plans to pass out three licenses in each zone, for a total of six WiMax licenses island-wide. One group is not happy to see the auction process proceeding. Earlier this month, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union petitioned the government to halt the WiMax licensing process until further health studies can be made on the impact of electromagnetic waves from cell phone and WiMax base stations. Their concern centers on the belief that the waves can cause cancer, but the group says it cannot prove such a link. Taiwan is one of just a handful of places globally that has already started the process of offering WiMax licenses. It's part of the island's M Taiwan initiative, to establish WiMax as a way for people to access the Internet, even in the most remote areas of the island. Part of the idea is also to boost Taiwanese companies with domestic orders for WiMax gear, by promoting the technology. The island's three largest mobile phone service providers have all applied for WiMax licenses. Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd., the biggest phone company in Taiwan, applied to bid for licenses in both the north and south of Taiwan, as did Far Eastone Telecom Co. Ltd. and a subsidiary of Taiwan Mobile Co. Ltd. WiMax base stations can send broadband Internet signals to far greater distances than the Wi-Fi technology used to deliver wireless Internet access in coffee shops and airports. Although estimates vary on how far WiMax signals can go, in a densely populated place such as Taiwan, the distance should be between 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) and 4 km. Â
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Dual-mode handsets will be able to connect to the company's worldwide Wi-Fi network on the cheap.