WiFi Net News

pa href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/04/prweb3851494.htm"strongPuts its money where its mouth is:/strong/a Discount Electronics plans 50 free Wi-Fi hotspots in Austin, with five live now, because it hasn't happened yet on its own. The firm's head, Rick Culleton, said in a statement, "If the city would let us, we'd put free WiFi in the airport and pick up the tab in full." /p pThe hotspots, under the a href="http://www.freeaustinwifi.com/"strongFreeAustinWiFi.com/strong/a banner, will be in locally owned operations, such as restaurants and bars, and be branded with the company's information. /p pIt's not like there's no free Wi-Fi in Austin, of course, and folks with long memories will recall the community wireless effort a href="http://www.austinwirelesscity.org/hotspot-list.php"strongAustin Wireless City Project/strong/a, which checks in with about 50 locations active in its hotspot list./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SPUKvddPX-HhJ_nL8s9lsLzx8xE/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SPUKvddPX-HhJ_nL8s9lsLzx8xE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SPUKvddPX-HhJ_nL8s9lsLzx8xE/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SPUKvddPX-HhJ_nL8s9lsLzx8xE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/goyT5DkuYvM" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/technology/personaltech/08pogue.html?8ciremc=cirb1"strongNew York Times's David Pogue finds Cisco Valet doesn't quite meet an admirable target:/strong/a Following up on my post a few days ago in which I explained how Cisco managed to get a fair amount of attention for releasing yet another "simple to set up, simple to use" home router, the latest in a long, long series of such efforts by the entire industry, David Pogue weighs in on whether it meets the bill (I haven't tested one). His verdict is that the Valet makes a lot of good efforts in the direction of being as simple as the Flip--team behind Flip is responsible for the Valet's approach--but still puts bars in the way of a friction-free and comprehensible installation./p pHe also notes that the $100 unit has 2.4 GHz built in, which seems inadequate for an 802.11n router. It's a tricky tradeoff. Simultaneous dual-band devices can be made inexpensively, but perhaps not as cheaply as that yet./p pPogue notes, by the way, that Valet creates cutesy names for your network, like MonkeyTree, TinyFish, PeachLion, or HappyDog. This is a clever move. The master key material used in WPA/WPA2 is derived from a combination of the passphrase a user chooses or that's created for him or and her and the network's SSID or network name. There are precomputed databases of common SSIDs, like default and linksys, and pushing a unique combination of words for SSID does both make your network easier to identify and improve security. (Apple has long appended the last six hexadecimal digits of the base station's BSSID--a MAC address-like identifier--to create a unique network name partly for security reasons.br / /p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KNjOhfV19PQMjhnoG7V_pibfe0g/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KNjOhfV19PQMjhnoG7V_pibfe0g/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KNjOhfV19PQMjhnoG7V_pibfe0g/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/KNjOhfV19PQMjhnoG7V_pibfe0g/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/0HyvW12yW9g" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07cell.html"strongMatt Richtel at the New York Times nails the ire of ATT customers about the 3G MicroCell:/strong/a From a technology standpoint, ATT 3G MicroCell, a small cellular base station that plugs into home or office broadband, seems to be a winner. From the marketing side, not so much. Richtel captures the tone of irritation among ATT customers who have poor cellular service who have heard that for a mere $150 of their own money, they can improve ATT's network. /p pI suspect we'll see far better deals from ATT that make the femtocell palatable, though, but the firm might be making an error in billing it as something you can do for yourself, when it's clearly for the company's benefit in keeping you as a customer. ATT should bleed a little more for you to make it work./p pAs I wrote several days ago, the femtocell is $150, but there's $100 rebate if you purchase a monthly $20 unlimited calling plan (same price for a single account or a family plan). The problem is that the $20/mo rate is pretty poor compared to ATT's only slightly higher unlimited everywhere plan, and with Internet telephony services. /p pGiven that most home callers are already covered under evening and weekends plans that are unmetered, ATT should have gone lower, to $10/mo, to make this seem like a better deal. It would be used heavily by home businesses, but the company should prefer customer loyalty and less margin than having that customer switch to T-Mobile (unlimited home calling at $10/mo, faster 3G already deployed) or Verizon (more 3G coverage and more robust indoor phone service)./p pWhat I've read in the days since the MicroCell was finally announced is that ATT will likely try to bundle femtocells into home routers, eating some or all of the cost there in favor of customer retention and satisfaction./p pI disagree with one part of Richtel's logic, though, where he notes, "Even though it expects the towers to improve signal quality and take pressure off its network, they could displace landline telephones because wireless consumers will not need a second phone number." That's only true outside of ATT's home markets. In those markets, if it can compete with cable, then ATT spends less money servicing regulated voice lines, and makes more money from quadruple-play broadband plus wireless. Outside its competitive wireline territory, ATT gets to eat Verizon and other firms' landline revenue if the wireless experience is better./p pWhere ATT has the greatest risk is in markets in which cable operators provide a better triple-play offer, and customers have no ATT wire coming into the house, but use ATT wireless alongside cable service. This gives ATT the least profit from that customer in its market, and the MicroCell is an incentive to not have traditional landline service./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wzMExBetfCX6DrgYwxTJRLUUlAI/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wzMExBetfCX6DrgYwxTJRLUUlAI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wzMExBetfCX6DrgYwxTJRLUUlAI/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wzMExBetfCX6DrgYwxTJRLUUlAI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/Ne9VMEEejxQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/plane.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://gogo.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43item=47"strongAircell offers $35/mo rate for unlimited use of its Gogo Inflight Internet on whatever airline you find yourself on:/strong/a I can't see how this helps the airlines, given that it reduces loyalty to a specific airline instead of the overall availability of Internet service, but I imagine it will trigger a flood of frequent-flier signups. /p pThe service is contract-free, but automatically renews each month unless canceled. The pass can be purchased onboard most Gogo-equipped airlines (those with a fair number of planes in the air) or in advance. (The a href="http://www.gogoinflight.com/gogo/cms/price.do"strongpricing page/strong/a says that it only works on four airlines, but the press release says that it works on all Gogo-equipped airlines.)/p pGogo's other 30-day pricing seems a little strange now. $40 buys you a 30-day pass across all airlines, but without an automatic renewal; $30 gets you access on a single airline for 30 days.br / /p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FvNxuHOptACCPZMrWyMTGGjImJg/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FvNxuHOptACCPZMrWyMTGGjImJg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FvNxuHOptACCPZMrWyMTGGjImJg/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/FvNxuHOptACCPZMrWyMTGGjImJg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/SKBdsw_UkN8" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.boingo.com/pr/articles/?a=2010-04-06-boingo-introduces-new-unlimited-wifi-plan-in-the-ukid=233"strongBoingo introduces UK plan with unlimited in-empire use:/strong/a Boingo clearly has a pretty good grasp of costs in North America, where you can get unlimited use for $10 per month, but has always had to keep a firmer grip on international roaming. Its Boingo Global plan costs $59/mo with 2,000 included minutes, a href="http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2008/10/boingo_tweaks_rates_raises_global_price.html"stronga revision back in late 2008/strong/a from a previous $39/mo and 3,000 minute offer. But it apparently has enough interest from UK customers to have an entirely new offering there./p pThe Boingo UK plan is pound;15/mo for unmetered access to over 5,000 UK hotspots, and pound;0.09 or pound;0.13 per minute for access across the rest of Boingo's aggregated hotspot network worldwide./p pBoingo now operates service at six major UK airports, with an additional deal at London Gatwick announced today. This gives them the local leverage for roaming with partners to make the finances work, I'm sure. Boingo operates dozens of airport Wi-Fi networks across North America./p pa href="http://www.thecloud.net/for-you/subscriptions"strongThe Cloud/strong/a has a competing, less-expensive offer: pound;10/mo for multiple devices with one account, or pound;7/mo for a single device. But The Cloud has about 3,500 locations, all of which are aggregated into Boingo's network./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/iXqMoPrt7PXf9f_FFStRxtbo9t0/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/iXqMoPrt7PXf9f_FFStRxtbo9t0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/iXqMoPrt7PXf9f_FFStRxtbo9t0/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/iXqMoPrt7PXf9f_FFStRxtbo9t0/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/S_bb7Y8v0xE" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/plane.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://www.longbets.org/267"strongDelta has 437 of 540 planned planes equipped with Wi-Fi:/strong/a The company noted on its blog that it's getting close to done, but also revealed that Aircell was clearly seeing enough usage to start adding more transmission gear to towers, thus reducing the number of planes in each covered cell. /p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NrWkWtE-Lnl0MR3RgGtySYlc-R8/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NrWkWtE-Lnl0MR3RgGtySYlc-R8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NrWkWtE-Lnl0MR3RgGtySYlc-R8/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NrWkWtE-Lnl0MR3RgGtySYlc-R8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/ottk3EboSjM" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/ptech/04/06/ipad.wifi.problems/"strongI wouldn't have expected this:/strong/a Piles of reports have appeared from users who can't get reliable connections from an Apple iPad to their Wi-Fi networks. The main problem appears to be that in a place where other devices see a strong Wi-Fi network signal, the iPad apparently only receives a weak one. This isn't just an artifact of the interface: those who run speed tests find the speed highly variable, especially compared to other devices (including iPhones) on the same network in the vicinity. Some users are also getting network disconnections and reconnections./p pIt's very odd for a new device with Wi-Fi from any firm to have these problems. The Wi-Fi Alliance's certification program has seemingly kept at bay major issues with new devices, by ensuring that interoperability and standards testing occurs before a product goes to market. (Apple is marketing the iPad with a Wi-Fi label, but the Wi-Fi Alliance's products database a href="http://www.wi-fi.org/search_products.php?search=1advanced=1lang=enfilter_company_id=5filter_category_id=filter_subcategory=filter_cid=date_from=date_to=x=42y=13selected_certifications[]=41"strongdoesn't yet show a certification on file/strong/a.)/p pApple a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3304"stronghas posted a support note/strong/a about an issue with an iPad not rejoining a network that it's already connected to which seems to involve only non-Apple simultaneous dual-band routers in which the same network name is used for both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands with different security methods (WPA on one and WPA2 on the other, for instance)./p pI expect given the volume of complaints that we'll see a 3.2.1 release of the iPad firmware post haste./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qDkRimmYrvUVYwE1ETTv5xX8vmo/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qDkRimmYrvUVYwE1ETTv5xX8vmo/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qDkRimmYrvUVYwE1ETTv5xX8vmo/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/qDkRimmYrvUVYwE1ETTv5xX8vmo/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/EKaMAhqMgus" height="1" width="1"/

pstrongSo you might have heard about this thing Apple released on Saturday:/strong I've had one for a day, and while it's marvelous--certainly the best computing device ever produced of its size or nature--there's nothing under the hood to do with networking that's worth reporting on. The iPad handles 802.11a/b/g/n with 2.4 and 5 GHz support for the appropriate standards./p pThe flavor that adds 3G and a GPS receiver is due "in late April," according to Apple. With the no-contract deal Apple snagged for 3G use with ATT, I'm curious to see what non-US carriers agree to as 3G iPads are launched in other countries./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QTs6pOYZDPNSoimg4huy-u6aIXI/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QTs6pOYZDPNSoimg4huy-u6aIXI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QTs6pOYZDPNSoimg4huy-u6aIXI/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/QTs6pOYZDPNSoimg4huy-u6aIXI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/fmc8FzBmQQA" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/train.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://nmrailrunner.com/news_Wifi_begins.asp"strongOnboard Wi-Fi for a new 95-mile rail system in New Mexico relies on WiMax for backhaul:/strong/a The folks at Azulstar, working with INX, built out the service, which will be free to passengers, and available along the route and at 15 train stations. Having driven some of that route (Albuquerque to Santa Fe), I reckon that the flatness of the terrain coupled with some mesas and higher points made the install feasible with just 22 base stations. /p pAzulstar, which I a href="http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2008/05/can_azulstar_make_wimax_work_without_buying_spectrum.html"strongwrote about two years ago/strong/a for its plan to use a special shared, cheap licensed band to run WiMax services, says it gets 6 Mbps downstream and 4 Mbps upstream. /p pThe company's head, Tyler van Houwelingen, told me via email that the system is redundant and mostly wireless. 5 GHz and 18 GHz are used for backhaul combined with some wired connections along the route, and WiMax at 3.65 GHz (that special band) is used with a 900 MHz fallback. Base stations are powered by solar and electrical with a 24-hour battery backup. Given winter and summer conditions in New Mexico, redundancy won't be extraneous./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/oXU8t88sJUAo3D7rvHwPpwkBSgU/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/oXU8t88sJUAo3D7rvHwPpwkBSgU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/oXU8t88sJUAo3D7rvHwPpwkBSgU/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/oXU8t88sJUAo3D7rvHwPpwkBSgU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/FboMidR4xdE" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/verizon-mobile-hotspot-on-webos-devices-now-free/"strongVerizon will let you use the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus Wi-Fi sharing service for free:/strong/a Verizon a href="http://news.vzw.com/news/2010/01/pr2010-01-21.html"strongwas charging $40 per month/strong/a to use the hotspot software you could download for the two Palm Plus models; it's now zero. Which means you get the functionality of a MiFi without the $60/mo cost of that device for a 5 GB plan. No mention was made of the total data allowed and the 5 cent/MB overage fee for the Palm and MiFi plans./p pPalm's fortunes are seeming fairy dismal, with missteps on product introductions and rolling out an application store and the like, even though reviews of its WebOS are generally positive. Verizon now charges just $50 for a Pre Plus and $30 for a Pixi Plus, and some other bargains thrown in, Engadget reports./p pExisting Plus subscribers using the hotspot feature will no longer be charged for it. Although you pay a data fee for the Palm, it's about the industry standard at $30 per month./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/uCS_EqyhfCtLuXaEFOQm94sUCsk/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/uCS_EqyhfCtLuXaEFOQm94sUCsk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/uCS_EqyhfCtLuXaEFOQm94sUCsk/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/uCS_EqyhfCtLuXaEFOQm94sUCsk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/_aCkLzlK0wY" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-03-31-cisco31_ST_N.htm?csp=34"strongI don't blame Cisco for pulling this stunt, but the company got mainstream media to buy in:/strong/a Typical is this USA Today story, which follows the press release that the Cisco Valet is the company's "first consumer router," despite having purchased Linksys years ago and sold tens of millions of consumer routers during that time. The Valet has the same footprint, and likely similar innards with a new skin on top of it as most of the modern Linksys models./p pLate in the story, the USA Today reporter notes the Linksys subsidiary, but has fallen for the marketing line that the USB dongle that lets you supposedly easily set up every device is somehow unique to Cisco, new, and exciting. The real news, I suppose, is that the Pure Digital team that made the Flip video recorder, acquired by Cisco, was thrown onto the home networking product line. But that's hardly a revolution in hardware, is it?/p pThe notion of using USB drives (not one that comes with the device, necessarily) goes back several years to Microsoft's short-lived Wi-Fi product line, and some other companies--including Linksys!--let you write settings to a USB drive to move around to computers. (Amazingly, this time support comes in the first version out of the box for a href="http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?pid=80vw=1articleid=21465"strongboth Mac OS X and Windows/strong/a!)/p pThe notion of making Wi-Fi easy to set up dates back to, oh, I don't know, 1999? And it is far easier. Six years ago, I wrote "a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/115052/beating_the_wireless_blues.html"strongBeating the Wireless Blues/strong/a" for PC World, which explained how to fix Wireless Zero Config problems in Windows XP and other troubles of the time./p pAt that time, about 35 percent of Wi-Fi routers bought at retail were returned to stores. Cisco says its number today is about 20 percent. (bUpdate:/b Cisco says that's an industry average, not its experience.) That's closer to the return rate for all personal computer peripherals, but it also explains why Cisco is trying to change the narrative without necessarily offering anything new or different, just a further iteration of industry-wide efforts underway since Wi-Fi's inception./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H0yD7yDZ4XbpyVTh_rWFeYizAfk/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H0yD7yDZ4XbpyVTh_rWFeYizAfk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H0yD7yDZ4XbpyVTh_rWFeYizAfk/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/H0yD7yDZ4XbpyVTh_rWFeYizAfk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/gp4yXmNzhXs" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boingo-wi-fi-credits/id356113225?mt=8"strongBoingo Wireless has a new app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and, soon, the iPad that lets you buy an hour of service at a time:/strong/a The Boingo Wi-Fi Credits app will let you connect from any iPhone OS device for $1.99 for 60 minutes at a single location in Boingo's aggregated worldwide network. You can also purchase 11 credits for $19.99./p pBoingo has a $7.95 per month mobile plan that all iPhone OS devices qualify for; the company reiterated today that the iPad would be supported out of the gate. That's why two bucks for one hour seems a bit steep, since Boingo doesn't require a contract commitment to use its mobile service./p pThe only other worldwide pay-as-you-go system is Skype Access, formally launched a few days, which charges US$0.22 per minute for on-demand access. (See a href="http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2010/03/free_wi-fi_access_via_skype_this_weekend.html"strongmy article from 18 March 2010/strong/a.)/p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/EfUtUNRIgNnfvL27RwWaXzdgIUc/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/EfUtUNRIgNnfvL27RwWaXzdgIUc/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/EfUtUNRIgNnfvL27RwWaXzdgIUc/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/EfUtUNRIgNnfvL27RwWaXzdgIUc/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/KLlrNGII0s4" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/plane.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-Airways-Takes-to-the-Sky-bw-3271552901.html?x=0.v=1"strongUS Airways plans service on its 51 Airbus A321s/strong/a: US Airways signed a deal for testing with Aircell for its Gogo Inflight Internet service in mid-2009, and now is deploying. Five of its 51 Airbus A321 craft now have Internet access, with the rest of that model planned for completion by 1 June. /p pCustomers will get a free session between now and 1 June when they register. Then US Airways will offer free service for everyone during the week of 1 June to 8 June./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/zebWY_9iGhgMlM_g7r4_AzNz6GY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/zebWY_9iGhgMlM_g7r4_AzNz6GY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/zebWY_9iGhgMlM_g7r4_AzNz6GY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/zebWY_9iGhgMlM_g7r4_AzNz6GY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/-orQ3_wXMQ0" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/plane.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://www.onair.aero./"strongOnAir put out a terse press release this morning that its deal with Ryanair is off:/strong/a OnAir had equipped 50 of RyanAir's 200+ aircraft, but the two companies apparently couldn't push further on. The deal for OnAir to put mobile calling, texting, and email via Inmarsat's satellite backhaul into all Ryanair craft was first announced in September 2006. (It was the lead point in my article for the Economist on 7 September 2006 called "a href="http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7884763"strongWould you fly in chattering class?/strong/a" [subscription required].)/p pIt took until early 2009 for the regulatory and other details to be settled to allow in-flight calling via an onboard picocell. As of now, only 50 planes were equipped with the service, which charged a few dollars a minute for calls, and hefty rates for email and texting. These rates were comparable with international roaming costs when OnAir first proposed them, but European Union regulators have forced lower intra-EU roaming, which may have taken the shine off./p pWhile OnAir claims it "operates with six airlines and has a portfolio of 23 signed agreements with national carriers worldwide," only a handful of equipped planes with production equipment are flying regular routes. That's pretty paltry for six years of work. When Boeing's Connexion service failed, it had many dozens of planes in the air./p pOnAir (and its owners SITA and Airbus) were counting on Inmarsat to deliver an affordable and on-time satellite-backed solution that would eventually allow in-flight broadband. Back in the early days, the roughly 500 Kbps service that could be bundled with multiple modules for higher speeds was being touted to me as a real broadband offering. /p pThen OnAir started to backpedal on broadband, looking entirely to mobile service revenue. Now, you don't really hear a peep about it, because it's simply not affordable./p pInmarsat took years to get its Asia-Pacific bird in the air, and that prevented OnAir from pursuing modern agreements with trans-Pacific carriers./p pI don't quite see how OnAir proceeds with what must be hundreds of millions of dollars spent to date, and no large-scale deployments on the horizon./p pOne would think the firm should have spent the last several years lobbying for a harmonized pan-European air-to-ground spectrum alignment to allow Aircell-like service over Europe. Aircell has over 700 planes equipped across several U.S. airlines./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_KseJNKFNX_-nvfk_n98zKiBg3M/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_KseJNKFNX_-nvfk_n98zKiBg3M/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_KseJNKFNX_-nvfk_n98zKiBg3M/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/_KseJNKFNX_-nvfk_n98zKiBg3M/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/CaNuX_561KQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/muni_icon.jpg" align="right" hspace="5" height="80" width="80" border="0" /stronga href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/Time_Warner_cable/high_speed_Internet/prweb3783144.htm"Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi will give free service to Road Runner broadband subscribers in New York City/Long Island locations, and on Cablevision's network:/a/strong Time Warner will put service in at eight LIRR Port Washington line stations, three spots in Manhattan (including Bryant Park, which may be overkill, no?), and four Queens parks. /p pSubscribers also get access to all of Cablevision's Wi-Fi locations, and Cablevision Optimum Online broadband subscribers will have access to Time Warner's hotspots. Expect Comcast next, given that a Comcast network ID is already being broadcast in some locations./p pThis is a smart complementary partnership among firms that don't compete for customers in the same territory, and are all engaged in a battle against Verizon--particularly Verizon's fiber service./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nF0sslaLn0fnstWMpQaK9-3qiCk/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nF0sslaLn0fnstWMpQaK9-3qiCk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nF0sslaLn0fnstWMpQaK9-3qiCk/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/nF0sslaLn0fnstWMpQaK9-3qiCk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/BoV_JufEvAc" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/muni_icon.jpg" align="right" hspace="5" height="80" width="80" border="0" /stronga href="http://gigaom.com/2010/03/24/time-warner-cable-wifi-hot-spots/"GigaOm says Time Warner Cable may announce outdoor Wi-Fi service for its subscribers tomorrow:/a/strong A little birdie told me that when in Bryant Park in the heart of Manhattan, you now see SSIDs for the free Wi-Fi in the park, as well as Cablevision's Optimum Wi-Fi, an unannounced Comcast service, and an unannounced Time-Warner service./p pCablevision pioneered the notion of using outdoor Wi-Fi, available at no cost and only to its customers, as a retention tool. The network is used heavily, and I suspect it's got to hurt Verizon, which offers an extremely limited and stupidly configured subset of Boingo Wireless's network to its customers (Windows only, laptop only, requires special software)./p pLast year, it looked like Comcast might share some Wi-FI locations with Cablevision; Time Warner could easily follow suit. None of the three multiple systems operators (MSOs) compete for customers./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CZvf1YnR9rc3atne05XH9STrlsk/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CZvf1YnR9rc3atne05XH9STrlsk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CZvf1YnR9rc3atne05XH9STrlsk/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/CZvf1YnR9rc3atne05XH9STrlsk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/R9eSRTi706I" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.wi-fi.org/news_articles.php?f=media_newsnews_id=969"strongThe Wi-Fi Alliance noted that 10 mobile phones have certified 802.11n built in:/strong/a I've been waiting a long, long time for 802.11n to appear in mobile phones, and the time has finally come. What the Wi-Fi Alliance didn't mention is that six of the 10 phones are made by Samsung and the other four by LG (you can a href="http://www.wi-fi.org/search_products.php?search=1advanced=1lang=enfilter_company_id=filter_category_id=24filter_subcategory=filter_cid=date_from=date_to=x=33y=19selected_certifications[]=41"strongsearch by protocol and device type/strong/a on the alliance's site). It's not a problem; rather, this isn't a sudden industry movement (10 major phone makers each with an 802.11n phone), but it's part of an ongoing trend to make mobile devices faster and more efficient on Wi-Fi networks./p pThe Wi-Fi Alliance also noted that over 500 handsets have some form of Wi-Fi certification, 141m of which were shipped in 2009 (out of 580m Wi-Fi devices shipped that year). The alliance quotes ABI Research's prediction that 90 percent of smartphones will include Wi-Fi by 2014, as well as a total of 500m handsets with Wi-Fi shipping in 2014./p pThat's too conservative, is my take. ABI Research knows of what it speaks, but I recall several years ago when predictions were that 75 to 90 percent of laptops would have Wi-Fi built in by some year (2007? 2008?). In fact, the number was well over 95 percent; only a few bizarre outlying devices lacked Wi-Fi. The 90-percent figure for smartphones will likely be hit sooner in the U.S., Europe, and parts of Asia; if inclusion lags, it will be because China won't allow it in smartphones, not because manufacturers and carriers aren't keen to have it built in./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/bBQ6vANBDb_djsAWH1229cF_iBY/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/bBQ6vANBDb_djsAWH1229cF_iBY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/bBQ6vANBDb_djsAWH1229cF_iBY/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/bBQ6vANBDb_djsAWH1229cF_iBY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/rVY4bkQJ2VU" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://moconews.net/article/419-sprint-builds-on-4g-momentum-by-releasing-first-4g-phone/"strongIt won't ship til summer, but Sprint has a 4G phone for the Clearwire network:/strong/a The HTC Evo 4G will be the first WiMax smartphone--first mobile WiMax phone of any kind that I'm aware of--and Sprint plans to promote it as an early entrant and fast alternative to competing networks. The Android-based phone will receive data at up to 6 Mbps, the rate Clearwire promises in its WiMax-covered cities. (Clearwire says typical downstream rates are 3 to 6 Mbps, with 10 Mbps bursts.)/p pThe Android-based phone will work on 3G CDMA and 4G WiMax networks, and is designed for video. YouTube, for instance, will kick into a higher-quality mode showing video on the 4.3-in screen when the phone is on a 4G network. The phone has a kick-stand for hands-free viewing, and HD video output for a big screen. The phone also will have full Flash support; it must be relying on the Flash 10.1 release due out later this year./p pThe Evo will also be a hotspot-in-a-phone, sharing a 4G connection with up to eight other devices over Wi-Fi. /p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/59HO2e4754S99vZ_-EtV3JJnRvg/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/59HO2e4754S99vZ_-EtV3JJnRvg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/59HO2e4754S99vZ_-EtV3JJnRvg/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/59HO2e4754S99vZ_-EtV3JJnRvg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/mTfDDePiD84" height="1" width="1"/

pa href="http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800cdvn=newsnewsarticleid=30685"strongAfter more than a year of leaked news and trials, ATT will ship its femtocell in April:/strong/a We've heard about and seen pictures of the 3G MicroCell for quite a while. Like all femtocells, the idea is to connect mobile users voice and data calls in their homes or small offices to a broadband connection, improving quality and throughput without taxing ATT's network. The benefit to customers is better coverage, fewer dropped calls, higher consistent data throughput, and, optionally, unlimited calling./p pFor carriers, every call or bit of data that they don't have to pass over their expensive, congested mobile networks saves them real money in preventing customer defection and deferred capital expense, while increasing subscriber revenues. /p pThe ATT 3G Microcell is unique in working only with 3G; Verizon and Sprint's options are 2G only, which allow them to offload voice but not data. For smartphones that have Wi-Fi built in, that's not such a big deal for any of those three carriers, but for customers without Wi-Fi (there still are some) or phones that can use 3G mobile broadband only, ATT has a much bigger win./p pATT, like Sprint and T-Mobile (which uses Wi-Fi with the UMA standard), will also offer an unlimited calling plan for domestic US calls placed and received when in range of the 3G MicroCell. ATT will charge $20/mo for either individual or family plans. That's steep for an individual: ATT's general mobile plans are $40 for a 450-minute plan, $60 for 900 minutes, and $70 for unlimited calling anywhere. For families, it's a far better deal./p pT-Mobile's UMA unlimited calling service is $10 per month (individual or family), and a href="http://www.nextel.com/en/services/airave/index.shtml"strongSprint's Airave/strong/a is $10/mo/account or $20/mo for a family plan. /p pThe 3G MicroCell will cost $150, with a $100 mail-in rebate if you purchase monthly unlimited service at the same time, and another $50 rebate for those who sign up for ATT fixed broadband services (DSL or fiber). Sprint charges $100 for its femtocell and a $10/mo fee, while T-Mobile's router is about $50. (T-Mobile seems to have removed pricing information from its site, so I can't confirm at this moment.) /p pVerizon has no calling plan, but sells its a href="http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/accessory?action=gotoFemtocell"strongWireless Network Extender/strong/a for $250, with no recurring fees. It's meant to improve signal coverage only, which still seems strange to me. I suppose those who want Verizon service and can't get a good signal at home have an option with this device, as opposed to changing carriers./p pPhone numbers need to be registered with the 3G MicroCell to be used. ATT says the 3G MicroCell will be available in mid-April./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AS0aG_QqrrHoJ4OxdkijSjU9yU8/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AS0aG_QqrrHoJ4OxdkijSjU9yU8/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AS0aG_QqrrHoJ4OxdkijSjU9yU8/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/AS0aG_QqrrHoJ4OxdkijSjU9yU8/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/965P19s23dE" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://wifinetnews.com/images/plane.jpg" align="right" border="0" hspace="5" /a href="http://gogo.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43item=45"strongT-Mobile's HTC HD2 smartphone comes with six months' service on Aircell's in-flight Gogo network:/strong/a The Windows Mobile 6.5 Pro smartphone (with HTC's Sense interface on top) is the first phone I know of to come with a Gogo promotional bundle. Gogo pricing for mobile devices is $4.95 for flights up to 1 1/2 hours and $7.95 for longer flights. For frequent fliers on airlines with Wi-Fi onboard, the free access may be an incentive. Service is for six months from registration, ending no later than 30 June 2011./p pCopyright copy;2010 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please a href="mailto:news@wifinetnews.com"notify us/a if you find this content anywhere but at a href="http://wifinetnews.com/"wifinetnews.com/a or a href="http://wimaxnetnews.com/"wimaxnetnews.com/a. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZMBeG9KCy7mmcgISh3ckB2flSxg/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZMBeG9KCy7mmcgISh3ckB2flSxg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZMBeG9KCy7mmcgISh3ckB2flSxg/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/ZMBeG9KCy7mmcgISh3ckB2flSxg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wifinetnews/~4/8qH0uF_SVLw" height="1" width="1"/