Subject: [NEXTEL-1] New York City Wi-Fi Hot Spots Perform Well in Tests

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 14:06:47 -0500

New York City Wi-Fi Hot Spots Perform Well in Tests

CyberSpeak columnist Edward Baig traveled around Manhattan with a
Centrino-equipped Sony Vaio laptop computer and an IBM ThinkPad T21 with a
Wi-Fi accessory card. After stops at a McDonalds, Bryant Park, the court yard
at the McGraw-Hill Building on 6th Avenue, a couple of Starbucks coffee houses,
and a Marriott Marquis, he found strong, steady wireless Internet connections,
but snags included employees who were unaware of aspects of the service. A
Starbucks employee told him where he could "plug-in," for example. Another
snag, was that the battery in the ThinkPad was drained in about an hour. The
Centrino-equipped laptop lasted longer. And, at all the locations, he was the only
person using the Wi-Fi networks, in part, because the word hasn't gotten out
about them yet.

====================================================

Would you like Wi-Fi with that?

NEW YORK — Quick, what's the fastest item on McDonald's menu? Big Mac? Fries? McNuggets?
Would you believe the answer is wireless Internet access? It's surely the most nutritional
fare in the joint.
The most well-known food chain on the planet is testing Wi-Fi broadband access in 10 New
York City
restaurants, with hundreds more to come by the year's end—in the Big Apple, Chicago and an

undisclosed locale in California.

USA TODAY's
Ed Baig works
wirelessly
during lunch at
McDonald's.
By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

Thus I recently found myself surfing the Web under the Golden Arches on West 57th Street
in Manhattan.
As I devoured a burger, my eyes were glued to a light and sexy new Sony Vaio laptop based
on Intel's
Centrino chips with built-in wireless capabilities.

McDonald's was only the first stop on my haphazard tour of wireless Gotham hotspots. I
bopped around
midtown with the Sony and an IBM ThinkPad T21 (including an accessory Wi-Fi card) in
search of free
commercial places to wirelessly check e-mail and keep up with war news.

I don't think it's geeky to suggest that untethered Net access will have mass appeal. Hot
spots are
popping up in pubs, pool halls and planes. Lufthansa (through Boeing) has begun offering
unwired mobile
Internet access on certain overseas routes; British Airways is expected to follow shortly.

Naturally you'll find many more hotspots down here than at 30,000 feet. The research firm
IDC expects
the worldwide number to approximate 118,000 by 2005, up from just over 19,000 at the end
of 2002.

Oddly, New York is a relative laggard; the area ranked No. 23 in Intel's recent "Most
Unwired Cities"
survey. I began my mission on a bench in Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library. A
group
known as NYCwireless (www.nycwireless.net) is promoting free hotspots in this park and in
building
lobbies, coffeehouses and other public spaces.

My laptop just detected, and connected to, the network. I fired up my browser and began
surfing just like
that — well, almost. I did have to click on an Acceptable Use Policy, legalese reminding
me that viruses,
spam, and intrusive hackers can transform cyberspace into a dicey destination. And you
thought New
York parks were dangerous.

Download and upload connection speeds were excellent. And the signal held steady as I
walked from
one end of Bryant Park to the other. That is, until I encountered one of the perils of
this whole business:
with the wireless card obviously draining power, I barely got an hour of juice using the
Thinkpad. The
Centrino's battery provides more oomph.

Sometimes you must pay to surf outdoors. There's a hotspot by a sunken courtyard in front
of the
McGraw-Hill Building on 6th Avenue. I could only access it through Boingo Wireless ($24.95
to $49.95
for a monthly plan, $7.95 on up for a pay-as-you-go plan). Boingo software "sniffs" for
Wi-Fi networks.

I was sniffing something else at other Wi-Fi spots: coffee. I chased down hotspots at
several Starbucks,
another chain delving heavily into wireless, in and outside the city. However, at a store
in Ridgewood,
N.J., I asked a server — the human kind— if the location had broadband. She looked at me
funny, as if
I'd asked for a flavor of java (the drink, not the programming language) they don't carry.

A colleague of hers overheard and directed me to a corner of the store, where she said I'd
get a strong
signal. I did, though I had to immediately sign up for a plan through Starbucks' partner
T-Mobile. Three
options were available: With a one-year commitment, I could pay $29.99 per month for
unlimited access,
or $10 extra per month without committing to the full year. I chose the $6 minimum
dime-a-minute
plan—use the full hour or lose it.

I had checked the Starbucks Web site to find stores offering hotspots back in the city. I
was pointed to
52nd and Lexington. But the Starbucks Web site is ahead of this particular Starbucks
store. "Not yet," I
was told when inquiring about the service.

I wandered west to 49th Street and 7th Avenue. Again I asked if the wireless Internet was
on hand. "You
can plug in over there," the girl behind the counter suggested, unaware that wireless
meant I had nothing to
plug in. In any event, I set the Vaio down, clicked on Internet Explorer, and as in
Ridgewood, reached
the T-Mobile log-in page.

I meandered a few blocks south to the Marriott Marquis. I knew certain hotels were
starting to offer
broadband, but I had no idea if this was one. I sat in the lobby and gave it a shot. Sure
enough, the Sony
detected two wireless signals, both from STSN. One signal was apparently being offered to
conference
attendees inside the hotel, but absent the proper password I couldn't log in.

The other signal was available to anyone willing to whip out a credit card. Cost: $2.95
for the first 15
minutes and 25 cents for each additional minute. STSN's service, called iBahn Wireless, is
apparently
available at this Marriott and seven nearby hotels.

I entered my credit card number. STSN instructed me to "log off" when I was done surfing;
that way I
would receive an electronic receipt for use with an expense report. But I accidentally
closed this "log off"
window prematurely. So by the time I stopped surfing, some 45 minutes later, my only way
to log out
(and hopefully stop the meter) was to turn off my computer. I can't wait to see the bill.
Incidentally, the
connection was plenty fast.

Speeds on the McNet service (my word) were excellent too. To make it work, you request a
scratch-off
card at the counter, free (for three months) with the purchase of an Extra Value Meal, $3
otherwise. The
card is supposed to allow 60 minutes of access — longer, I'd guess, than people typically
stay in a
McDonald's. How many fries can you eat?

You enter the user name and password on the card. But before being allowed to proceed, you
have to
type in a ZIP code and respond to a short survey. It's kind of silly that one of the
questions asks you to
describe your experience with the service even though you haven't started surfing.

In fact, the service performed admirably, maybe too admirably from the perspective of
McDonald's. I
was able to stay online well beyond the allotted hour, even after I restarted the
computer. If you do
encounter a technical snag, don't expect any low-wage employees to bail you out. You are
asked instead
to call Cometa Networks, the Wi-Fi wholesaler behind the McDonald's pilot; a toll-free
number is on the
card.

Judging by my travels, hotspots have yet to catch on. I didn't spy a single other person
taking advantage
of Wi-Fi. In part, that's because the word hasn't gotten out yet. Also, the denizens of
this city are
constantly rushing; few among them, I suspect, want to schlep a computer.

I discovered that accessing these hotspots is relatively simple — and in the case of
Bryant Park, you can't
beat free. But let me close with some low-tech advice: At McDonald's, watch those extra
calories.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2003-03-26-wireless_x.htm

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