Carmakers launch wireless net campaign
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Six European auto manufacturers have launched a joint campaign to let the cars of tomorrow beam wireless warnings of danger to surrounding motorists.
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TechWeb - The two companies have invested millions in new 802.11n gear which is becoming attractive in the enterprise as a wireless alternative.
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SAN FRANCISCO - The big idea came on a trip: Ted Morgan and Michael Shean used Wi-Fi signals in their travels so often to pick up e-mail, they saw a business opportunity in their future.
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(InfoWorld) - Despite the tribulations of launching a regional wireless Internet network, some cities are making progress by sharing their hard-won lessons. Stung by criticism of high cost, flaky service and pandering to recreational Web surfers, cities can justify their investment in free wireless service by using the networks to support public safety radio traffic, attract new businesses and abolish the "digital divide" that can stop low-income workers from landing Internet-age jobs. That's the message from government technology workers gathered at the MuniWireless 2007 conference in Newton, Massachusetts. Ubiquitous wireless coverage could also improve residents' lives by offering automated traffic monitoring, parking enforcement and meter reading, they said. But sometimes even those goals fail to sustain public support when a network hits surprise hurdles, said Bill Oates, chief information officer for Boston. The city had been running its new Wi-Fi network for a month in the blocks surrounding city hall when citizens began to complain that the Internet service provider used a content filter that blocked certain Web sites. "We will keep hitting bumps in the road, we know that. But sometimes it makes you ask if it's WiMax versus Wi-Fi versus 'Why even try?'," Oates said Tuesday in a conference session. Cities can also face a challenge when the local historical society complains that wireless antennas can harm the architectural appearance of city buildings. City workers in Malden, Massachusetts, found a way around that problem by fitting a Wi-Fi antenna inside the storefront sign of a local bar. The business owner was happy to donate the location in exchange for a strong signal, and the new node boosted coverage in a heavily populated part of town, said Anthony Rodrigues, the city's director of information technology. That example illustrates that the politics of launching a wireless network can be a tougher challenge than the technology, Rodrigues said. It is fairly easy to link the networks in neighboring towns to share coverage areas or fire response, but much harder to persuade elected leaders to talk about funding the effort or agreeing who will control the network. The political hurdle applies far beyond the borders of New England, where the conference is taking place, said Esme Vos, the founder of MuniWireless.com , a blog and sponsor of the conference. Until recently, public wireless networks have existed only in major cities with large budgets, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston and Portland, Oregon, she said. But across the U.S., the number of municipalities with planned or deployed public broadband networks has risen from 122 in July 2005 to 385 in May 2007, according to MuniWireless. The downside of that success has been increased public scrutiny of the investment involved, and demands from some taxpayers that the networks should be financially self-sufficient. That pressure has pushed the industry to consider many new business models, borrowing ideas like the advertising embedded in text messages or commercials that play over cell phones, she said. Others have asked government regulators to force content providers to bundle free wireless access with existing cable television, phone service, wired Internet access, VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and IP television packages. However, Vos is passionate that governments should not insist that municipal Wi-Fi pay for itself, just as they don't require public utilities and paved highways to run at a profit. Governments throughout Europe already support public networks that way, not only in urban centers like Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam and Milan, but throughout rural regions, she said. In the meantime, municipal technology leaders in the U.S. should continue to hone their skills at expanding coverage and supporting reliable service. "There have been a lot of negative stories in the press recently, saying 'these things don't work'," Vos said. "But people are learning from their mistakes. If you have to use 40 nodes instead of 20 nodes to cover the area, we can learn from that."ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Mobile operators are starting to wake up to the potential of giving their customers access to the net.
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The deep bass sound vibrates your breastbone as you meander through a corner of the massive International Consumer Electronics Show. Someone is simply showing off car audio systems, but it feels like the vehicles themselves are announcing their beefy presence.
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AeroScout lands new backers for its work with active radio frequency identification tags that make use of Wi-Fi networks.
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Three companies are set to use the backdrop of the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to debut a device that can use WiMAX technology to make calls.
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By Alejandro Bodipo-Memba, Detroit Free Press  Feb. 21--AT&T Inc. and General Motors Corp. have signed a five-year $1-billion networking contract to deliver next-generation telecommunications to the Detroit automaker.
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A top networking gear producer plans to offer a speedy new cellular technology that's an alternative to DSL and cable Internet access with the added advantage of being available on the road.    NetGear Inc...
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(InfoWorld) - As part of its planÂ to earn more revenue from online advertising, Microsoft is teaming with a San Francisco-based provider of mobile broadband advertising to deliver advertising to users of municipal Wi-Fi networks. Microsoft and JiWire have struck a deal to deliver advertising combined with location-based content from Microsoft's MSN portal on one metropolitan area Wi-Fi network that is currently deployed and another in the late stages of development, and the companies haveÂ plans to expand to more networks in the works for the future, said David Blumenfeld, vice president of marketing at JiWire. The advertising will come in several ways, but the most evident will be an MSN-based page users in Portland, Oregon, and areas outside of Detroit will see after logging in to Wi-Fi networks delivered by MetroFi and MichTel Communications respectively, Blumenfeld said. The MetroFi network in Portland currently has 13,000 monthly users, and the MichTel network in Oakland County, Michigan, once deployed, will be the largest in the U.S., covering 910 square miles and serving 1.2 million people, according to JiWire. In addition to MetroFi and MichTel, JiWire partners with about 18 other network operators that provide wireless broadband to hotels, airports, cafes, and the like, he said. Microsoft and JiWire also will explore other ways to deliver advertising, such as delivering what are called "ultramercials," or ads that users watch before logging in to a Wi-Fi network so they can use the network for free, Blumenfeld said. JiWire also has an advertising appliance that runs on the network and allows network operators to deliver ads throughout a Wi-Fi user's session, and Microsoft has the opportunity to sell and deliver ads to networks in this way as well, he added. Though the exact terms of the Microsoft-JiWire deal are not being disclosed, Blumenfeld said it is a nonexclusive, ad-revenue sharing deal and is a multimillion-dollar opportunity for both companies.
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How the BBC News website's technology team covered the launch of a free Wi-fi network in Norwich
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Microsoft and mobile advertising provider JiWire are teaming up to place ads on municipal Wi-Fi networks.
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Company's communication system integrates cell phone functions into Land Rover's "central infotainment display."
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By SARAH KARUSH; Associated Press  KVH Industries' TracNet brings the Internet to installed screens in a car, truck or boat and turns the vehicle into a wireless hotspot.
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While the debate rages on the economics of deploying and operating WiMax networks, a U.K. start-up is quietly building what it hopes will be the country's first network based on this emerging high-speed broadband wireless technology.
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British Telecom, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, three of the largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Britain, have joined together to create a new network that will offer targeted advertising to UK Internet users.