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San Francisco International Airport (SFO) finally, finally gets wireless service: On Wednesday, Willie Brown, Andy Grove, and other executives and dignitaries will be on hand at SFO to announce T-Mobile's new hot spot service there. I don't have details on the scope of terminal coverage yet. The IT&T director told me back in Nov. 2001 that the entire international terminal, newly built, had high-speed Ethernet throughout, making the infrastructure part of deployment for that building a snap. That's where the press event will be.
SFO has a history of being jilted. I've been told by multiple sources that at least two companies had agreed in 2000 and 2001 to provide service for SFO as a sort of flagship airport and then reneged because of the costs to get in there. SFO was originally asking a relatively high amount of money; one source told me $2,000,000 as a cost of entry. AerZone and MobileStar apparently were the two firms, and dead companies tell no tales. Sources now say that SFO's franchise fee was more on the five-digit order.
Intel Centrino Hot Spot Verification
T-Mobile also announced that its hot spot network had been certified as Centrino verified by Intel, and that they would launch a co-marketing program. Most of the hot spot networks have announced the start or completion of verification by Intel, which plans to pump hundreds of millions of advertising dollars into the entire Centrino campaign, much like they threw their efforts behind various Pentium branding programs. Some of this money will be used to co-market hot spots.
Centrino has better battery life and the integrated Wi-Fi helps towards that end, making Centrino laptops a way to push laggard comptuer sales as traveling business folk want a machine that works faster and lasts longer between charges.
Among other hot spot networks that will co-market with Intel include Hotspotzz, a company whose 75 hot spots (they list 75, but claim over 100 in their press release) originally included mostly former AirWave-cum-WiFi Metro locations, and which bizarrely continues to claim that it is the leading wireless Internet service company in the high-speed wireless Internet industry. There's a teriyaki hole in the wall down the street from my office that has a sign saying it's the best food in Seattle. I mean, can't they come up with a reasonable claim? (At least the press release on the Centrino co-marketing deal says one of the leading...)
Over to Cometa and iPass
Cometa and iPass ink tentative agreement: and iPass ink a deal to allow iPass members to use Cometa hot spots when they start appearing in Q4 2003. However, it's always good to read the fine print:
The agreement in question provides for iPass and Cometa to agree upon pricing and certain other aspects of the relationship in the future. If iPass and Cometa are unable to agree to these additional terms, either party will be able to terminate the agreement.
InfoWorld CTO Focus on Wireless
Even with a general air of mistrust surrounding it, wireless gains traction in the enterprise: 41 percent of enterprises surveyed in a Yankee Group study have WLANs deployed; 27 percent more plan to within 12 months. InfoWorld's own study showed 42 percent deployed and 33 percent more within 6 months. These numbers nicely counter the tropes deployed in many security-focused Wi-Fi articles which claim that security concerns have suppressed WLAN installation.
An interesting sidenote in the piece is that some vendors are offering multiple WLANs in a single device allowing WLAN separation instead of just VLAN separation: users with less access actually connect to a different network.
Migrating from point B to point A with Cisco: This related article examines the cost and issues involved in migrating in an enterprise from 802.11b to 802.11a.
Other News
38 percent of US adults know what Wi-Fi is: And 14 percent of those adults (or 5 percent of all adults) have Wi-Fi in the home. Good numbers.
FatPort lowers prices: "What is it Obi-Wi Keno-Fi? Do you sense a great disturbance in the force as if millions of users were silenced?" "No, just a slight price reduction." In what appears to be the start of a trend, FatPort has reduced its pricing to be more in line with one-day/US$10 prices. Their new rates are Canadian(C)$5 per hour (unused time expires in 90 days); C$7 for a four-hour session; C$10 for a 24-hour session; unlimited use for C$35 per month (no commitment); and a C$160 for a wireless card and three months unlimited access.
Spotnik goes live, announces pricing: In a complete coincidence -- FatPort swears and I believe them -- their first large-scale Canadian competitor launches with over a dozen hot spots at about 150 percent of the cost of FatPort's new pricing (see just above). Spotnik charges Canadian(C)$9 per hour, C$15 for 24 hours, and C$50 for a month (no commitment).
Ziff-Davis aggregates wireless articles into site: Ziff-Davis launched (quietly) its Wireless Supersite, which aggregates articles across all of its publications and sites into a single superstructure. [via Alan Reiter]
San Francisco hot spot directory: Sean Savage is building a directory out of SF cafes with free wireless access.
Down Under: Telstra unwires McDonalds and Optus to build 500 hot spots: Two Autralian telco giants are pushing out Wi-Fi suddenly. Telstra had purchased SkyNetGlobal's assets, including Wi-Fi hot spots; SkyNetGlobal was an early international roaming partner of some US firms. Optus will launch in Melbourne and Sydney this month, and plans to offer roaming with other networks. [via Whirlpool News]