Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cities Use Free Wi-Fi To Attract Business Travelers

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 00:31:21 -0500

Jan 15, 2003 (Wireless Data News/PBI Media via COMTEX) -- transportation in its downtown
area or subsidizing hotel and
restaurant discounts in order to grow business traffic. As part of its efforts to attract
business travelers, the city expects to
be a trendsetter by giving away Wi-Fi access to the Internet.

"It's a new business model," says Bruce Mayes, project manager for Long Beach's Economic
Development Bureau. "Instead
of asking people to pay by the minute, you have free access in areas where business people
would want to use it."

However, Long Beach isn't the only city using (or planning to use) free Wi-Fi service to
improve its business environment.
Indeed, a number of other municipal entities are looking at offering the same sort of
business inducement.

The NYCwireless free Wi-Fi project is working with several such groups as well as with
four business improvement districts
in New York City. What has become clear is that a growing number of municipalities are
thinking more seriously about offering
free Wi-Fi Internet connectivity to the business travel community, according to Anthony
Townsend, chief operating officer of
systems integrator Cloud Networks and a NYWwireless member. Free Wi-Fi is a basic
requirement a premium urban space
must have, he says.

In addition, hundreds of U.S. grassroots groups are stringing together free networks in
cities around the country. While such
efforts are not necessarily taking place in cities popular with business travelers, they
nevertheless add to the increasing public
knowledge and acceptance of Wi-Fi technology. Case in point: The Community Wireless Node
Database Project currently
lists 3,800 Wi-Fi access points in 278 cities around the country as free service nodes.

Clearly, the Wi-Fi cat is out of the bag and there's no way anyone is going to put it
back, Townsend says. He notes that "a very
small segment of the market ... is willing to pay for Wi-Fi."

In Jacksonville, Fla., the city government allows public access to the Wi-Fi networks it
operates around government buildings
and at commercial areas and a recreational park in its downtown zone. It's also planning
to install Wi- Fi service at a water
park and at Alltel Stadium, which will be the site of the 2005 NFL Super Bowl, says Sandy
Bateh, Jacksonville's chief
information officer.

Still, as appealing as widespread free access to Wi-Fi service is, it probably isn't good
enough to satisfy the most demanding
users --i.e., those users willing to pay for more complete service.

Initially, free service will be enticing and will help stimulate the market. But at the
end of the day, "someone's got to pay for it,"
says Bill Howe, president and CEO of San Jose, Calif.-based Mobility Network Systems,
which develops technology that
links wide- and local-area wireless networks. "I don't see [free Wi-Fi] as being a viable,
long-term business proposition," he
opined. Adding Value To Business Districts

Long Beach's proposition is a four-block area in its downtown shopping district, adjacent
to its convention center, is covered
by 802.11b access points linked to an antenna on a centrally located traffic signal. That
antenna is linked to a broadband
connection atop of a nearby 22-story building.

In Long Beach, many of those who use the convention center also patronize outdoor cafes,
according to Mayes. For these
people, the city's free Wi-Fi Internet access is a convenient way for them to stay in
touch with home and office.

Since business travelers account for the largest number of Wi-Fi users, offering free
access in areas they frequent could
improve their opinions of those cities they frequently visit. There's no denying that free
Internet access is popular. Adding
wireless to the mix makes it even more so.

"That's definitely a value add," John Chang, wireless market analyst for Allied Business
Intelligence, tells Wireless Data News.
"There's definitely an incentive for it."

However, that incentive might not be enough for people already paying for Wi-Fi access to
take the time to sign on through
Long Beach's portal when they can access the Internet through their service providers
without having to log on. A common
demand that high-end wireless users--those with wireless-enabled laptops or PDAs in
addition mobile phones--is that they
want a single service provider for all their access.

Scott Drobner, wireless program director for InfoTech, a PBI Media-owned market research
firm, thinks that while free Wi-Fi
may help some communities attract business travelers, he isn't at all certain that many
business travelers will be
comfortable using the cities' Wi-Fi networks. Many of these people are used to paying
rather high prices for wireless Internet
access and like the more simplified approach of using a single provider for that purpose,
he said.

Long Beach's annual costs for operating it's Wi-Fi network will be about $4,000. While
that may sound like a relatively small
sum for a southern California city to fork over, it really isn't. Long Beach saved the
roughly $250,000 it would have otherwise
cost to build the downtown network because all of the equipment was donated. The access
points came from Intermec
Technologies; the software to secure and operate the network came from Vernier Networks;
the broadband connectivity came
from Color Broadband; and the service's Web portal was created by G-site Web Design.

There's nothing particularly new about the concept of donating high-value techno skills
and products to municipalities --
especially if the donations are coming from entities doing business in or near the needy
municipality. Consider, for example,
Internet infrastructure giant 3Coms [COMS]. It donated Wi-Fi equipment to a municipality.
The San Francisco-based
company funded a $1 million project to connect some 15 buildings used by the government of
Rolling Meadows, Ill., the
Chicago suburban home of 3Com's wireless infrastructure subsidiary, CommWorks. 3Com
started deploying its Wi-Fi access
point technology in 2001, primarily for school and business campuses and for state and
local governments. Rolling Meadows
was the first Wi-Fi project funded by 3Com, but the company told Wireless Data New it will
consider other similar
possibilities. (WDN, July 31, 2002.)

Long Beach isn't expecting to directly connect revenue growth for downtown businesses or
increased tax revenue from tourism
to its Wi-Fi offering. But it does consider the downtown coverage a value add for business
travelers. Of course, anyone with
an 802.11b modem on a mobile computing device--business person or consumer, visitor or
resident--can use the free
service.

The only limit Long Beach is setting is a one-hour cap on usage. If users need more time,
they must log off and then reconnect.
The service also requires users to submit their e-mail addresses when they log on. The
city will use that information to prevent
people who abuse the service from using it again.

But there won't be any time limit when Long Beach offers the same service at its airport
or its marinas. The city expects to
launch free Wi-Fi service at its airport early next month, while deploying coverage to its
marinas is a more long-term project.

 http://www.telecomweb.com/OTHERVIP/cgi/searchauth.cgi?/search.pbimedia.com/search97cgi/s97_cgi?action=View&VdkVgwKey=%2E%2E%2Fdocuments%2Farchive%2Fwdn%2Fwdn01150301%2Ehtml&DocOffset=1&Collection=archive&&ViewTemplate=new_tweb_view_wdn.hts