Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Paul Jones <pjones AT metalab.unc.edu>]

in case you missed this. cheap wi-fi spots on the coast and in eastern nc, 
but will it halt or stall cell phone deployment?

http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/2097872p-2001158c.html

By JONATHAN B. COX, Staff Writer

Look skyward, you Web surfers of little patience and slow connections. 
Salvation awaits.

Entrepreneurs are dotting communities across the state and nation with 
antennas that can transport you to your favorite cyberspace destinations 
as much as 50 times faster than traditional dial-up service.

Wi-Fi technology already has turned homes, offices and coffee shops into 
wireless playgrounds. Now, Wi-Fi is stretching across neighborhoods miles 
wide, giving consumers an alternative to cable or telephone companies for 
high-speed broadband access.

"Wi-Fi is proving to be phenomenally more flexible as a technology than 
anybody expected a year or two ago," said Joe W. Laszlo, senior analyst 
with Jupiter Research in New York. "It's the most promising wireless 
broadband offering on the table today."

About 1,000 wireless Internet service providers have been launched 
nationwide, including more than a dozen in North Carolina, according to 
Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine, an online publication that tracks 
the industry. They function much like Earthlink or AOL, but link customers 
with antennas instead of wires.

With an investment of about $10,000 to $500,000, depending on the 
transmitters and receivers purchased, they're in business, serving 3- to 
15-mile swaths.

The providers usually get started in rural areas where more popular 
high-speed technologies, namely DSL links from phone carriers and cable 
modem service from cable-TV companies, don't reach.

"The rollout of broadband wireless systems is much cheaper and 
cost-effective," said K. Robert Hoskins, editor and publisher of Broadband 
Wireless Exchange. "They're becoming more and more popular."

An antenna perched 220 feet above the intersection of Interstate 40 and 
N.C. 42 will begin blanketing the western Johnston County community known 
as Cleveland with fast Web signals this month. QRO Wireless, a startup, 
has invested about $40,000 and worked since early summer to make it 
happen.

That is to say, since "about the time IBM laid me off," said Jim G. 
McGrath, vice president of operations.

He and Ernie S. Nieradka, a friend of about six or seven years who used to 
work at First Citizens Bank, had kicked around the idea of starting a 
business -- "maybe a beer and bait shop by the lake," McGrath said -- for 
some time.

They, along with a Florida partner, settled on the Internet service after 
finding that many of their neighbors, including a population of Research 
Triangle Park workers, were frustrated by their Web connections.

Technical and capital constraints had prevented telephone and cable 
companies from expanding there, leaving residents to contend with dial-up 
delays.

"We put out a survey and started advertising a little bit, and we got a 
tremendous response," said Nieradka, QRO's president. "They said, 'Please, 
please put this in!' "

QRO expects to begin service within days and will cover a 4-mile circle 
around its transmission tower. Prices for residential customers will range 
from $39.95 to $49.95 per month, while businesses will pay between $69.95 
and $129.95, on par with other broadband providers.

Those who subscribe will have a wireless receiver the size of a large book 
attached to their roofs. The antenna is linked inside using cable or 
separate wireless networking equipment.

The company has compiled a list of 260 potential customers and plans to 
expand throughout Johnston County this year, Nieradka said. It could be a 
lucrative market, given that Johnston was the fastest-growing county in 
the state during the past decade.

"I've got a real good feeling," he said. "There's a need for this all over 
Eastern North Carolina."

Although neighborhood Wi-Fi can give people a new way to reach online 
destinations, it does have drawbacks. First, the transmitter and receiver 
must be able to "see" each other at all times. If large trees or buildings 
get in the way, the connection won't work.

"Some trees are OK; a forest is not," Nieradka said.

Unlike satellite systems, you don't have to worry about inclement weather 
disturbing transmissions. But a neighbor's phone conversation might. The 
system relies on unregulated airwaves used by devices such as cordless 
phones and microwaves that can cause interference similar to radio static. 
And there can be security concerns. Informed hackers, for example, 
potentially could tap into signals.

Companies such as QRO Wireless and Intechmedia Broadband, another 
community Wi-Fi service provider near Angier, try to mitigate such 
problems. They use encryption technology to thwart hackers, and visit 
homes and offices to assess service viability before hooking it up.

For people such as Rickie C. Lipscomb, the benefits outweigh the pitfalls. 
The 54-year-old golf course superintendent lives by an 80-acre tobacco 
farm in Willow Spring and "thought I was limited to dial-up forever."

Sprint couldn't reach him with its DSL service, and Time Warner said it 
was not economical to extend its lines about 1,300 feet to reach his and 
two other homes.

"I just stay on the Internet quite a bit and do a lot of downloading music 
and stuff and needed something faster," he said.

Lipscomb was "excited" when a friend told him about Intechmedia last year, 
realizing there was hope for turbocharged surfing. He has been a 
subscriber since July.

"I have no qualms with it at all," he said. "It's awesome."

Intechmedia plans to expand across Harnett County this year, possibly 
reaching as many as 90 percent of people there. Residents of Sanford, 
Fayetteville, Nags Head and Duck also can get wireless service, according 
to Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine.

So far, subscriptions to DSL and cable modems far outpace those to Wi-Fi 
services, which rely largely on word-of-mouth to expand. According to 
In-Stat/MDR, a market-research firm, fewer than 600,000 of the 18.9 
million people with broadband connections used a Wi-Fi link in 2002.

"It's starting to gather a lot of steam," said Daryl H. Schoolar, senior 
analyst for In-Stat/MDR in Scottsdale, Ariz.

By 2005, his firm predicts 2.56 million people will use wireless 
connections at their homes and businesses.

And that's just one component of an even larger trend. Cities such as San 
Francisco are creating smaller Wi-Fi "hot spots" in downtown areas so 
people moving through with mobile computers can access the Internet for 
free.

Combine those efforts with the growing number of coffee shops, airports, 
hotels, homes and offices with small-scale Wi-Fi networks, and analysts 
see the start of a revolution.

"This business is really where the cell phone business was 20 years ago," 
Hoskins, the Wireless Exchange editor, said. "Eventually, there will be 
enough ... coverage that you can roam anywhere."

That should worry at least one industry: mobile phone carriers.

Companies such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless have invested 
billions of dollars in upgrades to let subscribers access the Internet 
faster. Wi-Fi, which is cheaper and popular, could make those expenditures 
obsolete.

It "may put a big dent in their future prospects," Laszlo said. 

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                             Paul Jones
                    "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"
http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/ at the Site Formerly Known As MetaLab.unc.edu
  pjones AT ibiblio.org   voice: (919) 962-7600     fax: (919) 962-8071
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