Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Verizon to Install WiFi Technology

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 13:26:38 -0500

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021121/ap_on_hi_te/verizon_wifi_2

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Technology - AP

Verizon to Install WiFi Technology

Thu Nov 21, 4:22 PM ET

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By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -

In a sure sign that the upstart wireless Internet technology called WiFi is proving too powerful to ignore, Verizon Communications Inc. said Thursday that it will install such networks for small and medium-sized businesses.

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Because it allows people to share Internet access inexpensively and relatively easily, WiFi is becoming increasingly popular in cafes, airports and hotels. Some stores offer it free for their customers as an incentive to sit there for hours sipping lattes while surfing the Web.

WiFi has been seen as a threat to big phone companies like Verizon because the technology allows homegrown networks to spread outside their control. Some cable companies have asked customers to stop using WiFi to share fast Internet access, calling it theft of service.

Verizon's new WiFi initiative appears to be something of a toe in the water.

The company, which already sells WiFi equipment that lets households share a broadband Internet connection, is offering to set up wireless networks for small and medium-sized businesses in Boston as part of its plan to be an all-purpose "solutions provider." Service in other cities will follow.

But Verizon executives also say the company is looking at ways to begin offering access in stores and other public places — so-called wireless "hotspots" — and charging a fee to people who want to log on from their laptops or handheld computers.

"We're evaluating other opportunities," said Rahman Karriem, Verizon's executive director of data product management. "It's all geared toward driving increased mobility and flexibility for customers and using wireless to do that."

Wireless phone carrier T-Mobile, formerly VoiceStream, has already embraced that idea by creating WiFi hotspots in more than 1,000 Starbucks, airport lounges and malls around the country. Unlimited use costs $30 a month.

Similarly, Boingo Wireless Inc., a California-based startup launched by Earthlink Inc. founder Sky Dayton, has intalled WiFi connections in hundreds of places and offers downloadable software that lets users "sniff" whether wireless networks are available.

Several other big voice and data companies are also considering following suit, according to Yankee Group analyst Sarah Kim. A coalition that includes Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. is discussing a hotspot plan called Project Rainbow, but Karriem said it is premature to say whether Verizon might sign on.

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The main hurdles for companies are assuring the security of WiFi hotspots, how to charge for such a service and how to make sure people don't use it without paying.

Kim said Verizon is "arguably at the forefront" among the nation's phone giants when it comes to offering wireless networking services to businesses, but she added: "They should have done this a while ago."

Big phone companies in other countries, especially South Korea (news - web sites), the United Kingdom, Sweden and Japan, have been quicker to embrace WiFi and offer public hotspots, said C. Brian Grimm, spokesman for the WiFi Alliance, an organization of companies involved in wireless networking.

Driven in large part by those efforts, worldwide sales of WiFi-related hardware are estimated to total $2.1 billion this year and more than $3 billion next year, according to research compiled by the WiFi Alliance.

The technology could also get a big boost next year from a new Intel chip for laptops known as Banias, which includes wireless connectivity that now has to be plugged in separately. Intel also recently announced plans to invest $150 million in WiFi companies.

___

On the Net:

WiFi Alliance: http://www.Wi-Fi.org

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