[ba-unrev-talk] NYTimes.com Article: High-Speed Wireless Internet Network Is Planned
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The service is intended to let subscribers pop open their laptops and have a seamless high-speed wireless extension of their personal or corporate Internet services ? initially in the 50 largest metropolitan areas ? without having to give credit card numbers or enter additional information, as is generally the case now. Connections would generally be at least the speed of a typical home broadband connection. (03)
garyrichmond@rcn.com (04)
High-Speed Wireless Internet Network Is Planned (05)
December 6, 2002
By JOHN MARKOFF (06)
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 5 - The wireless technology known as
WiFi, which allows users of personal and hand-held
computers to connect to the Internet at high speed without
cables, got a significant stamp of approval today when
AT&T, I.B.M. and Intel announced a new company to create a
nationwide network. (07)
The unruly technology, which has largely been a playground
for hackers, hobbyists and high-technology start-ups, is
already sprouting mushroomlike in coffee shops, bookstores,
airports, hotels, homes, businesses and even a few parks. (08)
The new company, Cometa Networks, has set ambitious goals
for itself: to deploy more than 20,000 wireless access
points by the end of 2004, placing an cable-less high-speed
Internet connection within either a five-minute walk in
urban areas or a five-minute drive in suburban communities. (09)
Executives from the technology companies and the two
investment firms, Apax Partners and 3i, that joined to
create the network said they would begin offering their
service through cellular and wired telephone companies,
D.S.L. and cable Internet service providers and other
Internet retailers some time in 2003. (010)
The service is intended to let subscribers pop open their
laptops and have a seamless high-speed wireless extension
of their personal or corporate Internet services -
initially in the 50 largest metropolitan areas - without
having to give credit card numbers or enter additional
information, as is generally the case now. Connections
would generally be at least the speed of a typical home
broadband connection. (011)
Cometa executives said that they expected the national
availability of the wireless network would combine with
Intel's planned inclusion of wireless Internet capability
in all its mobile microprocessors next year to spur a
fundamental shift in the way Americans will use the
Internet. (012)
"This is that big," said Dr. Lawrence B. Brilliant, chief
executive of Cometa Networks. "It's that exciting; it's
that much of a distortion in the computing field. It's a
change in the way people use technology." (013)
Until now WiFi has been viewed by many technology analysts
as an upstart from-the-bottom technology that has the
potential of upsetting other capital-intensive technology
deployments, like the expensive next-generation
data-oriented cellular networks known as 2.5G and 3G that
are being established by companies like AT&T Wireless,
Cingular, Nextel, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. (014)
But Cometa executives said that because they had chosen a
wholesale business strategy, in which they will not sell
Internet service directly to consumers or business, it is
more likely that the two technologies would complement each
other. In addition, users of the wireless access points
would generally be stationary while connecting to the
Internet. (015)
"WiFi has very high bandwidth and short range, while 2.5
and 3G cellular are lower bandwidth services designed to
support data services on the fly," said Theodore Schell,
chairman of Cometa Networks and a general partner of Apax
Partners. "They will have different cost equations, and
there is a place for both of these technologies." (016)
Industry analysts have said they believe that growing WiFi
use could steal valuable subscribers from cellular
companies that are hoping consumers will begin using their
cellphones for data services like movie times, restaurant
reviews and shopping deals wherever they are traveling. (017)
The Cometa executives said they were not certain how the
new network would be used but were convinced that the
nation's 100 million Internet users would begin to use
their portable computers in new ways once connections are
widely and easily available as they travel. (018)
The executives and industry analysts acknowledged that
creating a new nationwide wireless network was something of
an act of faith given the general economic and
technological gloom in the telecommunications industry. It
is widely believed that the industry had overbuilt and had
overinvested in the Internet boom of the last decade. (019)
The new company would not disclose its planned prices or
the equity stakes of the five partners. Wireless industry
analysts, however, have said WiFi hot spots can cost as
much as $4,000 apiece to install in public places. If the
average cost is half that, the installation of 20,000
access points would cost $40 million. (020)
"One of the problems is that giant companies creating
wireless ventures often have not had tremendous success,"
said Alan Reiter, publisher of Wireless Internet and Mobile
Computing, an industry newsletter based in Chevy Chase, Md.
He pointed to ambitious and expensive undertakings like a
cellular data initiative known as C.P.D.P. in the 1980's
and early 1990's and the wireless data service known as
Metricom, which went bankrupt last year with $800 million
of debts. (021)
Other analysts questioned whether Cometa Networks would be
able to make headway in an already crowded WiFi marketplace
that has had both early failures and a host of smaller,
aggressive start-ups. (022)
"It's obvious that what is happening right now is a
wireless land grab," said Andrew Seybold, editor of Outlook
4Mobility, a publishing and consulting firm based in Los
Gatos, Calif. "The question is, How many places can they
lock up and how quickly?" (023)
Cometa executives insisted, however, that they were in a
different position from their predecessors. The companies
have a technological advantage in that they will not have
to create customer equipment, relying on Intel's equipping
the nation's portable computers with wireless abilities. (024)
They said Cometa was also in a particularly strong position
with respect to its competitors because it could use AT&T's
existing data network, to connect the planned 20,000
wireless access points. (025)
Leaving the relationship with individual customers to
Internet service providers "is smart from a business point
of view," said Richard Miller, a wireless data industry
consultant at Breo Ventures in Palo Alto, Calif. At the
same time, he noted, the venture will not succeed unless
big corporate customers demand the service from Internet
service providers. (026)
"The demand will have to come from the enterprise to the
carriers," he said. (027)
To gain the confidence of corporate customers the new
network will have to meet stringent data security
standards, and Dr. Brilliant said that Cometa planned to
take advantage of industry standards like virtual private
networks to add security to the WiFi standard. (028)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/06/technology/06WIRE.html?ex=1040194373&ei=1&en=1dad65a4e8ab1c90 (029)
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