“Wi-Fi for Everyone, I’m In”
22 February 2008- AT&T Offers Free Access in 17,000 Hotspots
- BT, FON Offer Free Nationwide Wi-Fi Access
- Apple Putting Wi-Fi in Everything - Who Needs a CD/DVD?
By Charles Hall
Wi-Fi ain’t ever going away, is it? And isn’t it going to spread everywhere?
And it will certainly, despite the failures of the muni Wi-Fi crowd, be everywhere. We’ve wondered why more of the municipalities and their suppliers didn’t use Ruckus Wireless Wi-Fi booster gear? Wouldn’t that have helped the signals’ reach and strength, the two biggest technical weaknesses of muni Wi-Fi? But the demand for free and/or inexpensive Wi-Fi everywhere is too great to let the muni Wi-Fi failures stop its spread.
It’s just that it’s the big boys like AT&T and BT that are doing the spreading.
AT&T has recently started offering free Wi-Fi in 17,000 hotspots - all McDonald’s and Starbuck plus many US airports. AT&T broadband is not available everywhere in the States but the company said it might start offering free wireless access at its hotspots to its mobile phone subscribers.
And every hotel/motel has Wi-Fi, as do many bars and restaurants. There are companies building their entire business by installing and operating Wi-Fi networks in hotels, motels and bars.
Spain-based FON’s goal is to make the whole world a Wi-Fi hotspot. At last count FON had 500,000 members and 190,000 hotspots. It provides members a Wi-Fi broadband router that allocates the home’s unused Wi-Fi network for anyone nearby to use. It’s free to anyone that has a FON router at home and available for a fee if they don’t.
BT, with twelve million broadband subscribers, has partnered with FON to provide free wireless Internet access to all BT broadband subscribers. They will be able to access FON hotspots for free wherever they are in the world. The service will be marketed under the slogan “Wi-Fi for everyone, I’m in.”
FON has similar deals with other broadband service providers such as France’s Neuf Cegetel, which has the potential to have 600,000 FON hotspots. FON’s deal with the cable company’s broadband subscribers makes their broadband access available to FON members. Time Warner Cable has agreed to let its broadband subscribers make their broadband access available to FON. It did not say it would promote the FON service or ship FON routers to its broadband subscribers as BT and Neuf Cegetel are doing.
FON says it will have at least one million hotspots by the end of 2008. There are also FON hotspots in Japan, South Korea and Germany.
It looks like there will be hotspots everywhere and every Wi-Fi capable device, whether mobile or fixed, will provide other Wi-Fi devices with wireless access to the Net. Carriers will give out a Wi-Fi device that consumers can use at home and the carrier will use part of that device’s spectrum to offer wireless access services in and around that home - to the residents and to others nearby. The carrier will make it attractive for consumers by offering lower prices, free wireless access everywhere in the world and other incentives - much as BT is doing with FON.
The Apple Factor
Aren’t Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch driving the spread of Wi-Fi to public locations? Apple’s CFO recently said the iPod touch is much more than a media player - “bigger than the market for simple music players,” he said. “We believe one of the iPod’s future directions is to become the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform.”
Let’s not forget that Apple’s new Air laptop can only access the world and be accessed wirelessly. It doesn’t even have a CD/DVD drive. Every song, every video, every software update, every Internet connection has to be done with Wi-Fi.
IPhone and iPod touch users seemingly spend half their time when they are away from home trying to see if there are any Wi-Fi networks they can connect to.
Wi-Fi is already widespread. When my laptop boots up at home I see a couple of my neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks in addition to my own. The first Wi-Fi I connected to with my iPod touch was at a drive thru daiquiri bar. Yes, we have drive thru daiquiri bars in south Louisiana and no, I was at the oil change place next door. Really.
Where Is All of This Going?
What are the implications of all this Wi-Fi and our lust for Wi-Fi spots? The matter certainly has financial and structural implications for the cable TV operators and others that don’t have the ability to deploy wireless networks. What network of Wi-Fi hotspots do Verizon/Verizon Wireless, Virgin Media, Comcast and the other cablecos have that they can offer to counter AT&T’s bold move? AT&T can ratchet up the pressure on them if it offers free access at its hotspots to its mobile phone subscribers as it has hinted it might. After all, AT&T has 70 million mobile subscribers - and they’re distributed all over the country - not only in AT&T’s wireline footprint? Want to guess how many of AT&T’s mobile subscribers get their broadband from Verizon or their mobile phone service from Verizon Wireless, most of whom might seriously consider switching to AT&T Mobility just to get free hot spot access?
Will WiMAX operators and the cellcos building 4G mobile networks find millions of subscribers ready to sign up on the day they launch?
Will readily accessible Wi-Fi hotspots serve as the streets and roads and WiMAX and the other 4G networks serve as the high-speed motorway/autobahn/Interstate?
What will it mean for content producers and the kind of content they produce? For TV networks and theater owners? How will it impact the CD/DVD/Blu-ray industry and makers of consumer devices, from MP3 players to TV sets?
If the Internet we have at home and office has changed our lives so much, and so disrupted the world of commerce, what will happen when everyone has in their pocket or purse a mobile device that’s always connected to the Net?
One Response to ““Wi-Fi for Everyone, I’m In””
March 31st, 2008 at 6:23 pm
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