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News that's changing the Wireless World!
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Tuesday, March 30, 2004 |
Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
SBC Park Has Free
Wi-Fi
The Giants will play in a field fully saturated with Wi-Fi, free to fans
during 2004: SBC makes it count at home by combining their expensive naming
rights to the Giants ballpark in San Francisco with its new FreedomLink
Wi-Fi service. The park has 121 access points, and SBC is offering free
service for 2004. Nortel is involved in the deployment, while Intel has
verified the location for its Centrino branding. While the press release
(not yet available online) explains that there will be some interactive
games, day-of-game stats, and local information available through the
service, this is hardly cutting-edge interactivity. Instant messaging rooms,
live video playback of special angles (available only in the suites
apparently), and other person-to-person communication could add even more to
the experience. If you want to increase people's engagement, don't push at
them, but provide them more ways to talk to each other....
Source Link
3:08:09 PM 
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Automatic
Security for the People
Buffalo hopes its new wireless router will help set a standard for dynamic
encryption on WLANs, assuming other vendors sign on to use the
technology.
Source
Link
12:09:29 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Calculating T-Mobile
HotSpot's Total Subscriber Numbers
Arun Chatterjee, CTO and co-founder of LESSNetworks, analyzed the numbers
coming out of Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile HotSpot to estimate the
subscriber base: Arun and I went back and forth refining his model, and
here's some good logic from him: At the end of 2003, T-Mobile had
approximately 29,000 monthly subscribers. Here's how. At various times, the
following figures have been reported by T-Mobile: - 2,000 locations in Jan
2003 - 4,200 locations in Dec 2003 - $400k gross/mo in Jan 2003 - $1.4M
gross/mo in Dec 2003 - 67 percent of T-Mobile's users are on subscription
plans Starbucks, in April 2003, reported that it had 25,000 sessions/week. I
am assuming that the average T-Mobile monthly Wi-Fi subscriber pays $25/mo,
and the average T-Mobile non-monthly user pays $9/session. Here's the math:
1. Assuming linear growth, if there were 2,000 locations in Jan of 2003 and
4,200 locations in Dec of 2003, there were (4,200 loc -2,000 loc)*4mo/12mo +
2,000 loc = 2,733 locations in April 2003. 2. Revenue per location per month
went up from ($400k/2,000 loc) = $200 per loc per month in Jan of 2003 to
($1.4M/4,200 loc) = $333 per loc per month in Dec of 2003. Assuming linear
growth, per location revenue grew at ($333/$200) = 1.67 times in 12 months,
or increased by (1.67-1)/12 mo = 0.056 per month. By extrapolating, by April
of 2003, per location revenue had grown to (1 + (0.056 per mo *4 mo)) = 1.22
times revenue per loc per month from Jan. 3. Usage per location per day at
Starbucks in April 2003 was (25,000 sessions per week/7 days per week)/2,733
loc = 1.3 sessions per day per loc. Assume that usage statistics at
Starbucks reflected usage at all T-Mobile locations at that time. 4.
Assuming per location usage growth to be proportional to per location
revenue growth, by Dec of 2003, there were (1.3 sessions/1.22)*1.67 = 1.78
sessions per location per day. 5. 67% of the sessions were by monthly
subscribers. That leaves (1.78 sessions per loc per day * 33%) = 0.59
sessions per location per day by non-monthly users by year end. 6. Revenue
by year end from non-monthly users is: (0.59 session per loc per day * 4,200
loc * $9 per session * 30 days) = $674,932 revenue per month from
non-monthly users. 7. That leaves ($1.4M - $674,932) = $725,067 from monthly
subscribers...
Source Link
10:44:49 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
TI Brings Restores
HomeRF-Like Features to Wi-Fi
Texas Instruments's new DSL reference design incorporate Voice over IP
(VoIP) and Wi-Fi: The two new designs from TI are intended to be
manufacturing bases on which manufacturers create end-user or resale
products. With their own flavor of quality of service (QoS) can prioritize
VoIP traffic. I compare this technology with HomeRF because HomeRF, at its
outset, had the goal of prioritizing voice and integrating wireless
networking, broadband data, telephony, and voice--as well as multimedia.
HomeRF's flaw was that it was too slow for too long, partly due to
regulatory issues, and had fewer initial participants than Wi-Fi. Still,
it's a vindication for those who developed HomeRF to see that HomeRF's
design goals are finally being implemented as layers or extensions to 802.11
specifications....
Source Link
10:14:32 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Vonage To Offer Wi-Fi
VoIP Phones
Vonage said that it will start offering VoIP phones that operate on Wi-Fi
networks later this year: The phones will let subscribers make and receive
phone calls when in range of a Wi-Fi network, either in their homes or
public places. A Vonage exec said the move is in response to AT&T's
announcement that it is offering VoIP in Texas and New Jersey. The market
for VoIP services is definitely getting crowded so anything that can
differentiate a service will help. Vonage has a market leadership position
as an early VoIP provider so it makes sense for it to be a leader in
extending VoIP to Wi-Fi networks. I suspect that VoIP Wi-Fi phones will be
most useful in homes or businesses. Users will be disappointed if they hope
to carry the phone around everywhere and expect it to work like a cell
phone. The phones will only work in very limited areas outside of the home
and office. Vonage and any other provider that offers such a service will
have to be very careful how they market it. Vonage doesn't seem to have
issued an official announcement with any more information about the
service....
Source Link
10:14:31 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
College Hoops and
Wi-Fi
Time Warner Cable Road Runner customers can get Wi-Fi access in San Antonio
while at the men's NCAA Final Four tournament this week (The link seems to
be broken but should get fixed eventually): Time Warner used gear from
Airespace, the wireless LAN switch developer. Customers log in using their
Road Runner logins and passwords, then buy minutes with a credit card. The
network covers the San Antonio Rivercenter Courtyard....
Source Link
9:22:19 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
SBC Unwires UPS Stores
with Wayport's Help
SBC's first Wi-Fi hotspot push yields thousands of popular locations,
affirms Wayport's model for their future: Those of us who track the Wi-Fi
hotspot industry have been waiting to see how SBC's FreedomLink Wi-Fi
service would express itself, knowing only that Wayport's network would form
its early core and that Wayport would be involved in providing managed
services for the hotspot build-out. Today's announcement that SBC will
unwire the UPS Store affirms SBC's goal of 6,000 locations within three
years and Wayport's plans to extend beyond their core network of hotels and
core business of providing end-to-end service. The UPS Store is a franchise
operation with 3,300 locations, some still branded with their pre-UPS
moniker of Mailboxes Etc. (Individual owners could chose to the new branding
or not; new store are all called The UPS Store). 1,500 of these locations
will have Wi-Fi by year's end, and more than 3,300 through 2005. The stores
are expanding rapidly with 5,000 outlets projected by 2007. Of all the chain
locations that have provided Wi-Fi service to date, The UPS Store
arrangement is one of the most logical. You already have businesspeople
coming to the store in large numbers. There are no children throwing
milkshakes, nor the constant loud ssssss of lattes. Yesterday, I reiterated
my point that Wi-Fi service's unlimited monthly sweet spot was $20. Today,
SBC says that their unlimited usage plan is $19.95; their day rate $7.95.
FreedomLink will include Wayport's locations, but other roaming deals aren't
yet known. SBC could wield a T-Mobile-sized network, giving them the
leverage to finally crack national unlimited no-extra-fee roaming. As a
Cingular cellular customer and with Cingular's purchase of AT&T Wireless, I
remain highly interested in seeing how SBC--with 60 percent ownership of
Cingular--rolls out any Wi-Fi plan to their cell partner. This UPS Store
deal also marks Wayport's entrance into the next stage of their business.
Sky Dayton defined new layers to the industry in Dec. 2001 when Boingo
Wireless became the first Wi-Fi-only service aggregator by stating then--as
he does now--that venues, infrastructure, aggregation, and branding are all
separate businesses. This deal marks the real culmination of that layered
model, more so than Cometa's plan. Cometa is an outside in operator,
formulating where they want to go and what they want to do, then finding
partners. Wayport is operating inside out, with a partner that solicited
bids and chose them to...
Source Link
7:46:54 AM
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© 2004 [OCCalWUG]
Last Update: 4/2/2004; 10:55:35 AM
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