>Bruce wrote
>[snip] anyhow it was pulled after a few months. classic case of great idea
with
>unsure business model. perhaps a bit ahead of its time in terms of old
>802.11b? be interested if anyone actually used it.
I agree - good idea , not sure of the business model... (prices are below so
you can judge whether
it's value-for-$$$)
Here's some information the project, which I hope helps. There's an
interesting point in one industry blog recently of
how "...everyone's talking about it but nobody's using it!" - so maybe we'll
be hard-pressed to get
first hand stories, Bruce :=)
Starbucks WLAN information
==========================
>It was tried in the US in conjunction with a WASP - the name escapes me.
The trial was run in conjunction with Mobilestar Network Corp of Texas and
Compaq. MS also did a
deal with the fellow Seattle company in conjunction with Mobilestar to bring
their portal to the
users.
http://www.mobilestar.com/starbucks_update.asp
The fees are from $2.50 for 15 minutes of access to monthly rate plans
priced at $15.95 for 200 minutes, $34.95 for 500 minutes and $59.95 for
unlimited access. MobileStar plans to initially install one wireless LAN
radio in each Starbucks shop. Each node can support 20-40 users
The rollout is currently available in the following cities -
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
Seattle/Tacoma
San Francisco Bay Area
New York City Metro Area
Houston
Austin
I'd also recommend
"Asia at the forefront of the WLAN industry"
http://www.wirelessworldforum.com/w2fnews11530.html
detailing how Asia has 1000s more hotspots than the Europe and US thanks to
recent rollouts by Hanaro in Korea and Japan Telecom / WISNET in Tokyo.
More recent information on WLAN
The WLAN vs 3G argument
http://www.wirelessworldforum.com/w2fnews11631.html
Wi-Fi the quiet revolution
http://www.wirelessworldforum.com/news/w2fnews11704.html
Hope this helps budding WLAN peeps
GB
Received on Tue Feb 19 15:51:00 2002