EarthLink Says No Future for Municipal Wi-Fi

Glenn Fleishman writes "EarthLink dropped its final bombshell on city-wide Wi-Fi, saying that it wouldn't put more money in and was talking to their current deployed cities about the future. The company had won bids in dozens of cities, and then backed out of the majority of them before building or finalizing contracts a few months ago. The remaining towns they were building out, like New Orleans, Anaheim, and Philadelphia, will ostensibly be turned off unless local officials come up with scratch or a plan of their own. EarthLink pioneered the model of free-for-fee networks, where there would be no cost or upfront commitment from cities, and EarthLink would charge for network access. Apparently, you can't make money that way."

Good

[Anonymous Coward]

Wi-fi was not designed for this type of situation. It's great for small places, but not city wide. Does it even matter anyway when most places offer free wi-fi?

Wait for wi-max or something similar.

city-wide wifi has its uses

[erlehmann]

for example in the eastern part of germany, after reunification, there were lines in cities that could not be used for DSL. the german "freifunk" (literally "free wireless", both as in beer and as in speech) project managed to build some sizeable city mesh nets using a routing protocol known as OLSR [1,2].

just look in awe at the leipzig cloud [3]. also, try to imagine wireless cell phone / pda mesh nets (probably doable right now with openmoko).

[1] http://olsr.org/ [olsr.org]
[2] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3626.txt [ietf.org]
[3] http://db.leipzig.freifunk.net/uptime/png/ [freifunk.net] -- careful, images is 3165x4206

Re:

[hey]

Nice to see footnotes in a Slashdot posting.

Re:

[Nazlfrag]

Obviously the professor is assigning /. postings again. I myself have a (Score:3, Funny) GPA.

Re:

[dave_h_in_philly]

Oops, looks like your GPA just went down...

Re:city-wide wifi has its uses

[fireboy1919]

using a routing protocol known as

You're kind of missing the point in this example. Citywide 802.11x is not going to work. The protocol can't handle it. It doesn't scale up to even 100 users at once.

The obvious solution is to use some other protocol.

Re:

[Raideen]

You're kind of missing the point in this example. Citywide 802.11x is not going to work. The protocol can't handle it. It doesn't scale up to even 100 users at once.

The obvious solution is to use some other protocol.

It's not like they're putting up one AP with a huge antenna. The major cost and limitation of a municipal WiFi network is obviously AP deployment. The obvious solution then is to reduce the number of APs required in order to make it more practical. That might include using a different protocol,

there *is* a new protocol currently developed

[erlehmann]

It doesn't scale up to even 100 users at once.

That is not entirely correct, OLSR does have problems with numbers close to 1000 nodes. However, there is a new protocol in development to provide a Better Approach To Mobile Ad-hoc Networking (B.A.T.M.A.N. [1]).

[1] https://www.open-mesh.net/batman [open-mesh.net]

Fucked again by Public Private Partnerships.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is yet another example of the general public being fucked over by a so-called P3: Public Private Partnership.

The idea is that instead of the municipal government setting up an organization to perform a specific project, they basically contract out the job to private firms. Supposedly this will lead to more economical and better quality service. Instead, what we've seen time and time and time again, is nothing but higher prices, and far shittier service.

Then we get cases like this, where the private interest just pulls out of the deal when it's no longer profitable for them. Of course, it doesn't matter that they've fucked over the community. A lot of the time these companies have little to no ties with the community they are servicing, so leaving the public there high and dry causes these private firms little grief.

Re:

[dekemoose]

This isn't the same thing at all. In this case the city had to kick in a sizable chunk of cash, most (all?) of Earthlink's efforts have been on their own dime. Earthlink backing out of these agreements leaves the city without that mode of Internet access, but I don't see it as fucking over the citizens. They tried to make a go of something and then decided that it wouldn't fly, so they shut it down. Is there anything preventing another firm from making a go of it in their absence?
In Minneapolis Earthlink lo

Re:

[Cylix]

Earthlink is in it's death throws.

It's operating on a skeleton crew and have once again gone through a fun session of axe a mole.

Don't get me wrong, they know how to send employees off to greener pastures, but given their current state of affairs it must have been too costly to outsource everything.

It was flat out bad thinking to attempt the job for nothing, but then again this is how they get into those little fiscal messes.

So, is it unprofitable? I can't say for certain, but I do know whose opinion on the

Re:

[ozmanjusri]

It's great for small places, but not city wide.

Tell that to WA Freenet [e3.com.au].

The basic idea of offering Internet access as a public service is sound. The problem is that cities haven't thought of the Internet as a form of public infrastructure that--like subway lines, sewers, or roads--must be paid for. Instead, cities have labored under the illusion that, somehow, everything could be built easily and for free by private parties.

Re:

[Tekneek74]

A company that has to answer to Wall Street financial analysts will not be able to do this work, that much has been demonstrated clearly.

Re:

[utopianfiat]

Are you joking? If I'm on a bus in Amsterdam, I can whip out my iPhone and start using the internet for 15 euros per month. That's pretty freaking amazing considering that doesn't come anywhere near what I pay for residential service in the states.

Re:

[schnikies79]

Yea I can to on my 8125. Thats getting internet via cell service, not wi-fi.

apples and oranges.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Professor_UNIX]

Do you just walk into random houses and use their computer or phone whenever you feel like it as well?

Re:

[Dunbal]

If there's a sign in front of the house that says "come on in and use my phone for free" I won't think twice about it. You don't HAVE to broadcast that your net is available.

Re:

[xouumalperxe]

Non-argument. Wifi routers usually come wide open by default and non-technical people don't usually know how to go about locking them down or hiding them. Not quite the same as your front door.

Re:

[zotz]

Then blame the manufacturers.

And then blame the standards bodies as well.

There needs to be a reliable, automatic, technical way to let people know it is ok tou use your wifi.

People who want to use the only way available, so as things stand, blame the manufacturers for having this as the default as well.

The standards bodies could have forseen this and had a seperate open and not-open broadcast...

all the best,

drew

Re:

[Eddi3]

If you bought a house, and on the house was a sign that said "Come on in and use my phone for free," wouldn't you take it down if you didn't want people doing that?

Re:

[argiedot]

The difference is, you're blind, so you don't see the sign yourself and no one tells you about it.

Re:

[Ron_Fitzgerald]

If their music radio was playing loud enough that I could hear it, should I still ask permission to listen?

Re:

[grasshoppa]

Amusingly enough, the owners of the device should be paying broadcast fees to the RIAA equivlent of the broadcasters.

It's a fucked up law.

Re:

[Ron_Fitzgerald]

Maybe that is how to stop the vehicles driving by blasting music way too loud. Threaten them with a RIAA lawsuit.

Re:

[Scarletdown]

Maybe that is how to stop the vehicles driving by blasting music way too loud. Threaten them with a RIAA lawsuit.

So I'm not the only one who has thought of that, hmm? Anyone else ever found themselves wishing for a handheld EMP generator to deal with those rolling boom boxes, if such a device were possible? I'm also going to lobby Congress to legalize Sidewinder missiles for personal use on the highways...at least for my personal use. :)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you just walk into random houses and use their computer or phone whenever you feel like it as well?

Do you ask permission to use a drinking fountain? You know water isn't free.

Re:

[macaddict]

Do you ask permission to use a drinking fountain? You know water isn't free.

Except drinking fountains are the equivalent of municipal wi-fi -- paid for by taxes to benefit the public, or provided inside a publicly accessible building for the benefit of visitors. Unless it's in a private, non-publicly accessible building, they are generally understood to be available to anyone, with the cost of the water provided to strangers being willingly paid for by the owner.

I think the example you're looking for is: "D

Re:

[Tekneek74]

An open network with no authentication scheme or other access restrictions invites usage. This is different than cracking their WEP password scheme or forging a MAC address. Those are the equivalents of breaking in and taking something not freely offered. A wide open network is offering free access. You have to ask permission to physically be on their property, but if you can access it from your own property or other public area then you should be fine.

Re:

[macaddict]

I wasn't getting into the ethics of using private open wi-fi networks. I was pointing out the stupidity of using 'Do you ask permission to use a drinking fountain. Water isn't free." as a rebuttal to the example of walking into someone's house and using their telephone without permission. To keep the water analogy, I pointed out that using someone's telephone without permission is the same as using their outdoor faucet. It is not the same as using a public drinking fountain. A drinking fountain is the same

Re:

[Tekneek74]

Even a "private" open network that is broadcasting into a public area can be used. If I can find a wireless connection without trespassing on anybody's property that does not require any authentication, I believe anybody could reasonably presume that it was intended to be used.

Re:Unnecessary

[UbuntuDupe]

Time for analogy wars!

Do you just walk into random houses and use their computer or phone whenever you feel like it as well?

Yes, I do, if the computer/home has all of the the following attributes:

-There's a big sign outside that says "computer in here" (access points advertise their presence)
-There's an instruction set outside the house that says "To access the computer, rotate the knob on this door and push forward. Walk into home, then enter second room on right. Press power button, wait for authorization, and then use." (access points tell you how to use them)
-After pressing the power button, a message says "request for computer use received ... access granted" (access points must receive a request for use, and then grant permission)

Re:

[dgp]

if someone's livingroom lamp happened to be bright enough to illuminate part of the sidewalk, and if someone is walking down the sidewalk and takes out a piece of paper to read in the light, is that 'stealing'?

Re:

[mollymoo]

Have you ever actually looked for any? I have. I went war walking with my Nokia 770 this week, in the first-world municipal area where I live (Sheffield, UK). Either reports of open wireless networks all over the place are greatly exaggerated or the people of Sheffield are unusually security conscious. So far, other than intentionally open networks, I've only found one unencrypted network and that wouldn't give me an IP address. I only walked a mile or so through mostly residential streets, but it certainly

Re:Unnecessary

[mustafap]

>I only walked a mile or so through mostly residential streets

Try using a car. I recently moved to a small sussex town, and found an open network in a few minutes when I needed internet access to find an estate agent. There are two open networks in my new street too.

Re:

[ozmanjusri]

Try using a car.

You call that wardriving?

This [bbc.co.uk] is wardriving...

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I live in Kelseyville which is in Lake County, California. Lake County is home to California's largest and oldest natural lake (~9mi across at the widest point) and a bunch of grapes and not much else. We get lots of tourist traffic in season and it's just full of the local hicks, octogenarians and meth-heads the rest of the time. Obviously there are deviations but honestly those are the largest demographic groups in the area. I drove around the lake one day - no side streets, JUST around the lake - with m

Re:

[Bert64]

Netstumbler is awfull, all it does is send out probe requests which make it blatantly obvious what your doing. It also won't detect cloaked access points, give you any idea how many clients are connected to each ap or log any unencrypted traffic thats receivable by your card. Try Kismet or KisMac (mac gui version), it works a _LOT_ better.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I don't care if someone knows what I'm doing, I don't want to detect cloaked access points, and I don't care how many clients are on an AP. If someone wants to hide their AP from me, then I let them. I don't try to get on APs that aren't totally open and providing addresses via DHCP, because I am not a dick.

Re:

[Bert64]

That's stupid...
More clients = more congestion...
More traffic = more congestion...
More traffic from different networks on the same channel = more congestion...
Cloaked networks still generate traffic and congest the channel they're using.

I can see 6 open access points from here, 3 of them are uselessly slow because they're congested with users and all on the same channel.
Also when setting up your own access point, it's due diligence to determine what other access points are around you, including cloaked ones

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Also when setting up your own access point, it's due diligence to determine what other access points are around you, including cloaked ones, and what channels they are on.

I live out in the boonies and no one else's network could possibly overlap mine. And if someone has "cloaked" their AP, then the burden falls on them, not me.

Re:

[aproposofwhat]

Well Sheffield's in Yorkshire, and Yorkshiremen are noted for giving "nowt for nowt".

Down here in Southern pansy land, there are open access points all over the place.

Re:

[hachete]

cos southerners're inbred idiots. HTH

Re:

[Bert64]

Did you just keep hitting the "scan for networks" option on the 770? It's not always the most reliable... Especially if the signals are fairly weak.
Also if an AP is inside a building, depending what the walls are made of you might not see it.
Try installing kismet on your 770, and get a bluetooth GPS... Then drive around and see what you find, you can even plot a nice map showing all the points. I drove around a few residential streets here and found several hundred by driving around the outskirts of a housi

Re:

[Reaperducer]

Either reports of open wireless networks all over the place are greatly exaggerated or the people of Sheffield are unusually security conscious.

People on Slashdot who rarely leave their parents' basements like to tell people in the real world that there are open wifi points everywhere. The fact of the matter is, there aren't.

They'll drive through a neighborhood and see all the access points that aren't WEP or otherwise obviously protected and assume that they're all clear. But they're not. If they ac

i do not know were you live

[erlehmann]

but i live in germany and most private networks i encounter in berlin or munich and also smaller towns are encrypted. yeah, WEP is easily crackable, but you do not want to face time in jail here for posessing aircrack-ng [1], do you ? [1] http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1629259 [slashdot.org]

Re:

[heinousjay]

Why crack a secured access point anyway? Would you walk into someone's house to grab something to eat?

Re:Unnecessary

[vertinox]

there are no so many home networks left open that one can just use whatever is nearby.

This is why my routers DNS entries redirect to a particular website with a particular image. You know which one.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[vertinox]

Because rerouting your DNS is so much easier than just setting up basic encryption.

Yeah, but the thought of inflicting mental scars that will never heal is so much more satisfying.

Re:

[Bert64]

It's more fun, tho just changing the DNS is pretty stupid because someone can always access servers via direct IP, or simply hard set their dns servers. My laptop runs it's own dns cache that directly queries the root servers itself, because of ISPs with unreliable nameservers.
On the other hand, I had an intentionally unencrypted wireless network that dropped you into a honeypot network with a few funny sites, the only way out was through a vpn server for which you needed an appropriate cert.

If thats not foul play, i dont know what is

[unity100]

Check that out. a company goes into many wifi bids, wins most of them, and then suddenly decides 'city wide is not worth it'.

thats foul play at its best. proxies, they are.

Re:If thats not foul play, i dont know what is

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Normally, I might agree, but if they did back out before the contract was signed, so the cities should be able to fall back to the next bidder in line. If they did sign the contract, then there should be penalties for not abiding by the contract.

Another problem is that WiFi just isn't very well suited for city-wide networks and it looks like these companies are finally figuring that out.

The consumer access points being cheap and virtually everyone's computer having a client-side adapter doesn't help the cost issue enough to help make it affordable to the users, unless the network rollout is charity work. You need to rent utility pole space on every pole or every other pole for APs, assuming there are utility poles, some cities have been pushing towards underground wiring. You'd also need to worry about getting power to the APs. For every block, one T1 wired network drop for connection to the internet. I don't think those access points are consumer units either. Even if they were, the weatherproof enclosures are expensive too. Then there would need to be maintenance. I just don't see a viable, affordable competitor coming out of that. To me, all that makes WiMax seem viable, relatively speaking. Maybe if someone like Canopy can make pocket EC/34 or USB network adapters, then I think Canopy would be a better alternative.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

What? You're nuts. That is not at all necessary to create the network, nor have you even mentioned the greatest drawback to using wifi - you're only allowed to (legally) use three of eleven channels, which is all they're going to be able to use even if home users use others, and you're only allowed to transmit at low power levels by the FCC - if you use a high-gain antenna, you are legally obligated to decrease power if necessary to keep your signal strength below a given limit. All problems not faced by th

Re:If thats not foul play, i dont know what is

[div_2n]

First, you can legally use all eleven channels of 802.11b in the US. It just so happens that if you want to have perfect channel separation, channels 1, 6 and 11 are the way to go. I've sat in on a discussion about using 1, 4, 8 and 11 or some such combination and achieving acceptable separation provide the APs aren't on top of each other.

Regardless, using the three channels and 120 degree directional antennas to cover the full 360 is the most effective way. That isn't cheap. Even if you roll your own using a WRAP board or some such thing, last I checked you can't get a weather proof AP with all three channels and antennas for less than $1,000. That doesn't count labor.

Re:

[petecarlson]

Even if you roll your own using a WRAP board or some such thing, last I checked you can't get a weather proof AP with all three channels and antennas for less than $1,000. That doesn't count labor.

Quad radio: $530
http://www.deliberant.com/estore/web/pc-1183-31-lgo4agn-80211abg-quad-radio.aspx [deliberant.com]

3ea 120 degree sectors ~$180
http://www.wisp-router.com/wri/itemdesc.asp?ic=SA24-120-9&eq=&Tp= [wisp-router.com]

Plenty of spare cash in the budget for Cables, POE etc.

Now I will admit that these are not the best antennas, but it c

Re:

[Reaperducer]

When the city of Chicago abandoned its citywide wifi network plans a couple of weeks ago, the thing I found most interesting was that it was dropped it mostly because of power issues.

The city (via AT&T) planned to put the access points on light poles. But it turns out that in most neighborhoods when the lights go "out" they don't just switch themselves off -- they're actually cut off from power entirely at some central point that controls hundreds or thousands of lights by pretty much pulling the plug

Re:

[wfstanle]

I know that I am going to say is going to be very popular but here goes anyway... In the 1930's the electric companies said that it was not profitable bringing electricity to rural areas. This situation was holding the nation back. Congress addressed this situation by enacting the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. I think we are in a somewhat similar situation. If business says it is unprofitable then government should step in and find a solution. It might initially be unprofitable but sometimes the

In favor of public WIFI

[tjstork]

know that I am going to say is going to be very popular but here goes anyway

I think a federal investment in public WIFI in all major urban areas would pay for itself in a few years, given greater economic and educational opportunity.

bah

[Danzigism]

Since WHEN does Earthlink know ANYTHING about providing good service for the public?

Re:

[bughunter]

As an earthlink customer, I can tell you when: From the time I subscribed in 1994 to the time they merged with Mindspring in 2000.

I've been an earthlink subscriber since 28.8 kbaud was the speed limit, and the level of service has steadily declined. When I subscribed, I knew that when I called tech support, I'd be speaking with someone right across town from me in Pasadena, CA. Now when I call tech support, I get someone with a Hindi accent who calls himself Dave, and whose number one skill is establis

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me guess. You're a mental retard who sees anything you don't agree with an "socialist" or "communist".

Re:

[Danzigism]

actually, no I don't.. I believe the people with money should pay to help make their country a better place.. not sit in your own filthy money and die with it not making the human race evolve in any sort of way..

Clearly I know absolutely nothing about this, but

[Gigiya]

When they make and win the bid, why aren't they legally obligated to follow through with it?

Re:Clearly I know absolutely nothing about this, b

[rueger]

Tee hee, that's soooo cute... to quote the late Art Linkletter [wikipedia.org] "Kids say the darndest things!

Re:Clearly I know absolutely nothing about this, b

[eggboard]

It's a great point. In some cases, EarthLink had won a bid, but not started contract negotiations. In some cases, a contract was on the table, but not signed. In some cases, a contract was completed, but the city hadn't executed it (often, a mayor works out the details and a council approves it, and then a utility has to be involved to agree to pole uses).

Where a contract is in place, EarthLink will have to unwind its obligations. In Houston, it paid $5m for not starting the network. In Philadelphia, they will likely pay out millions to walk away.

Re:

[owlicks58]

In case anyone cares -- those payouts in the cities where the contracts have been partially fulfilled are the result of "liquidated damage" clauses in the contracts, if you care to learn more about it.

Re:

[eggboard]

The only payout I'm aware of is in Houston, and it wasn't for that reason. Where else?

City WiFi is for outdoors

[icepick72]

I've subscribed to OneZine city WiFi in Toronto, Canada and the signal degrades quickly as you move back from the street. The best signal is sitting on the sidewalk with your laptop ... with the homeless people. You also pick up a strong signal while driving of cycling on the street but ... not a lot of time to use it. Suffice to say I dropped it in favour of Starbucks Wifi/Bell Hotspots which have a stronger signal indoors. There are enough Starbucks around that I'm never without a connection.

Re:

[darjen]

The best signal is sitting on the sidewalk with your laptop ... with the homeless people.

Seeing that just gave me an idea... something like "one laptop per homeless person"... I could see a great market for selling cheap laptops to them in the near future. All thanks to city-wide wifi!

Re:

[fishbowl]

>with the homeless people.

In Canada? Yeah, right...

Re:

[ERJ]

Actually, having traveled to Toronto quite a bit for work I can say that there are a lot of homeless people in the downtown area...one or two every block. Remember, Toronto is about as far south as you can get in Canada.

Give us some spectrum and we'll make it happen

[troll -1]

I wonder if the problem with Municipal Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi in general, is that companies like EarthLink are trying to operate with their hands tied behind their back with restrictive power limitations and limited frequencies while the FCC gives away large chunks of the best part of the spectrum to cell phone providers for millions of dollars who then nickel and dime us for every trivial service they can think of.

Perhaps he reason we don't have a ubiquitous and cheap wireless Internet and why TCP/IP mesh networks [wikipedia.org] are *not* on the horizon for the 700MHz part of the spectrum is because the government insists on auctioning off a zero cost medium for mega bucks to legal monopolies who have no choice but to turn around and stick it their customers.

Maybe we need to stop thinking in terms of phone systems when we think about the spectrum and start thinking more in terms of extending the Internet. Just a thought.

Re:

[Reaperducer]

If you think the government should give away internet access for "free" (nothing is free), then your priorities are out of whack.

If we're going to have governments give away services for free, let's start with a service that actually matters: clean water.
Then branch out from there to free sewers, free steam/heat, free electricity.

THEN you can have your taxpayer-paid for "free" internet and ponies.

Lost edge opportunity

[Anonymous Coward]

People shrug at these deals and delays and say they are "free" to the cities.
But there is a huge opportunity cost when these muni wifi projects stall out.

When cities cut deals that grant right of way and other concessions to a particular vendor, it tends to keep other players out of that space.

Ann Arbor is a perfect example. The vendor contracted to do the muni wifi (20/20 Communications) is struggling financially and has no idea where they will get the money to complete the project or when they will do it

volunteerism

[wikinerd]

Where is your volunteerism?? Why should you expect the government, a company, or anyone else to provide you with wifi service when you can roll out your own??

You are not consumers. You can be producers if you want. Just knock your neighbour's door and ask whether they would like to start a new wifi community network project with you. Connect your home wifis together, and if you find a lot of people to join in then you will have created your own network. Then buy a business plan fixed broadband service or a dedicated line (paid either by the community as a whole or by one richer member who can pay for it) and connect it to your wireless and your network will be connected to the Internet as well.

That simple. Yes, I know, the technology (WiFi) is not perfect and you can't transmit with too much power, but if everyone has a roof and the signal is sufficient from roof to roof, then you don't need anything else. The major difficulty is actually a social one (your neighbors may not understand what volunteerism is), but you should try to educate your neighbors and persuade them why they should join in.

Look what people from my city are doing: AWMN [wikipedia.org] and also look at the photos [wikipedia.org] and some other networks [wikipedia.org] in existence worldwide.

The cage is open guys. You have unlicensed bands that you can use without a permit from FCC or other agency. You even can have RONJA [twibright.com] if you like the optical way. You also have telephone lines, modems, and BBS software. Why you don't use all this technology to create free networks? Are you really trained to act only as consumers, expecting that for everything you need you should buy it from someone else? If you aren't happy with what is available, build your own!

Re:

[Reaperducer]

+9 Absoshitly.

If half of the Slashdot griefers and whiners got off their Twinky-filled butts and actually did something with technology besides use it to complain and look at porn, the world would be a different, likely better, place for everyone to live.

I'm in no way a hippie, socialist, commie, or whatever. I'm just tired of people complaining about the government all the time becuase they feel entitled to gigabit ethernet drips pumped into their arms. Hey, Lazyasses, remember "of the people, by the peo

@450

[fastest fascist]

Here in Finland, a company called Digita is rolling out something they call @450 broadband, basically they're using the old NMT frequencies to provide wide-coverage wireless internet access at a max speed of 1mbps. Apparently they've been open for business since april, 2007, and TeliaSonera is said to begin offering access to the network starting this December.

Some links, all in Finnish:
http://www.450laajakaista.fi/ [450laajakaista.fi]

FAQ:
http://www.450laajakaista.fi/9023/9022/9046 [450laajakaista.fi]
The main points in the FAQ seem to be: Suitable for wide-area networks, requires a separate modem, either an external box or a PCMCIA card. No pricing info released yet, my sources told me "a couple of ten euros per month". Useable on moving vehicles. Available speeds: 1024/512, 512/256.

Coverage:
http://www.450laajakaista.fi/Missatoimii/9092/9093 [450laajakaista.fi] (map dated 15th october 2007, unfortunately PDF)
Colours mean:
blue: Useable indoors without external antenna. Also useable outdoors.
dark purple: Generally useable outdoors without external antenna in parks and such, indoors with antenna. Mobile use requires external antenna.
light purple: In order to get a connection, a directional antenna must be deployed outdoors, e.g. on the roof of your home.

The coverage is being extended continuously, per schedule it should cover all of Finland by the end of 2009. In principle it sounds quite good to me, the speed however means it won't be a replacement for regular wired broadband. For mobile use, though, if the price isn't too high, it might not be too bad a deal.

Re:

[mikael]

I've seen a lot of pay-as-you-go wireless broadband (3G/GPRS/HDSMA) PCMCIA cards advertised for laptops, which claim to offer 15 Mbytes of download for only 1 pound/day or less. Mainly for business customers at the moment, but the GPRS cards can be bought for around 16 pounds. If true, it seems to match wi-fi in usability and financial convenience.

Re:

[fastest fascist]

3G in my experience doesn't really cut it in the latency and reliability department. May just be my operator, of course. I haven't performed any wide-scale testing.

Duh!

[ahooton]

Of course you can't make money this way, that was clear to many people years ago. Earthlink just wasn't paying attention.

If you want to know why, just look at the work of groups like Personal Telco Project [personaltelco.net]in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

Re:

[Ron_Fitzgerald]

Rumor had it that Earthlink was to embed ads into pages viewed through their wifi system. I can't site source right now because it has been so long. Clearly a violation now but at the time it may not have been understood that way.

802.11X is NOT Suitable for Last Mile

[nuintari]

I've said this a dozen times in related articles, but I'll say it again.

802.11 is the flat out, 100%, god awful, worst solution for last mile delivery. I work for a wisp that uses Canopy products, and we just laugh at the 802.11 competition. 802.11 performance degrades the more people you stuff on an access point. The limited channels, and the fact that they scream over each other forces competing networks to get into AMP powered frequency wars. The fact that only channels 1, 6 and 11 are clear from each other makes splitting an access tower to more than three 120 degree sectors pretty much impossible. And neighboring towers will interfere with each other. Oh, and because of how 802.11 does time sharing, essentially Ethernet collision detection with a few hacks on top, one nasty user can monopolize 95% of the available bandwidth for himself without much effort. And this is just my experience in the countryside, where we have few competitors to the last remnants of 802.11 we still have deployed. The reason no one can make money deploying 802.11 on a massive scale is because operationally speaking, it costs a bloody fortune to maintain.

Just because Moto's canopy is proprietary doesn't make it bad. They have been very good to us, old client radios work with newer access points, whenever a new generation of access points comes out, they have an awesome trade up deal that lasts for months, giving us plenty of time to give our customers the best speed available, without breaking the bank in one mass upgrade. There is an active 3rd party mailing list, that Moto monitors and responds to, an entire community of support from end ISPs, and mountains of documentation.

Do wireless right, make money, do it 802.11, and spend hours on the phone with irritated users who want to switch back to dialup.

Re:

[argontechnologies]

Where are you based? We're based in Greenville, TX.

Re:

[The Cisco Kid]

I am familiar with Canopy, as well as 802.11. Canopy works for what its designed for, which is definately not roaming random access for corportate users out of the office. It is "fixed wireless", as I am sure you are well aware. The CPE has to be fixed in place on a structure, and carefully aimed for best signal. Im not sure what price model you are offering, but I seriously doubt you are less expensive than either cable or DSL (even at their 'regular price' ignoring limited-time discounts), and in fac are

Not practical without guarenteed revenue stream

[davidwr]

To be cost-effective, the people installing it need either a guaranteed income stream or a reasonable chance of attracting enough paying customers to make it worthwhile.

In cities where most home users who want Internet already have it, this is tough.

WiFi does work well in parks and other public facilities where the WiFi provider doesn't have to compete with cheaper services. It also works well in hotel lobbies and hotel rooms that that lack convenient wired connections.

Wifi simply does not have the economy

There is a future

[nurb432]

It just yet.

Eventually i think it will become another utility like water or sewer or trash pickup, paid for by yet another line item on your local taxes.. That way the government can claim 'the basic human right of wifi to our constituents' and the ISP/Telcos can make guaranteed money. ( x$ per house in the area regardless of your intent to use, much like schools do now in many areas )

Re:

[pauljlucas]

Eventually i think it will become another utility like water or sewer or trash pickup, paid for by yet another line item on your local taxes.

I hope not. Why should I pay for somebody else's internet access? I thankfully don't pay to give people free cable TV or free phone service. Water, sewer, police, and fire are essential city services, but the rest aren't and therefore shouldn't be paid for by the government (and therefore all taxpayers).

Unfortunately for me, San Francisco (where I live) just pas

Re:

[nurb432]

Once the government decides its a 'right' to have wifi just like police services, us middle-class folk will be stuck with the bill. ( but i do agree with you )

Re:

[Vegeta99]

Oh you're already paying for people's telephone service. What do you think the Universal Service Fee is for? It pays for a service called LifeLine =)

Re:

[Alexei]

San Francisco's resolution is 'advisory' and non-binding.

Wireless ISP

[argontechnologies]

I run a wireless ISP in Texas. I still don't understand the logic. I thought most companies using the give it away logic died during the dot com bubble. We use a number of different technologies, non of them including 802.11x We provide a high quality of service, and charge our customers for service. Even with a good business model and paying customers, this is not a business for the light of heart or capital. If you give it away, they might come.... but you will go. Marco Coelho Argon Technologies I

Re:

[12AU7A]

And what I don't understand is why do so many people have a strange sense of "entitlement" when it comes to internet services? Why should we pay for electricity, gasoline, but not have to pay for internet service? How come nobody is stepping up to offer "free city-wide power", or "free city-wide gasoline"?

Just like providing power from a power plant, working at an internet company requires a lot of resources, and a lot of work from skilled people. And yet strangel

do you see a problem?

[pig-power]

"No....well.. maybe?" said techno-dork #1.
techno-dork #2 responds, "I cant quite put my finger on it.."
Then t-d #2 adds "But it's a simple theory. Free wi-fi, happy users, equals profit!"
T-d #1(who is the smarter of the group) "I think I see the problem..
free wifi + happy users = profit?"
t-d #1 adds "the eqaution is missing a constant...
free wifi + happy users + money = profit"
DOH!
/Sorry
(ducks)
(ducks again)

To hell with EarthLink

[iminplaya]

We have a government that we pay taxes for. Make it a public infrastructure investment. It would be one of the better ones. This what we are supposed to use public services for. For when the private sector can't/won't do it. The choice is ours.

free-for-taxes solution

[rice_burners_suck]

Duh, why weren't they using their heads from the beginning? They should have come up with a free-for-taxes solution. The system is installed all over a city, everyone in radio range uses the wifi for free, and the city immediately begins paying the company on a regular basis out of some new municipal tax that it would collect. (This could be an additional fee tacked on to the various municipal cell phone fees, or some other thing). Everyone would have to pay, even if they never use it, in the name of having

Conflict of Interest

[CODiNE]

Whatever happened to that term, I don't see it used much anymore and it certainly isn't being prevented. OS vender sells anti-virus subscriptions... sounds good to me! Internet service providers being contracted to provide free Wifi and shrink their own customer base... sounds good to me! Huh... wonder why it didn't work out? I'm in Portland where MetroFi is spreading their add supported WiFi service, as soon as a hotspot opens that's accessible from my place I'm canceling my DSL. Clearly the ISPs noti

Re:

[geekoid]

Yes, this is FUD from earthlink. WiFi is growing, it's just going to be free for the user.
The cost for a business to have Wi-Fi is very close to nothing, and people know this. Sure, you can do a lot to pile up the price, but really it can be done with less then 200 dollars in parts, and 200 bucks a month for the pipe. While some mom and pops may feel the pinch, any place with a moderate turnover will hardly notice it. IF you are talking someplace with a turn over like star bucks, it's cheaper then mopping t

More MBA BS Speak

[jo42]

"free-for-fee"

Isn't that like saying "a round square"?

Idjits.

D'uh

[geekoid]

This has been the case for years. Also, Cities don't make money from roads or sidewalks, yet people expect that to be part of what they 'get' when they go shopping.

Either treat them like roads, or give an incentive to business to provide them for there customer and the city could only lay out the plan. a plan would be needed to ensure there not stepping on each others toes in any manner.