Road Warrior: Escape From Dial-Up Hell

Consider it a sucker's prize for that three-hour flight delay that's stranded you in San Jose. It's wireless high-speed Net access. And it's available today.

In fact, an airport, a hotel, or a café may be the first place you experience the wireless Web, at speeds up to seven times faster than a T1 connection. All you need is a Wi-Fi–compliant device and a credit card.

Wi-Fi is an open standard for wireless networking based on the IEEE 802.11b wireless model. It allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to access points within 150 to 450 feet via radio signals, at up to 11Mbps.

Wi-Fi is not only making an end run around the third-generation (3G) cellular network (still hugely a science project in Europe and Japan and not even on the horizon in the United States), it's also wiping the grin off the face of Bluetooth, which pushes data along roughly one-tenth as fast and can't penetrate walls. Cahners In-Stat Group expects that 10 million Wi-Fi products will be in use by the end of this year.

Wi-Fi PC Card modems starting at $120 are already available from nearly a dozen manufacturers, including Compaq, IBM, Intel, 3Com, and Toshiba. Wi-Fi circuitry is built into some notebooks from Dell, IBM, and Toshiba. And, Frost & Sullivan predicts, manufacturers' revenues from Wi-Fi will reach $884 million by the end of next year.

So, where can you use Wi-Fi? At some airports—in Dallas, Austin, Seattle, and San Jose, for example—access is available virtually anywhere in the terminals thanks to a deal with service provider WayPort. Many other airports have limited coverage, such as in American Airlines' Admirals Clubs around the country. Because the standard is relatively new, other airports are taking a wait-and-see approach, and questions remain about adding additional radio frequency traffic to the highly congested airwaves surrounding landing fields.

Hotels seem a bit more accepting. WayPort is offered in some 380 lodges, which include various Four Seasons, Embassy Suites, and Hampton Inns, with 450 more planned by June. MobileStar, another provider, is available in more than 100 Hiltons, as well as in many Marriotts and Sheratons.

But your best bet for finding Wi-Fi seems to be in cafés and restaurants. MobileStar has signed an agreement to serve 4,000 Starbucks locations by 2002. And Airwave already serves 75 eateries in the San Francisco area, with plans for a national rollout this year.

Too bad pricing is still confusing. The major carriers don't yet honor roaming agreements with one another. And pricing plans are all over the map, from $2.50 for a one-time, 15-minute surf to unlimited monthly minutes and corporate rates.

What to Make of Wi-Fi Where You'll See It What to Expect Hotels Gouge-o-rama pricing as hotels slap surcharges onto room rates, but hey, no more RJ-11–jack hell. Airports Will first arrive in Admirals Clubs and the like, and then in all waiting areas and departure lounges. SAS plans to offer it on flights. Cafés and Restaurants Already a hit with grungers and gamers at coffeehouses. Look for connect rates to fall. Corporate Campuses Inexpensive and wonderfully useful for small businesses and large. Who needs an office?

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.