Monday, May 19, 2003
SBC Building Public Wi-Fi Network
Posted by Janak Parekh in "NEWS" @ 06:17 PM
The number of companies joining the party just seems to grow larger and larger.
"SBC has recently taken steps toward building a public wireless local area network, the company said Monday. The service is an attempt to fend off competition from the cable industry, say analysts, who note that SBC is the second major telephone company to use the popularity of Wi-Fi wireless networks to better compete against such rivals. SBC spokesman Michael Coe said the broadband and telephone provider has begun shopping for the equipment needed to create public hot spots, which are places such as coffee shops or hotels where SBC customers can connect to the Internet or their office computers without wires."
If broadband is finally taking off, perhaps it's providing the incentive to see all of these public networks. One of the biggest problems though, I believe, is the heterogeneity of all of them. Are we going to subscribe to 10 different Wi-Fi networks for ubiquitous coverage?
"SBC has recently taken steps toward building a public wireless local area network, the company said Monday. The service is an attempt to fend off competition from the cable industry, say analysts, who note that SBC is the second major telephone company to use the popularity of Wi-Fi wireless networks to better compete against such rivals. SBC spokesman Michael Coe said the broadband and telephone provider has begun shopping for the equipment needed to create public hot spots, which are places such as coffee shops or hotels where SBC customers can connect to the Internet or their office computers without wires."
If broadband is finally taking off, perhaps it's providing the incentive to see all of these public networks. One of the biggest problems though, I believe, is the heterogeneity of all of them. Are we going to subscribe to 10 different Wi-Fi networks for ubiquitous coverage?
