New company, Cometa, created to push nationwide Wi-Fi – Is Wi-Fi a Terrorist Tool?

AT&T Corp., Intel Corp. and IBM formally announced the formation of a new company, Cometa Networks, to help provide nationwide broadband wireless LAN Internet access. Cometa plans in 2003 to deploy WLAN Wi-Fi "hot spots" offering a raw data rate of 11M bit/sec. in the top 50 U.S. markets.

By BOB BREWIN Computerworld.com

Daniel Francisco, an Intel spokesman, told Computerworld that Intel has invested in Cometa through its Intel Capital arm. The company’s goal is to jump-start public-access WLAN development and deployment so that Wi-Fi hot spots are within a five-minute walk from any spot in urban America, or within a five-minute drive in the suburbs.

Intel’s next-generation processor for laptop computers, the Banias, will eventually incorporate Wi-Fi WLAN technology in the silicon. AT&T will provide the backbone for the Cometa network, and IBM will handle site installation and provide back-office billing systems.

Wi-Fi WLAN hot spots provide a much higher data rate than the 20K to 70K bit/sec. offered by cellular carriers such as Redmond, Wash.-based AT&T Wireless Services Inc., but the range of WLANs is limited to about 300 ft. A nationwide network of public-access hot spots of the kind projected by Intel’s Francisco would allow mobile workers and fleet operators to easily and quickly find a location that offered high-speed data.

Jeff Amerine, managing director of network services for the FedEx Freight division at Memphis-based FedEx Corp., said he’s "super-excited" about the prospects of widespread public-access WLANs. He said the company’s next-generation wireless handheld computer for drivers can operate over Wi-Fi networks and the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) wide-area network from AT&T Wireless.

Easy access to Wi-Fi networks would allow FedEx Freight to transmit fat applications, such as freight bills, that couldn’t be sent easily over the lower-bandwidth GPRS network, he added. FedEx Freight plans to conduct tests of public-access Wi-Fi networks next year, Amerine said.

Richard Tisdale, CIO of Petro Stopping Centers LP, an El Paso, Texas-based truck stop operator, said he believes that truck fleet operators will embrace Wi-Fi technology quickly, making it imperative for gas stations and truck stop operators to offer public-access Wi-Fi service. Tisdale predicted that within two to three years, practically every truck stop in the U.S. will offer such service. Those that don’t, he said, will get passed by.

Tisdale said he has received at least three sales pitches for public-access WLAN service from different vendors in the past month. But before he chooses a Wi-Fi partner, Tisdale said, he needs to be sure it has the technical capabilities to cover a large Petro Stop lot, which can hold as many as 400 trucks. That’s a far more demanding environment than coffee shops, hotels or airports, where Wi-Fi hot spots have already been installed.

It will take more than one Wi-Fi access point to serve a typical truck stop, Tisdale said, and the harsh electronic environment could require special configurations of the system.

Allan Adler, CEO of WorkingWild Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based start-up, said his company plans to focus its Wi-Fi network on fleet and enterprise users such as field sales personnel, whom he called "windshield warriors."

Last month, WorkingWild signed an agreement with Houston-based ConocoPhillips to offer Wi-Fi service in 15,000 Circle K convenience stores and gas stations nationwide.

Adler declined to disclose his enterprise pricing, but he said it would be "very aggressive." For example, Boingo Wireless Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based public-access Wi-Fi aggregator, charges $74.95 a month for unlimited access.

SiriComm Inc. in Joplin, Mo., is also planning a nationwide WLAN network that will be based in full-service truck stops and designed to serve large fleets. Hank Hoffman, CEO of SiriComm, said he plans an initial deployment of 400 hot spots in truck stops.

Barney Dewey, an analyst at Outlook4Mobility in Los Gatos, Calif., remains skeptical about the financial viability of stand-alone pubic-access Wi-Fi networks. He said the biggest hole in the Cometa business plan is the lack of cellular carrier partners. Dewey said he believes the cellular carriers plan to roll out their own national Wi-Fi networks, which will allow users to easily switch from cellular networks to WLANs.

Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA Inc., a division of Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom AG, has already installed an extensive public-access Wi-Fi network in airport lounges. AT&T Wireless has started to roll out Wi-Fi service in airports. Dewey said he believes those companies, as well as Sprint PCS Group in Overland Park, Mo., which has an interest in Boingo, will prefer to forge their own Wi-Fi path rather than partnering with Cometa.

Toshiba and WorkingWild, which don’t have a network partner such as Cometa and AT&T, face heavy network backbone costs, according to Dewey. He said installing even a relatively inexpensive Digital Subscriber Line in 15,000 Circle K stores "amounts to a lot of money" every month.

Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., predicted that other major wireless carriers such as Bedminster, N.J.-based Verizon Wireless will soon launch their own Wi-Fi networks. He predicted "a rush of investment" to stake out prime hot-spot real estate across the country.

Source: Computerworld

http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,76441,00.html

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Feds Label Wi-Fi a Terrorist Tool

SANTA CLARA, California — Attention, Wi-Fi users: The Department of Homeland Security sees wireless networking technology as a terrorist threat.

By Paul Boutin Wired

That was the message from experts who participated in working groups under federal cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke and shared what they learned at this week’s 802.11 Planet conference. Wi-Fi manufacturers, as well as home and office users, face a clear choice, they said: Secure yourselves or be regulated.

"Homeland Security is putting people in place who will be in a position to say, ‘If you’re going to get broken into … we’re going to start regulating,’" said Cable and Wireless security architect Shannon Myers in a panel dubbed "Homeland Security vs. Wi-Fi."

Myers was one of several consultants for President Bush’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, which is finalizing its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace.

Since being named special advisor to the president for cyberspace security last year, Clarke has stressed wireless access points as a national security threat.

"Companies throughout the country have networks that are wide open because of wireless LANs…. Millions of houses are getting connected, which means that more and more are getting vulnerable," Clarke told attendees at the Black Hat Security Briefings in Las Vegas earlier this year.

"We know that (an attack) could bring down the network of this country very quickly. Once you’re on the network, it doesn’t matter where you got in," said Daniel Devasirvatham, who headed the Homeland Security task force for the Wireless Communications Association International trade association.

Devasirvatham said the telecom industry was represented at security planning talks with federal agencies, but the wireless sector itself was not.

"Do you consider yourself part of the telecom industry?" he asked the 802.11 Planet audience. "If you’re a Nethead instead of a Bellhead, you probably don’t. I think there’s a major disconnect here."

But Myers acknowledged that regulators were frustrated in their search for a quick fix to plug Wi-Fi holes.

"There’s just not a lot of technology out there right now that can be used to secure the technology in place," she said. "They’re not at a point where they can say, ‘This will solve the problem,’ and mandate it."

Rather, the most recent draft of the National Strategy document lists stopgap steps that home and office Wi-Fi users should take to make their networks harder to crack. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Wireless Network Security document contains more detailed guidelines.

Speakers called on corporate Wi-Fi customers to participate in creating security enhancements and best practices, lest regulators do it for them. "Expert advice needs to be obtained from more than just the industry that makes the equipment," Devasirvatham said.

Conference attendees were split on the potential of wireless nodes as terrorist access points.

Boingo CEO Sky Dayton suggested turnkey security standards under development would improve the technology’s reputation. "It’s possible to secure a wireless network today," he said. "But it needs to get easier."

http://wired.com/news/print/0,1294,56742,00.html