InterContinental hotels go Wi-Fi for $10K a pop (or POP): InterContinental is testing Wi-Fi at their hotels with a free hour and $2.95 per hour after that. (Hey, that's McDonald's pricing!) They also note that it cost them just $10,000 per hotel to add service, because they've offering it in just the public areas.

1:05:15 PM    comment   

Wall Street Journal characterizes Intel's Centrino move as risky: It's a new story, but the key word throughout is risk. The article notes that co-marketing and co-branding funds, the money and cooperative advertising that Intel offers and purchases, are only available to computer makers that opt for the full Centrino system that includes the Wi-Fi 802.11b module (supplied by Philips, Symbol, and TI). Centrino ran some intense tests against hot spot networks before it allowed them to call themselves Centrino verified, but competitors like Linksys see Intel smoothing out these bumps as beneficial to them as well.

1:04:05 PM    comment   

The article, by the way, has a few odd facts in it that appear abstracted from a Wall Street Journal article today (see below for more on that). Borders plans to have Wi-Fi hot spots at all 400 stores was announced last October; T-Mobile is installing that service, and it was planned back then to be up by summer. Late in the article, it mentions Intel saying there will be service in passenger lounges in San Francisco and Dallas/Ft. Worth airports. San Francisco was announced last Wednesday by T-Mobile, and Dallas/Ft. Worth has had hot spot service for at least two years, possibly three or four, because of MobileStar's proximity.

1:03:09 PM    comment   

Frank Boosman and I had dueling Weblog entries over the potential for Cometa to find 5,000 locations in a year and 20,000 in a few years, and I dissed McDonald's as a reasonable place for the supposed core Cometa market to work. Does a businessperson, Cometa's ostensible audience, want to sit among screaming children in an uncomfortable seat? As I say, this is a test, only a test.

1:02:47 PM    comment   

McDonald's offers meat, potato, Wi-Fi: Cometa's first partner appears to be McDonald's, which will test hot spot service starting with 10 locations in Manhattan, and then expanding to 300 stores in three cities. This is a test, only a test, they note. The service will be free for an hour if an extra value meal is purchased, then $3 per hour.

1:02:21 PM    comment