Subject: [NEXTEL-1] If Wi-Fi is free in the park, will users walk to a coffee shop and pay for a connection?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 13:46:40 -0400

Just Call It Free-Fi
If Wi-Fi is free in the park, will users walk to a coffee shop and pay for a
connection?
BY BRAD SMITH
MAY 15, 2003

You can sit under a shade tree in several Manhattan public parks and surf the
Internet or access your corporate intranet for free. So why would you go pay for
the same access at a nearby coffee shop?

That's one of the thorny questions that will be answered over the next few years
as tens of thousands more Wi-Fi hot spots are built across the United States.
Some of these will be free, although paid WISPs such as Boingo, T-Mobile
HotSpots and Cometa Networks likely will be in the majority.

Still, the advent of free hot spots in places like New York City, San Francisco,
Portland and Seattle could affect the WISPs' business plans, which already are
being questioned.

Free Wi-Fi access has been offered for a year in Bryant Park, which is located
behind the main branch of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. Anyone
with a PC card for their laptop or a Wi-Fi-enabled PDA can use the service while
the park is open.

Starting this month, the Alliance for Downtown New York began offering free Wi-Fi
connections in seven parks and plazas in Lower Manhattan. Both of these
projects were aided by a group of technologists calling themselves NYCWireless,
which lists some 145 free hot spots in the New York area.

Jerome Barth, operations director at Bryant Park, says the typical user spends an
hour or more surfing the Net. He expects as many as 200 daily users this
summer.

So, why is the park's Wi-Fi network free?

"We thought about it, and we decided we wanted the network to fit within the feel
of everything else in the park," Barth says. "We want people to come to the
park, and once they are there we want them to stay. If the Wi-Fi connections
weren't free, we would restrict our objectives."

The park, which is owned by the city but operated by a private company, bought
the equipment and pays for a T1 line. Intel Corp. provided financial assistance
the first year as a sponsor.

People use the hot spot every day of the week, with the number of users down
on the weekends but with longer sessions. The daily average number of users in
the first month, June of 2002, was 24. That grew to an average of 38 in
September when the weather started keeping people away.

"We expect at least twice as many this summer as last," Barth says. "We've had
a lot of people asking about the network and how to connect. They ask for
recommendations on what kind of laptop to buy."

The service may be expanded to the front of the library and Barth says he is
considering upgrading the hot spot to 802.11g, which provides data rates five
times faster than the current 802.11b network.

The hot spot zone is a natural extension to the free wired Internet access the
library provides in the Rose Room indoors.

On May 1, the Alliance of Downtown New York launched service in seven open
spaces accessible within a 5-minute walk from any building. These included
Bowling Green Park (actually launched last summer), the Vietnam Veterans
Plaza, South Street Seaport, City Hall park, The Atrium at 60 Wall Street, Liberty
Plaza and Rector Park.

New York City isn't the only place, of course, where free hot spots are sprouting.
The Bay Area Wireless Users Group also promotes a large number; one was
installed in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore., and the Seattle
Wireless Network has set up a number. Individual Wi-Fi users have opened their
access to the public, too. In Toronto, Sony Canada has started offering free Wi-Fi
service at all five of its stores in Toronto.

Because Wi-Fi has been a grassroots phenomenon, these free hot spots are to
be expected. What role they will play in the broader deployment of Wi-Fi remains
to be seen.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA298992&spacedesc=Wireless+Internet&stt=001
-- 
  		"NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
		Note The New address 
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

		"NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

		"WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
 	   The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/CNxFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/