Plans for municipal Wi-Fi in a dozen cities currently in negotiations with EarthLink may be in jeopardy as the company is imposing new demands on how the networks are to be paid for. Until this point, the ISP was willing to pay for the setup costs: now it is asking the cities to foot that bill. This includes the proposed network in San Francisco.

The move is yet another cost cutting measure for EarthLink, which is struggling to get its financial house in order. Earlier in the week, it announced it is laying off approximately half its workforce and closing four offices.

Continue reading →

In a sure sign that the fervor behind municipal Wi-Fi is cooling rapidly, the city of Chicago announced Tuesday that it was canceling its plans to blanket the city with wireless Internet.

The city says it failed to reach an agreement with either AT&T or EarthLink, the two companies vying for the contract. Chicago first announced that it was considering citywide Wi-Fi early last year.

Continue reading →

A small Mountain View, Calif. based company isn't waiting for EarthLink and Google to iron out contractual details to provide free Wi-Fi in the city of San Francisco.

Meraki would use volunteers who would manage routers themselves to maintain its network, somewhat similar to efforts by Spain's Fon. It would give its routers away for free to those who would agree to maintain them.

Continue reading →

Along with the release of several other new products, Sirius on Wednesday debuted the Stiletto 2, the second live-reception capable version of its popular portable radio.

Along with the capability to receive Sirius programming in a portable fashion, the Stiletto 2 would also have Wi-Fi capabilities, including the ability to connect to commercial hotspots. The device is scheduled to become available in fall 2007.

Continue reading →

San Francisco's plans for free Wi-Fi access around the city may be in jeopardy following EarthLink's failure to respond to proposed changes in the city's contract.

The news follows comments by EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff that seemed to indicate the ISP might be backing off its ambitious municipal wireless plans. For whatever reason, the company did not respond to changes in the contract proposed by city supervisors.

Continue reading →

Those business users who can't make the leap to Apple's iPhone may be happy to hear that Research in Montion has unveiled a new BlackBerry model that offers quad-band GSM support and Wi-Fi connectivity in the company's thinnest form factor yet. However, like the iPhone, it lacks 3G support.

The BlackBerry 8820 will be sold through AT&T next month and includes GPS capabilities for navigation, along with RIM's latest media player software. It also will support making calls over a Wi-Fi network, saving customers their wireless minutes. Currently, T-Mobile is the only provider to offer such a service, called UMA. Pricing for the 8820 and required plans has not yet been announced.

Continue reading →

Residents and visitors to London will now be able to access the Internet from parts of the city for free thanks to a new Wi-Fi network now live along a 13.6-mile stretch of the River Thames.

MeshHopper began offering a pay version of the network last year, and the free version is available through a partnership with free-hotspot.com. Service is available from Millbank southeastward through the city to Greenwich.

Continue reading →

Apple may be close to developing a Wi-Fi enabled iPod as a new patent application submitted recently by the company indicates it is developing a way for devices to talk to each other through a wireless network.

First reported by Macsimum News on Thursday, the patent sounds quite similar to what Microsoft is already doing with the Zune. There has been much speculation about the release of a Wi-Fi enabled device, however none have surfaced as of yet.

Continue reading →

AT&T on Monday announced that its broadband Internet subscribers can now access any of its 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the United States free of charge. The company offers Wi-Fi at airports, McDonalds restaurants, Barnes & Noble bookstores, coffee shops and sporting venues.

While the company cited the iPhone as one of the reasons for the move, it notes that customers are increasing going mobile with laptops and PDAs. Subscribers to AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Pro and Elite are eligible for the offer, as well as AT&T FastAccess Xtreme with either 3.0Mbps or 6.0Mbps. Customers can log on immediately to Wi-Fi hotspots using their broadband username and password. The company has also begun offering an in-home wireless router via its branded retail stores.

Continue reading →

Nokia said Tuesday it had reached a deal with Internet service provider EarthLink to allow users of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet to connect to any EarthLink Wi-Fi municipal wireless network at no charge. Currently the ISP offers service in the Philadelphia, New Orleans, Milpitas and Anaheim, CA and Corpus Christi, TX, among others.

Connection to the municipal network is provided through a link within the connections menu on the device. "Nokia's participation in EarthLink's municipal Wi-Fi initiative is an important step in making the Internet truly mobile," remarked Nokia multimedia sales and channel management chief Bill Plummer.

Continue reading →

Motorola is taking a pass on producing 802.11n products until the standard is fully ratified, the company told ZDNet UK on Friday. Officials say they would rather wait for the final standard to be worked out before releasing any products. While many other companies including Intel and Cisco have started producing 802.11n draft compliant devices, the standard could still easily change.

Disagreements still exist over the final makeup of the standard, which could render some 802.11n draft equipment useless once the standard is agreed upon. Motorola seemed to chastise the Wi-Fi Alliance's recent decision to begin certifying draft products, calling it confusing for consumers.

Continue reading →

Officials in the city of Philadelphia said Thursday that tests for its citywide Wi-Fi project were successful, which means the city will move forward with deploying the network through the rest of the city.

The testbed comprised a 15-square mile area including the central part of the city and some of its less affluent sections to the northeast. When completed, the Earthlink-managed Wi-Fi network will cover 135 square miles.

Continue reading →

The Wi-Fi Alliance said Wednesday that it had certified the first 802.11n Draft 2.0 products, along with releasing a redesigned logo that all certified products would be eligible to use. The certification program is set begin in late June, however the first products would act as reference designs for future products it said. The Alliance also said the program would end uncertainty as to whether current 802.11n products would be interoperable.

Included in the list of devices to serve as the basis for interoperability testing are three access points from Cisco, Marvell, and Ralink; routers from Atheros and Broadcom; cards from Atheros, Broadcom, and Marvell; and a chipset from Ralink. "This milestone means that consumers and business users alike can feel confident that the 802.11n products they buy will deliver the user experience they require," Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank Hanzlik said.

Continue reading →

Although networking companies have for a year been selling 802.11n branded gear, which promises much faster speeds and less interference at longer distances, the standard is not yet set in stone. Thus, companies are now rolling out updates based on the 2.0 draft of the standard.

D-Link is the first to release firmware upgrades to its customers in order to bring the hardware up to the latest specification. In addition, the company has obtained certification for compatibility with Intel's Centrino systems with Wireless-N networking. Changes primarily related to protection of the legacy devices, as 802.11n has the capability to cause problems with 802.11g, b and a hardware.

Continue reading →

Wi-Fi access startup Fon said Monday it had come to an agreement with Time Warner Cable that would allow customers of the cable provider's high speed Internet access to share their connections publicly via a specialized router available from Fon. Right now, the company only has about 60,000 users in the US sharing their net access, but the deal could add Time Warner's 6.6 million customers to that number.

Fon -- headquartered in Spain -- says it hopes to sign agreements with other US providers, as it already has deals with ISPs in both Asia and Europe. The move also clears the way for the company to operate legally, as many ISPs currently forbid the public sharing of connections. Details of the partnership are still being worked out, however the company will receive a cut of revenues from paying users of the public hotspots where Time Warner is the Internet provider.

Continue reading →