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May 21, 2007

Wee-Fi: Stop the World, I Want to Make a Call; Avis-Fi; Cingular Rebranded

By Glenn Fleishman

Put the cell phone and climb: Oh, lordy, climber makes cell call from Mt. Everest’s peak. [Sound of ironic clapping] Bravo, Superman. Other calls have been made via satellite phones before.

Avis launches rent-a-connection service: The Avis Connect offering puts a Wi-Fi-to-cell gateway in the car for $11 per day. It rolls out at San Francisco International Airport first, then moves into San Jose, Los Angeles, and Newark, and out to other major cities by third quarter. They’re using Autonet Mobile’s system, and it must be EVDO based as the AP is reporting that either Sprint or Verizon is powering the back-haul. Verizon has stated repeatedly that it forbids this sort of usage. Sprint resells devices that support this kind of usage, as does Cingular (sorry, AT&T, see next item).

AT&T starts final Cingular rebranding: The company stores were switched out overnight, and the Cingular name will appear ever less frequently from now on. The firm says the store revisions were necessary as the firm prepared to launch Apple’s iPhone as the exclusive provider in June. Good commentary on the brand switch over a GigaOm.

Posted by Glennf at May 21, 2007 12:30 PM

Categories: Wee-Fi

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