T-Mobile Hotspot spreads out to new territory this week: hotels. The company — still currently the largest hotspot provider in the US through its deployments with Starbucks, Borders and others — now has a deal to install its public access wireless network in Hyatt Hotels and Resorts across the country. By the end of 2004, it expects to have service in all Hyatt public areas and a few select guest rooms. One hotel, the Hyatt Charlotte in N.C, is already live. Next to come are locations at O’Hare airport in Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Chesapeake Bay, Md.; and the Grand Hyatt New York. Hyatt has 208 hotels/resorts around the world, with 122 of them in North America. — June 3, 2004
Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based wireless broadband provider 5G Wireless Communications (Quote, Chart) announced today that its equipment — which utilizes enhanced 802.11 to get last mile coverage — would be used to build the campus-wide WLAN at the California State University at Long Beach. The network will cover 84 buildings within 323 acres, providing wireless network and Internet access for 34,000 students and 2,000 faculty members. The network should be up and running in time for the fall semester. — June 2, 2004
More truckstop Wi-Fi: SirCOMM (Quote, Chart) of Joplin, Mo., has landed a deal to put hotspots in 255 Pilot Travel Center locations across the United States. Pilot will market the service to customers. SiriCOMM provides not only public access, but also “fleet management solutions to trucking companies.” SiriCOMM says it will install a total of 400 hotspots this year, all in locations frequented by truckers. — June 2, 2004
AirRover (formerly Air-Q) (Quote, Chart) says it has an agreement in place to install hotspots in the 90 AIM Mail Center locations in the US. The centers are retail postal centers that compete with the UPS Store (formerly Mail Boxes Etc.). AirRover announced a similar deal with MyMart in January, with plans to unwire 1000 of its postal center locations.– June 2, 2004
Wi-Fi hotzone product supplier Radionet Oy is teaming with broadband wireless equipment maker Wi-LAN to sell hardware that will expand the hotzone in Mantasala, an area of southern Finland they say is roughly the size of New York City. The network — called MSOYNET X — is run by Mantasalan, the local energy provider. It will eventually provide connections for 60,000 people in homes and businesses. Users will be able to roam on the networks of other Finnish WISPs. Depending on the success of the program, they might extend the network to cover the cities and municipalities of Kerava, Jdrvenpdd, Tuusula and Nurmijdrv, which have a combined population of 150,000. — June 1, 2004
Following the release of its RuralMesh to provide broadband in the outlands of the UK, Telabria this week announced CampusMesh, a product for delivering Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections for businesses and hotzones. They say by using the company’s mNode products to create a mesh backhaul, CampusMesh “removes the need to lay underground cables between buildings, thereby dramatically reducing the cost of deploying network solutions.” — June 1, 2004
Sarah McLachlan fans can download some of her music and an interview with her for free — if they pay for time on the T-Mobile Hotspot network found in Starbucks Coffee Shops. Or they could just buy the CD (at Starbucks) for $14.99. — June 1, 2004
