May 14, 2013
Nice, France has entered into a deal with GOWEX to offer free Wi-Fi service in some of the city’s public areas such as the Cours Saleya and Place du Palais. The SSDI is «NiceGOWEXFREEWiFi». That’s great but they still force you to go through a registration screen, which I and many people hate.
The problem with registration screens is that they destroy the mobile user experience. You are on your iPhone and want to look quickly at a map to see where the museum or restaurant...
May 7, 2013
The price of Ruckus Wireless (RKUS) shares dropped 17 percent yesterday to $15.80 after the company reported Q1 2013 revenues and earnings that were below analysts’ expectations. Ruckus Wireless announced that Q2 2013 revenues would also be lower than expected. This brings the price of RKUS shares close to the IPO price of $15. The company blames the disappointing...
May 6, 2013
As I mentioned in The Return of Large Scale Wi-Fi Deployments, municipalities have bigger budgets these days, thanks to the improving economy in the United States, so they’re spending it on new Wi-Fi deployments or upgrades of existing public Wi-Fi networks. Here are few examples in Florida:
- Coral Springs is upgrading its existing wireless network, which...
April 30, 2013
This article addresses why the Connect America Fund should be shut down and what steps can be taken to encourage competition in the market for wired and wireless broadband services.
I’ve mentioned many times that I believe our current government is simply clueless. Unfortunately, I’ve come to realize that it’s simply far worse than that. If you combine corruption, selfishness, ignorance, arrogance, cronyism, stupidity, and incompetence in one package, that would pretty much...
April 28, 2013
Time Warner Cable (TWC) will start offering free WiFi throughout Austin, Texas to people who subscribe to its cable service. People who are not subscribers will pay $2.95 per hour. Perhaps it is TWC’s attempt to keep customers from migrating to Google’...
Large WiFi hot zones have been making news again, in Santa Clara (thanks to the city’s smart meter project), San Jose (free WiFi downtown), Petaluma (free WiFi hot zone...
April 23, 2013
O2, a telecom company that operates WiFi hotspots across the UK says that more adults are now seeking out free public WiFi when they go shopping. O2 conducted a survey...
April 17, 2013
Google has announced that it will be offering Google Fiber service in Provo, Utah, if the city council approves Google’s acquisition of iProvo (the fiber optic network built by the city 10 years ago). Google plans to upgrade and extend the network to every home in the city. Here’s what Google says:
Provo started building their own municipal network in...
April 10, 2013
Google Fiber has confirmed that Austin, Texas is the next city to get fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service after the FTTH rollout in Kansas City. Google says:
Our goal is to start connecting homes in Austin by mid-2014. Customers there will have a similar choice of products as our customers in Kansas City: Gigabit...
March 28, 2013
After years of planning (at least since 2007), Petaluma, California is rolling out its free Wi-Fi service in the downtown area. Downtown businesses and local residents have been strong supporters of the free WiFi network. In the past, Petaluma had been engaged in negotiations with Sonic.net to bring WiFi service to the city but those led nowhere. If all goes well, the city may even install Wi-Fi access points in buses as wireless broadband is one of the most requested services on public...