 Paul Robert (Photo by Bill Tiernan. Illustrations by John Earle.) WHAT'S UP WITH WI-FI? Published: July 7, 2003 HAMPTON ROADS - A dozen people surround the L-shaped bar sharing cigarettes, beer and after-hours conversation. While her brother, Kevin, 32, tends to customers, Stefanie Osfolk, 25, is the only one seated at a table for four near the door, but she isn't alone. From the Bier Garden in downtown Portsmouth, she is keeping up with clients and friends using her Sony laptop computer. A small antenna on the laptop captures the Internet from radio waves beaming into her family's restaurant from an antenna on the kitchen's roof. That antenna communicates with another one perched across the High Street on the ledge of the Commodore Theater. The theater's antenna picks up waves sent from atop the Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel. Paul Robert, co-owner of ESCO Co., a wireless Internet service provider based in Portsmouth, installed the hotel's transmitter. That's where the company's wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, signal begins. It's also the beginning for public-access Wi-Fi in Hampton Roads. Wi-Fi offers speedy Internet access without a cable or wire running into the computer. The freedom that comes from cutting the cord to the Internet is a powerful draw, prompting thousands of individuals to set up wireless networks in their homes and many businesses to create Wi-Fi hotspots. Hampton Roads has other wireless Internet network providers, such as Continental VisiNet, a division of Landmark Communications in Newport News, and TeliOn in Virginia Beach. Their main focus is providing wireless networks for businesses. ESCO Co. also provides wireless networking for businesses. Plus, it offers the regular guy on the street a chance to freely surf the World Wide Web while walking the sidewalk or relaxing at his favorite bar. Marty Kaszubowski, director of the Hampton Roads Technology Incubator, of which ESCO is a member, has high hopes for Wi-Fi. As time goes on, this is going to be like air conditioning, said Kaszubowski, who sometimes parks his car outside the Bier Garden to play with his wireless Toshiba e740 Pocket PC. ``When people started going to the theaters with air conditioning, the competing theaters installed it too, just to stay in business,'' he said. It may be a while before Hampton Roads enjoys that much Wi-Fi. Most of the 4,400 hotspots in the nation are clustered around big cities and regions that are steeped in information technology, said Keith Waryas of IDC, a research company headquartered in Framingham, Mass. Waryas also predicts the number of hotspots - the 100-to 500-square-foot zones around Wi-Fi transmitters - will grow eight to nine times over the next five years, with the most intense growth in the next two years. Wi-Fi is sprouting up all over Manhattan, for example. Verizon plans to plant 1,000 hotspots in the borough by the end of the year. Although Verizon is studying other markets for hotspot rollouts, Bobbi Henson, a spokeswoman for telecommunications company, isn't sure where and won't speculate on when it will happen in Hampton Roads. Intel ranked Portland, Ore., as the most wireless city in the nation. Out there, 105 individuals and 15 businesses donate part of their high-speed Internet bandwidth to the Personal Telco Project, a grassroots nonprofit that hosts free Wi-Fi. The closest thing to that in Hampton Roads, which ranked 86th out of 100 on Intel's survey, is a few homes sharing bandwidth in various neighborhoods. Through people such as Hap Cluff, Norfolk's director of information technology, the local Wi-Fi traffic could grow. Cluff is talking with several wireless Internet service providers about delivering free wireless service to the entire city, but it could be a few months before he takes any proposals. Portsmouth supports hotspot growth but has no plans to support it with public funding, said Kenneth M. Wheeler, Portsmouth's public information officer. Virginia Beach has no plans for hotspots, either, said Gwen Cowart, Virginia Beach director of communications and information technology.However, Cowart agrees with Joel Nied, an intellectual property attorney with Troutman Sanders in Virginia Beach, that the first business to network the resort strip will make some decent revenue. ``Whoever can grab the beachfront will have a huge boom for this, especially if they have an exclusive agreement,'' said Nied. So far, the farthest reaching public-access network belongs to ESCO Co. And, the Portsmouth wireless Internet provider plans to extend its signal from Norfolk Naval Shipyard about a mile north to Crawford Bay by the end of this month. By fall, the company hopes to expand its radio waves across the river to Towne Point Park in Norfolk. The most likely spot to find a hotspot in Hampton Roads is in a hotel. Access is intended for guests, but most hotels allow restaurant and bar patrons to log in for a price. The Virginia Beach Resort Hotel and Conference Center on Shore Drive may have been the first local hotel to offer Wi-Fi when it installed a network two years ago. The hotel and conference center, as well as the Hilton Norfolk Airport and Omni Newport News hotels are hooked to Wi-Fi through Wayport, a wireless provider based in Austin, Texas. The recently renovated Clarion Hotel, Town Center, uses London-based Roomwithnet to parcel out its wireless Internet signals. Guests may check their e-mail in the lobby, on the deck of the pool or from Clarion's new Aqua Martini Lounge or Tines Restaurant. Coffee shops, where many people expect to find Wi-Fi, have few hotspots in Hampton Roads. Starbucks and T-Mobile, a national wireless Internet provider known best for its cellular service, launched hotspot service in 1,200 Starbucks locations last August. The giant coffee-pourer, boasting 2,100 wireless coffee stops, will unwire 600 more locations by December. None of those 600 locations will be in Hampton Roads, and Nick Davis, a company spokesman, couldn't say when the area might see its first wireless Starbucks. Local java lovers can try Elliot's Fair Grounds News & Coffee in Norfolk and surf for $1 a half hour. For the moment, Fair Grounds uses Surf and Sip, a San Francisco-based firm, for its wireless networking. Elliot Juren, owner of Fair Grounds, said that he may install his own wireless network, but not before he sees a return on his Surf and Sip investment. As for loyal Starbucks customers who are signed up for T-Mobile's Wi-Fi network, they can get access at Norfolk International Airport through American Airlines, Gates 17 and 19. That's the only T-Mobile hotspot listed in Hampton Roads. Reach Deborah Markham at 446-2033 or deborah.markham(AT)pilotonline.com |
TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS FOR ONLINE ACCESS UNFETTERED BY WIRES The principle of Wi-Fi, a form of wireless Internet service, is simple: the Web without the wires. The particulars are a little more complicate. Wi-Fi, also known as 802.11, WLAN and fixed wireless Internet access, allows computer users to cut their network cords. A wireless network begins with a DSL or cable-modem connection to the Internet plugged into a wireless router. The router converts the data coming through the wire into radio waves that are distributed through unlicensed frequencies. Wireless bridges and access points, which are typically antennae, allow the waves to be distributed over a broader area. Each point can cover a radius of 100 to 500 feet. That radius area is known as a ``hot spot.'' Wireless adapters, which can plug into a laptop's USB port or PC card slot, receive Internet-carrying radio signals from wireless access points and routers. Various personal data assistants, such as Palm Pilots, have slots for wireless adapters. The wireless standards, set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, are 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. The ``b'' and ``g'' standards are the most common and interoperable - so a ``b'' adapter can pick up a ``g'' transmission and vice versa. Both operate in the 2.4-GHz frequency band. The ``b'' standard delivers up to 11 megabits per second of data, and the ``g'' standard races up to 54 megabits per second. A standard dial-up modem that most people have at home reach, at least in theory, 56 kilobits per second. The ``a'' standard also reaches speeds of 54 megabits per second. Plus, it works on a higher frequency, which usually doesn't interfere with microwaves or cordless phones. Hot spot operators can install dual-mode access if their market demands them to do so. Someone using a properly equipped laptop will receive a signal when she enters a hot spot, because the computer will sniff out the Wi-Fi signal. A taskbar icon alerts users to the connection opportunity. On most Net-capable PDAs, a small blinking light will let users know the air is Internet heavy. From there, users can just click on their favorite Internet browser and start surfing if the line is free. Otherwise, users have to enter a credit card number or a special password provided by the operator.
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