Have Wi-Fi, will travel
Once the technology is in place, Wayport provides 24-hour monitoring, security, and customer service. In addition, the firm supports a wide array of back-office systems such as billing and credit-card authentication and marketing and promotion. Wayport also provides wireless access in more than 1,000 locations, including major hotels such as the Four Seasons, Marriott, Doubletree, and Embassy Suites, airports including Dallas-Fort Worth and Seattle-Tacoma, and UPS stores.
Large chains aren't the only ones being targeted by Wi-Fi providers. For example, Boingo Wireless, a Santa Monica-based Wi-Fi company known for linking disparate networks including Wayport's, recently came out with a new version of its "Hot Spot in a Box,"which helps small businesses offer Wi-Fi access to their customers. It takes advantage of an existing broadband connection and adds an inexpensive Wi-Fi router made by Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, and Web-based software to administer it. "There's no need for on-site technical expertise," says Daniel Senie, president of an Internet services firm called Amaranth Networks in Bolton, Mass., who recently used the product to outfit a local cafe.
Easy does it. Businesses looking to set up networks of 25 to 100 hot spots can turn to a new Sun Microsystems product made by Pleasanton, Calif.-based Pronto Networks, which makes operational support systems for network operators. The iForce Wi-Fi Hotspot Appliance aims to simplify back-office functions for medium-sized Wi-Fi networks.
Still, Wi-Fi is an infant technology, and the industry is scrambling to figure out exactly what Internet users want from a hot spot. Last week, the Internet Home Alliance, a group of companies working to advance the home technology market including Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Panasonic, launched an ambitious project at the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas. Modeled after a mall's food court, "Connection Court" is the ultimate Internet cafe, providing wireless and broadband Internet access, laptops (albeit only a handful), business services such as copying and faxing, business news and stock reports on 52-inch plasma screens, and conference tables and funky furniture designed especially for mobile workers by chic office furniture maker Herman Miller. Everything is free of charge--except the coffee and scones. The companies, which have spent nearly $400,000 on the project, hope to find out the secret of using Wi-Fi and other techno wizardry to lure more people to the shopping mall.
Ultimately, plugging into the Internet may go mobile. Connexion by Boeing, a division of the airplane manufacturer that won approval from the International Telecommunication Union to use satellite data communications, has deals with several major international airlines, such as Lufthansa, to outfit planes with Wi-Fi. Connexion recently began offering high-speed in-flight Internet service, with prices ranging from about $10 for half an hour to $30 for long-haul flights of six or more hours. Other companies are even experimenting with Wi-Fi access in cars and commuter trains. Because Wi-Fi has a limit of about 100 feet, Pyramid Research's Yunker and other experts see more promise for in-vehicle Internet access coming from an emerging wireless networking standard called Wi-Max, which is designed for greater distances. Big Wi-Max trials are expected later this year.
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