Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Somerville experiment could alter the WiFi game

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 16:06:40 -0400

Somerville experiment could alter the WiFi game

By D.C. Denison,
Globe Staff

8/10/2003

WiFi activist Michael Oh has an unusual way of thinking about the most hyped
new consumer technology since the Web. ''It's kind of like air
conditioning,'' he said.

''Retail outlets don't charge you for air conditioning, or the milk you put
in your coffee,'' he said. ''Someday they aren't going to charge you for
WiFi.''

That day may be coming sooner than expected if a cluster of merchants in
Davis Square, Somerville, sign onto a concept that's being floated by Oh and
Patrick J. McCormick, the chief information officer for the City of
Somerville. (http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/)

The two are calling the idea ''urban hot zones.''

Such a zone, as conceived by Oh, is an expansion of the WiFi ''hot spot''
idea. A hot spot typically provides Internet access to an area of up to 300
feet in radius around an inexpensive antenna connected to a high speed
Internet connection.

A hot zone pumps up that idea by using a network of antennas to offer
Internet access to an entire geographic cluster of retail outlets and
businesses. This differs from other public wireless networks because it
doesn't require each location to provide an Internet connection. In a hot
zone each location is close enough to the central antenna to feed off a
single high-speed line.

Because a number of firms share the line, the cost that each assumes is
dramatically reduced. Areas around these participating companies also
benefit from the free WiFi signal, which spills over into the surrounding
area. In Oh's vision, any street that has from 5 to 10 retail locations
within a half-mile stretch can host a hot zone. He imagines that the typical
city zone will include a mix of retail outlets, such as coffee shops and
bars, along with neighborhood ''sponsors'' like insurance companies.

''The budget numbers we've been running bring the average cost down to
around $30 a month per merchant,'' Oh said. That price point has attracted
significant interest in Davis Square. Oh and McCormick have been meeting
with Davis Square businesses and predict they may have a core starter group
within months.

Oh already has some experience with the concept. Over the last few years
he's been building a prototype on Newbury Street,
http://www.NewburyOpen.net, starting with the blocks surrounding his Apple
Macintosh technology consulting service, Tech Superpowers. A central antenna
in his company's office on the block between Fairfield and Gloucester
streets and a series of inexpensive antennas tie together local businesses
up and down the street. NewburyOpen.net now offers free wireless Internet
access to eight ''nodes'' on Newbury Street, including the Armani Cafe and
the Trident Booksellers & Cafe.

Significantly, although the concept is catching on, Oh does not see it as a
business.

''The technology is so cheap, it's really not worth building a business
on,'' he said.

Instead, Oh uses NewburyOpen.net as a community builder and marketing
vehicle. That's the model he hopes to replicate in Davis Square and in urban
neighborhoods all over the world.

McCormick, the Somerville official who has been working with Oh on the
concept, has different motivations.

''For us WiFi is not only a way to give more citizens access, it's an
economic development tool,'' he said. ''If our coffee shops have WiFi, that
may be enough to keep members of the community from having to go elsewhere
for their access, or their coffee.''

McCormick said that Davis Square's hot zone would automatically spill over
to include, at no charge to the city, three local parks.

Eventually, McCormick said, he'd like to extend the concept to other
Somerville neighborhoods, such as Union Square.

''The idea is that, when possible, WiFi should be free,'' McCormick said.

This is not good news for the many ventures that have been trying mightily
to build businesses around providing WiFi access. AT&T, IBM, and Intel, for
example, have launched a company called Cometa Networks to build up to
15,000 WiFi hot spots by next year. T-Mobile, the nation's sixth-largest
wireless phone provider, has built out a network of more than 2,400 WiFi hot
spots nationally, including deployments in Starbucks coffee shops, Borders
bookstores, and other public locations. T-Mobile sells unlimited WiFi access
for $20 a month to customers buying wireless phone service.

Oh and McCormick's hot zones, however, could change the game in a
significant way. Not only are they providing consumers with a free
alternative to the various pay plans, they are clearly helping to set the
stage for a time when WiFi is ubiquitous, particularly in urban
neighborhoods.

Oh's advice for fledging WiFi entrepreneurs: Assume WiFi will be there, and
build your business on top it. Asked to elaborate, he mentions the emerging
capacity to use handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants, to
tie into the Internet from almost anywhere via WiFi.

''When bandwidth is much cheaper, even free, that's when the power of the
Internet can be fully realized,'' he said. ''People will focus more on the
applications and services and less on the technology and access.''

For Somerville's McCormick, it's barely a technology issue at all -- an
attitude that may send many WiFi access businesses back to the drawing
board.

''It's a quality-of-life issue,'' he said. ''Eventually, WiFi is just going
to be another layer to the urban village.''

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/222/business/Somerville_experiment_could_alter_the_WiFi_game+.shtml

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