Free hotspots don't work? Don't tell the cities of Glen Cove, N.Y. and Roanoke, Va. Plus: Logan Airport unwires three terminals, Hong Kong to get Wi-Fi with its McNuggets, and Tully's teams with Microsoft to promote hotspots.
Of course, hotspot news this week has been dominated by yesterday's One Unwired Day, sponsored by Intel and a few partners. Reports were that 5,500 hotspot venues in the United States participated in the event, offering free access to anyone with a Wi-Fi laptop or PDA.
However, that's not all that happened in the world of hotspots this week ...
Glen Cove, N.Y.'s chamber of commerce announced that it's working with local company Networked Now to create the Glen Cove Wireless Initiative, creating a hotzone --that is, a really big, sometimes city-wide hotspot. This zone will stretch three-quarters of a mile along the town's School Street. Later, coverage will expand to the city's parks and the waterfront. Access will be free for anyone in range. The city is raising money for the project now via private donations and fund-raising.
Down south on the east coast, another free hotzone is already up and running: Roanoke WiFi. The City of Roanoke, Va., with partners including various city groups like the Roanoke Higher Education Center, which built the hotzone, and Cisco Systems, which provided resources for deploying it, held a "wire cutting" (the new hotspot opening cliche) at the 2003 Commonwealth of Virginia's Information and Technology Symposium to signify the network's opening around the Market Square section of downtown.
Pittsburgh's Telerama Internet, which runs for-fee hotspots all over the city, has signed a deal with the nonprofit Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to put Wi-Fi access throughout the 14 square mile area downtown area called the Cultural District. This area is the home to the city's major theaters, galleries and public spaces. Web sites for specific attractions can be accessed within those venues at no charge, or users can pay to access the entire Internet. The company charges $4.95 per day or $29.95 per month, with other special plans for college students and ISP customers.
The Boston Globe reported this week that Logan International Airport's three domestic terminals are slated to provide $6 or $7 per day Wi-Fi access by next summer (they hope well before the Democratic National Convention in July). Terminals B,C, and D will be unwired by Miami-based Electronic Media Systems Inc. and TWI Interactive of Boston and London to the tune of $1.3 million. They beat out AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint PCS, and Wayport for the business.
Tully's Coffee Corp., which runs coffee shops in the northwest United States, recently became one of the major customers of Cometa Networks for hotspot service. Now the chain is teaming with Microsoft; they'll provide Pocket PC-equipped kiosks in Seattle stores to promote the use of the hotspots.
McDonald's restaurants continue to be one of the major bastions for Wi-Fi access in China. Now the burger-master is preparing to install hotspots in its locations throughout Hong Kong. The city is the home of 215 McDonald's locations. This comes on the heels of announcing plans to put 53 hotspots in its restaurants in the city of Guangzhou with China Telecom. No partner for the Hong Kong hotspots was announced, however. The company told the Hong Kong Daily that it hopes to eventually have hotspots in all of its locations in the country.
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Slashdot
DZone
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
Furl
