Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
talk about a few of these companies, but for now, we talk just in generalities.
Commercial hot spot providers are mainly focused on the business market,
providing access to mobile workers and road-warrior types. Many of these
providers also offer relatively inexpensive plans (by using either prepaid
calling cards or pay-by-the-use models) that you may use for nonbusiness
connectivity (at least if you’re like us, and you can’t go a day without checking
your mail or reading DBR — www.dukebasketballreport.com — even
when you’re on vacation).
Unless you’re living in a city or town right near a hot spot provider, you
probably don’t pick up a hot spot as your primary ISP, although in some
places (often, smaller towns), ISPs are using Wi-Fi as the primary pipe to their
customers’ homes. You can expect to find for-pay hot spot access in lots of
areas outside the home. The most common include
� Hotel lobbies and rooms
� Coffee shops and Internet cafes
� Airport gates and lounges
� Office building lobbies
� Train stations
� Meeting facilities
Basically, anywhere that folks armed with a laptop or a handheld computer
may find themselves is a potential for a hot spot operator to build a business.
Pretty soon, you will even be able to (once again) plug into a Wi-Fi network
on an airplane. A few years back, Boeing (you know, the folks who make jets)
started a service called Connexion by Boeing, which was designed to provide
Wi-Fi service to plane passengers (connecting them to a satellite Internet connection).
Unfortunately, the costs of this service far outstripped the revenues
gained from paying customers, and Boeing shut down the service. Well,
JetBlue airlines launched (in December 2007) a free Wi-Fi service on selected
flights, and a company called Aircell (www.aircell.com) has announced deals
with both American Airlines and Virgin America to provide Wi-Fi services
sometime in 2008. So stay tuned!
The single biggest issue that has been holding back the hot spot industry
so far — keeping it a huge future trend rather than a use-it-anywhere-today
reality — has been the issue of roaming. As of this writing, no single hot spot
operator has anything close to ubiquitous coverage, though a few companies
(such as Boingo) are making deals and getting closer. Instead, dozens of
different hot spot operators, of different sizes, operate in competition with
each other. As a user, perhaps a salesperson who’s traveling across town to
several different clients in one day, you may run into hot spots from three or
four providers — and need accounts from each of those providers.