The Wall Street Journal takes a brief look at four cities for which Wi-Fi is working: I wrote a piece for Ars Technica a few weeks ago that’s a superset of the cities mentioned here: Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. But it’s good to see the coverage about what’s working in a national newspaper. The reporter is on the ball about what’s different and useful about the networks that got built and are running. In 2009, we’ll see how what we think is working in 2008 proves out. So far, so good. Expectations are lower, but projects planned better, than in 2004 to 2007.
The only nit I’ll pick is that for Philadelphia, the reporter says that 28,000 unique users connect to free Wi-Fi in the parks each day, which is entirely impossible. (A typo that’s there right now says “28,0000,” but I’m assuming the number is 28,000 instead of a plausible but high 2,800.) Could there be 28,000 unique users over a month? Maybe. But just in the parks?
Boingo releases iPhone, iPod touch app: The free application lets you enter your account information once, and then connect by selecting the Wi-Fi network and letting Boingo do the work.
Actual Numbers on Paid Airport Wi-Fi UsageRapper Lil Wayne at work on “Tha Carter IV”
(Reuters)Airport News: Boingo Buys Opti-Fi; FreeFi Adds Oakland
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