More on the NTT launch of 802.11
Glenn Fleishman's 802.11b Networking News pointed me to a more detailed article about NTT Communications' planned launched of 802.11b and a service. I discussed this yesterday. According to Network World, NTT's service will be called "Hotspot," which it has registered as a service mark, although it is allowing other companies to use the term generically.
The NTT WLAN backbone will consist of fiber, ADSL and fixed wireless. The Hilton Tokyo, Okura Hotel and the Prince chain of hotels -- very nice places indeed (I like Tokyo a lot) -- will be among those to provide 802.11 service, according to Network World. Other establishments with hotspots include Kohikan coffee shops, Mos Burger restaurants, Kinko's and Ministop convenience stores (like 7-11; I've picked up soda and candy there).
The Network World article says the monthly price of 1,600 yen (about $12.20) will be for unlimited use in Tokyo. Although that's only for one city (I assume), that's an amazingly low price, especially for a city where a melon can cost more than $10. Compare this to prices for Boingo Wireless and MobileStar (VoiceStream).
Great Japanese WLAN pricing vs. U.S. pricing
Boingo, for example, charges $75 per month for unlimited use across the U.S. Granted, this is for nationwide access, but Boingo now has something like 500 hotspots (through aggregration deals). Certainly Boingo will increase the number of hotspots. NTT will have about 200 hotspots when in launches on May 15 and will increase that number to about 1,000 by the end of the year.
I was interviewed this morning by Computerworld about the NTT 802.11 network. The NTT network will offer "a" and "b" speeds, and I said "a" was a work-in-progress and the equipment was becoming available rather slowly. However, that was not really the main focus of my comments (although it's a big part of the Computerworld article!).
I told the reporter that Hotspot highlights how the cellular industry is not content to offer just 2.5G or the so-called (misleading) 3G 1xRTT service. Major cellular operators around the world -- in the U.K., Korea and Finland, as examples -- are offering or will offer 802.11 service, despite their GPRS or 1xRTT networks. In addition, Japan Telecom and NTT DoCoMo are expected to get into the 802.11 market in Japan.
This is all great news for traveling business people. But cellular carriers who haven't announced any 802.11 plans are now scratching their heads over how to create a profitable business case. My view is clear: 802.11 is too useful to fail. One way or another, public 802.11 networks will cover major cities around the world and the economics will be tweaked to create profitable ventures.
NTT is exploring a variety of services for business users, including working with AT&T Global Services Japan to provide VPN access via Hotspot, according to Network World.
A no-brainer
You can doubt today's financial models for public 802.11 networks. And you can doubt whether aggregators like Boingo will succeed. But you had better not doubt the eventual success of nationwide 802.11 hotspots. Frankly, this is a no-brainer.
12:36:26 PM 
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