Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Truckers Shift Into High Speed

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 01:27:19 -0500

Truckers Shift Into High Speed
Source: Columbian
Publication date: 2003-01-01
Arrival time: 2003-01-02

The Broadway Flying J truck stop in Federal Way offers the usual
accouterments -- a diner, showers, gas pumps and laundry room.

But a Vancouver company recently upgraded the Flying J's amenities by
installing a node that broadcasts wireless fidelity that gives truckers
high-speed Internet access.

The technology, known as Wi-Fi, allows drivers to send e-mails, find loads,
check bank accounts and perform a number of other functions while in their
their cabs rather than from a hard phone line inside the truck stop.

Todd Purnick, president of Columbia Advanced Wireless, Vancouver, said
the Flying J is the cornerstone for the company's national network of
wireless connections at truck stops. In the process, the company has
harnessed the next technological wave and answered one of the tougher
questions for businesses looking to tap into Wi-Fi: how to make money.

The solution for Purnick was a bit of the old mixed with the new. Columbia
Advanced Wireless is selling its access through pre-paid cards that are
identical to pre-paid phone cards Purnick and his partners sold in the early
'90s. The cards range in price from $5 for five hours to $30 for a month of
unlimited access.

"There's a huge buzz in the industry," Purnick said. "Investors are looking at
it almost as if it's the next cellular."

Adding mobility

Brian Grimm, spokesman for the Wi-Fi Alliance, said the proliferation of
laptop computers and Internet access pushed the development of Wi-Fi as
consumers wanted mobility added to equation.

"I'll think you'll see it anywhere people spend time," he said. "Oddly enough,
truckers are the ideal connection."

Purnick's business isn't the only company targeting truckers, who are virtual
newcomers to the computer age. Industry experts estimate only 25 percent
of the country's professional drivers own laptops. That number is expected
to increase dramatically in the coming years, particularly for the estimated
300,000 owner-operators who find their own loads versus company drivers
who handle a prescribed route.

Purnick said Columbia Advanced Wireless is different from regional
competitors in its scope to establish a national network and by targeting the
drivers. He said those companies make money by selling the nodes to truck
stops. Columbia Advanced Wireless covers installation costs for the
wireless system. The truck stop in turn agrees to sell the pre-paid cards and
receives a percentage of the sales. Most computer owners need only a
network card that costs less than $100 to access Wi-Fi.

A Wi-Fi believer

Sam Roark finds himself acting more like an apostle than Flying J's
manager as he talks to drivers about the service. He tells drivers to consider
their laptops as radios, the wireless card an antenna and the pre-paid cards
as the quarters that you'd drop into a jukebox to play music.

The early reviews from truckers are positive, said Roark.

"They're saying this is cool," he said.

James McDonald,45, travels the 11 Western states and struggles to find
data ports to connect the laptop computer he uses to check e- mail and
stay abreast of world events. He was one of the first customers to try the
Wi-Fi system at Flying J, recently buying a day pass. The speed of the
service surprised him and marked the first time he was able to use a
computer from the comfort of his cab.

McDonald is convinced Wi-Fi is a technology he and others would use
extensively given the chance.

"If I ever won the lottery, it's something I'd invest in," he said.

Purnick's network is just one of several niches other entrepreneurs are
chasing. Hotels and coffee shops already are wired creating what is called
hot spots. In Portland, 140 hot spots were developed by a nonprofit group
devoted to free access points.

Wi-Fi's potential has caught the attention of some of the industry's heaviest
hitters. AT&T, Intel and IBM and global investment concerns Apax
Partners and 3i announced last month the formation of Cometa Networks, a
company that will provide broadband, wholesale Wi-Fi access nationwide.

Cometa will target national and regional retail chains, hotels, universities
and real estate firms in the nation's top 50 metropolitan cities.

Purnick's target is the major highway systems that crisscross the country
and the independent truck stops that line those roadways.

"We're going to see this grow in the next two years," Purnick said.

COLUMBIA ADVANCED WIRELESS

* WHAT: Pre-paid wireless Internet cards marketed to truck drivers.

* OWNERS: Ann Ayers, founder and chairwoman; Bill Read, CEO; and
Todd Purnick, president.

* ADDRESS: 1314 Main St., Vancouver.

* NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: Four.

* LOOKING AHEAD: The company plans to develop a national network of
wireless Internet service for truck drivers.

Publication date: 2003-01-01

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=35588345&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

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