The big news of the day (until the above story came in), as I break in today's New York Times (3rd item), is that Concourse Communications launches its Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) service on March 20. Concourse's approach is to not deal with the back-office at all. They're a pure infrastructure company which is contracting with airport authorities, negotiating the intricacies of that world, handling contractors for installation, and letting iPass resell access to their system.

The MSP airport will have about 70 percent coverage initially, increasing rapidly to near 100 percent service. The installation includes Bluetooth access point and printer stations. The first 30 days after the network is lit will be free. Afterwards, service is through iPass, an iPass partner or affiliate (which could include other aggregators), or at a walk-up rate of $7.95 per 24 hours, which is rapidly becoming the de facto day rate.

Concourse has the contract for the New York metro airports (Newark, Kenndy, and LaGuardia), and has already wired two terminals at Newark and Kennedy. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey suffered huge losses in the World Trade Center attack, as it many of the administrative staff worked out of the towers, which were in fact built by and leased out by the Port Authority. Their personal and professional losses coupled with the downturn in air traffic and increased security all led to delays in Concourse's deployment. [80211b News]
3:42:55 PM    comment   

Mapping the generous world: mapping overlays of free network points in various community networks via NYCWireless. Includes NYC, San Francisco, Seattle, and more. [Via Kottke through BoingBoing.net]

3:36:00 PM    comment   

The Register reports that Britain and the Netherlands will be able to use 802.11a devices by July: the first in a wave of approvals for unlicensed 5 GHz devices using 802.11a in Europe, albeit over a smaller set of channels than available in the U.S. (But still more clear, nonoverlapping domains than 802.11b.)

3:32:01 PM    comment   

Extremely technical, but precise overview of the challenges facing 802.11g finalization and rollout: mixed 802.11b and g networks could reduce overall throughput to only slightly above solo 802.11b networks because, as the author puts it, the data from b radios reduces the amount of time available for g encoding, which reduces overall throughput.

3:29:37 PM    comment   

Several days ago, the Austrian wISP Metronet started service in Vienna: they assert that they are the first public WLAN company in Europe (disputation, anyone?). The network has about 40 access points with another 100 coming online shortly. Service extends to Graz and Linz soon. (Es ist sehr interessant, dass auf der Site so viel Englisch gebraucht wird! Englisch muss noch für Technologie wie Boxing und Sport die "mot juste" haben.)

3:29:01 PM    comment   

Phillipe Langlois wrote in to announce a new wireless security list: Discussion in this group relates to wireless security, wardriving, GSM networks, GPRS, 802.11b and .11a security, WEP, hiperlan2, spread spectrum, WAP, bluetooth, UMTS and 3G, UWB. This list is created in the spirit of BugTraq to provide a forum for full disclosure on wireless security. Phillipe also runs a firm that makes security products, WaveSecurity. Subscribe at airtraq-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit the archives and/or subscribe.

3:27:47 PM    comment   

The Army is hunting for a new military uniform that can make soldiers nearly invisible, grant superhuman strength and provide instant medical care. [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]
3:25:05 PM    comment