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Proxim's 802.11g Plan

Proxim offers inexpensive, upgradable access points, plus their 802.11g plans: Their new AP-600 comes in an a and b version, but can be upgraded through a mini-PCI format plug-in card to handle g or other future revisions. These access points can't be managed by their Harmony system, but they have most of the attributes of enterprise-class equipment, including full 802.1x support with EAP-MDS, EAP-TLS, and EAP-TTLS (but not PEAP) handling. They also support Power over Ethernet.

The 802.11b version is $280 (street price), while the a version is $390. The 802.11g version is expected to run about $350, and an upgrade card will cost $100; they'll be available during the second quarter. However, Proxim will include a $25-off coupon to make it the same price to buy an 802.11b AP now and upgrade it later.

Proxim also announced a CardBus PC Card 802.11g adapter which will sell in second quarter for about $90. (The Orinoco Gold is now $70 and the Silver $50. Oddly, the Silver should also be upgradable to WPA which has no key size differences, so it's unclear why Proxim continues to differentiate the two cards.)

Austrian Hot Spots

Austrian hot-spot operator Metronet adds gas stations: Alan Reiter runs down the advantages of hot spot deployments in smaller countries, while criticizing the high price of access. (Hey, gas is $5.00 a gallon, too, Alan!) Metronet has 250 hot spots, and will introduce 15 at these gas stations, in addition to 20 hot spots close-by to existing highways.

Another reason to love German is from the press release: Ab Mitte Februar können OMV Kunden mit WLAN-fähigen Notebooks oder PDAs die Tankpausen zum drahtlosen Abrufen und Versenden von Emails oder für einen VPN-gesicherten Zugriff auf das eigene Firmenlaufwerk nützen. In English: By the middle of February, OMV customers can (take a deep breath) -- with WLAN-capable notebooks or PDAs -- the time while filling a tank with wireless sending and receiving of email or with a VPN-secured connection to their own company network (release breath) use.

Seybold on Hot Spots

Andrew Seybold says hot spot business bankrupt idea: Seybold points out that venues need a crush of users just to break even, but everyone is running headlong into the business of installing hot spots. I'd argue that the difference between now and a couple of years ago is that the headlong rush is for wireless ISPs to encourage venues to install hot spot hardware and share revenue with the wISP as a billing/aggregator/infrastructure supporter. (Shades of The Onion's headling that Americans agree that mass transit should be used by other Americans.) In the olden days of 2000-2001, Wayport, MobileStar, and many others poured millions into building out infrastructure and even paying fees to have access to venues. The current model is partnership in which the venue bears the capital cost typically in exchange for a relatively high short-term return.

Seybold asks what Cometa's business model is -- he's still waiting to hear from them on that answer. I've maintained for months that Cometa is not pouring money down that old drain, but rather will use its strategic resources to find venues willing to bear the cost of installation, using their funds to handle marketing and back-end services.

Seybold's analysis of costs and revenue isn't exactly on track, to my mind. Seybold is assuming first that venues or partners are recovering just $1 per user per day (Boingo's payment rate) and second that costs are a few grand a month or about $50 per day. Some of this might be on target, but bandwidth costs can be as little as $50 to $200 per month (for sites that opt for xDSL), and venue fees could be higher. The businesses in which $1 per user is received will opt for the cheapest bandwidth they can get, and will also have justified the cost of service for their own business purposes.

Other News

Surf and Sip expands to 100+ coffee shops in England: Rick Ehrlinspiel, head of Surf and Sip writes from a 400-year-old pub in York, England, that they have 16 locations online and will be up to 35 in the country by the end of the month. To boot, they signed a leading coffee chain (107 outlets) and starts deploying next week. The price for service will be £20 per month (1-year commitment) for unlimited use or £30 for month-to-month. They also offer 24 hours for £5. Surf and Sip members get free roaming across all served countries. Next stop: France and Spain.

Australia offers worldwide community node-mapping server: Duane from Sydney Wireless want to alert me and the world that the NodeDB site is back from an overload and better than before, mapping nodes worldwide. He writes: NodeDB.com, after its hardware and code updates, is more capable ofhandling higher loads, and also gained a much better user interface with greatly increased feature set. NodeDB.com was expanded upon to cover the globe, with new areas and nodes constantly being added. Currently there are over 4,400 sites listed in about 350 separate geographical locations, with no sign of slowing down in sight.

Long-haul mailing list: Simon Woodside has launched a discussion mailing list for dealing with low-cost, long-distance and rural wireless Internet connectivity. The topics include, point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, long-haul or back-haul data links. Generally oriented toward commodity, open-spectrum products, like 802.11b (Wi-Fi), 802.11a, 802.11g, etc. as well as HF and packet radio. To subscribe visit this link.