I’m never at a loss for the lengths access providers will go to in a effort to keep traffic off of their networks. Never mind how hard their marketing people work at selling you on big bandwidth. Never mind that wholesale bandwidth has become so cheap, it’s probably cheaper to add more than to engage in complex network management schemes.

In today’s mixed up world of infinite copyrights, sue now and ask questions later enforcement, and the ever confusing DCMA, the best defense against a RIAA lawsuit is an open wireless connection. While this has nothing to do with bandwidth capping, it’s about to be employed to limit how you use the connection you pay for.People have a long list of legitimate reasons to leave wireless access unsecured (although I don’t condone any of these reasons), so it’s possible ISP’s will be targeted for lawsuits if they allow their users to have open WiFi.

Confused yet? What I have described are the ingredients for yet another ploy to cap your bandwidth usage.  First to use it is Karoo in the UK. They will now terminate service if you have an open router. Look for others to follow.

Not all ISPs are happy with customers who have open WiFi, however, and some even threaten to disconnect those who do. In the September 2008 terms and conditions of UK ISP Karoo, we read (pdf):

“We shall be entitled to terminate the Service immediately if We discover that you have permitted (whether knowingly or not) a third party (or third parties) to access the Service using a wireless connection over Your Communications Line.”

Should an ISP be entitled to demand this? Karoo leaves its customers no choice, and simply forbids them to leave their network unsecured, or use a FON router, despite the fact that this will be practically impossible for them to enforce. Not only that, people who have no idea about router security are now wide open to summary disconnection by this ISP. UK lawyers Davenport Lyons are actively encouraging that service providers of various types enforce their own terms and conditions against copyright infringers, so if you’re with Karoo and get a complaint, you can forget about 3 strikes. Even if you did nothing illegal, it’s one strike and you’re out. (Torrentfreak)

Those crazy  kids in the R&D labs keep on finding new ways to make plain old WiFi faster (at least under optimal conditions). Quantenna Communications Inc, a Sunnyvale, CA based startup has just claimed the speed prize at 1GBPS. How long will it be before someone claims faster?

Quantenna is using 4×4 MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) antennas along with beam forming and mesh technologies to deliver an aggregate throughput of up to a Gbit/second. The company uses two chips, one each for 2.4 and 5 GHz links.

Two other startups recently announced 5 GHz chips that aim to offer new levels of Wi-Fi performance based on variations of the .11n standard. (EE times)

If this were applied to the 700MHz white spaces, unlicesed wireless could get very interesting.

Jeffrey Silva over at RCR asks the $64,000 question. If the FCC is striving to foster current wireless technologies in rural areas why are they in the same breath cutting USF monies to the WISPs implemententing the technology? There is a WISP outside of the DFW that is today offering 1mbps wireless connect for $55/month. Wish I was in their service area. –

It’s materializing into a perfect storm for rural wireless carriers. But the federal government won’t be coming to the rescue, since it is the one perpetuating the assault on Wireless Joe Six-Pack.

In May, the Federal Communications Commission capped universal service fund support for mostly wireless carriers serving rural areas. The idea — one of a series of reforms recommended by a federal-state joint board on USF reform — was to rein in an expanding high-cost USF fund in which payments to primarily wireless carriers have grown from $1.5 million in 2000 to more than $1 billion in 2007. Never mind that landline telephone companies ate up the bulk of $4.3 billion in total rural telecom subsidies in 2007. No need to touch USF rural wireline support, the FCC reasoned, because the level of payments to that constituency has been flat in recent years.

Okay then, so exactly what did rural telecom companies spend government subsidies on while wireless operators were constructing new cell sites and making cutting-edge technology available to rural citizens? Rural cellular carriers are hoping for some answers in federal appeals court.

One of these days some enterprising WISP is going to figure out how to mount a tower on a tethered blimp and cover a rural county with a single device. When that happens the landscape will change. But somebody has to go first and spend the R&D money to prove it in.

Link.

Cablevision’s Long Island customers now have access to 1.5MBPS symmetric WiFi. It’s a nice bonus from one of the usually villainous Cable Guys. At a cost of a paltry $100 per subscriber, it may be one of the most creatively inexpensive  customer retention ideas ever in the MSO business. I wonder if there will be a run up in the sales of VoIP WiFi handsets on LI?

The move helps Cablevision differentiate themselves from FiOS across their footprint. You might recall that Verizon once offered free Wi-Fi in Manhattan, but scrapped the project back in 2005 because they feared it cannibalized the sale of their (then) $80 EVDO service. Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge has stated that Wi-Fi and Cablevision’s planned DOCSIS 3.0 deployment combined will cost roughly about $315 million.

“This is the first update on our deployment and we’re announcing that we’ve activated service in the commercial and high-traffic areas of Nassau County, parts of Suffolk and on the LIRR commuter rail platforms and station parking lots across Long Island,” Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella tells me. “This is already the largest consumer WiFi deployment in the country, with many more progress reports and updates to come over the next two years.” (DSL Reports)

Sure, the 802.11n standard isn’t done yet, but that’s old technology for a small group of engineers driven by the need for speed. If gigabit without a wire is possible on the near time horizon, fixed line service will have to compete by offering more. While it’s purely a “pipe dream” today, it could pave the way for a wireless Third Pipe.

A working group is preparing to propose what may eventually be known as IEEE 802.11 VHT (Very High Throughput), in what some call the successor to 802.11n. Two working groups each are suggesting proposals to push throughput in excess of one gigabit per second, roughly ten times that of the 802.11n specification.

At this point, the IEEE has yet to formally approve what’s known as a PAR, or a Project Approval Request, the first step on the road to an IEEE standard. However, that approval is expected. The proposed technology has also not yet been blessed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, which governs the technology.

On the other hand, much of the group’s work has been in cooperation with the Alliance, including plans to use the technology in wireless display technologies for HDTV, fast file transfer, and campus deployments, among others.

If approved, the increase in data rates would be dramatic, at least by today’s standards. The 802.11n standard calls for bandwidth on the order of 600 Mbits/s; today, so-called “pre-n” devices offer roughly 300 Mbits/s. But actual throughput can be much less, or only about 100 Mbits/s, after overhead and other traffic. The 802.11 VHT proposals call for throughput of at least a gigabit per second, which could place actual data rates many times higher. Interestingly, none of the PAR documents mention the estimated range for the wireless link. (Extreme Tech)

The IEEE’s publication of the 802.11r spec cold have far reaching implications for wireless voice. Aside of the obvious opportunity for device convergence in the corporate campus. there are simply too many opportunities to build a business on the concept to beleive that both fixed and legacy wireless carriers won’t be effected.

The IEEE standards body has officially published the Wi-Fi protocol 802.11r, something that has been in the works since 2004 and was finally approved by the body earlier this year. The new protocol is designed to allow for quick roaming between access points while maintaining security. Handoffs between access points that used to take seconds (and result in dropped calls) can now take place in less than fifty milliseconds. This improves connections between multiple private networks but is particularly beneficial to Wireless VoIP.  (DSL Reports)

There appears to be a gnashing of teeth by the brie set. Its a bear when you won’t be able to smile at the little barrista you have been doing business with for years. –

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee company to change its mind.

“Now that it’s going away, we’re devastated,” said Kate Walker, a facilities manager for software company SunGard Financial Systems who recently learned of a store closing in New York City.

Dear Cappo drinker, be aware that this is a normal course of events when an economy is in a downturn. Its called ‘getting back to basics’ in biz lingo. You trim the nonperforming locations. Not only that, but please consider that the business segment that ‘Bucks is in is a luxury good for all intents and purposes. But raising petitions is not going to change the decisions that have been made.

Your cure? Find another store on your way to work and frequent that one. Its not like they are going under anytime soon. This concludes our expose on StarBucks and their dwindling hot spots.

Linky
HT: Consumerist

In spite of all of the doom and gloom reported in the out of touch media and billions squandered to create Muni WiFi failures, the availability of free coverage continues to grow.

A new report by ABI Research predicts that the number of Wi-Fi hotspots is supposed to grow forty percent in 2008 as compared to 2007. The majority of those hot spots are being launched throughout Europe and many of them are located on public transportation and in travel service locations such as airports. The report suggests that a majority of these hotspots will offer high-speed Internet for free, stating that fee-based Wi-Fi is counterproductive because people don’t want to pay for connectivity but will pay for “value-add content downloads”. (DSL Reports)

The report falls short of finding a compelling reason for a business to offer free and open WiFi. Put simply, offering free WiFi is a great way to draw and retain customers. It’s an advertising beacon in the neighborhood, every bit as effective a the billboard. It creates good will between the provider and the consumer. Free WiFi sells $5 coffee drinks,  oil changes and cheeseburgers. It draws the road warrior to the bookstore and the soccer mom to the library while her kids do story hour. Near universal coverage will continue to grow simply because it creates real value for those who provide it.

Government sanctioned WiFi failures have the the traits of being a revenue source and a method of social engineering - concepts that never work as intended no matter how they are applied. The government supported systems that are working now have sought neither to sell a franchise or to play Robin Hood with tax payers. They simply provide access to fulfill a predetermined, funded mission, often with some level of free public access. Our social engineering obsessed media rarely reports on these successes.

The free for all style of privately offered access closely replicates the chaotic model that grew the Internet and has proven to work time and time again. Without the meddling of lawmakers, chances are very good we’ll have near universal coverage in many urban areas before we’ll have LTE.

Well we covered it originally here. Well now there is a map of where some of the closing might be taking place complements of the Seattle Times. The map is here.

This is no means the complete list. The number is 600 total and this looks to be about 2 dozen locations. Check back, the Times will be updating.

Linky.

That is, Starbucks is shutting down 600 stores. Your favorite hangout might be one of them unfortunately. High gas prices have had major impacts on their revenue numbers. Consumers havea choice — cut out the double latte or put a couple of gallons of gas in the tank to get to work. Its the luxury given up for the essentials in bad times. —

Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday that it has drastically increased the number of stores it plans to close and could eliminate as many as 12,000 full- and part-time positions as a result.

The company said it now plans to close 600 company-operated stores in the United States, up from its previous plans to close 100 stores.

Starbucks was a great hangout. I couldn’t justify the expenditure for a 3.99 cappo though it was fun to splurge from time to time. There are folks I know who were 2 and 3 cuppers every day. Crazy.

Regardless, for those that were used to the WiFi access; you might have to look for alternate digs. ‘Bucks has not provided a list of closing locations. I sort of doubt that they will either. Not their style to announce closings. This will cut into AT&T penetration level with them as well.

Linky.