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Verizon dials up free WiFi access

A service launched Tuesday by Verizon Communications Inc. that gives its Internet customers free wireless access in New York could accelerate the industry’s plans for the burgeoning technology.

By Brian Bergstein
AP business writer Deseret News

Verizon executives, offering details of a service announced last week, said the telecom giant will equip 1,000 Manhattan pay phones this year with transmitters that radiate Internet connectivity for 300 feet.

Customers who subscribe to Verizon’s dial-up or fast DSL Internet service can use the WiFi — wireless fidelity — access for free, giving them the power to get online from laptops and handheld computers while they roam midtown Manhattan, Wall Street and other busy parts of the borough.

The service requires a password for entry, and users can have only one WiFi connection going at a time in order to discourage people from giving out their password to several friends.

Verizon, which has 2 million Internet access customers in its main Northeast service area, boasted that it was embarking on the largest WiFi deployment anywhere. Executives said they would see how well the New York effort goes before offering the service in other cities.

WiFi lets a broadband Internet connection be shared by several computers, generally in a short range. Thousands of WiFi "hot spots" have sprung up in cafes, bookstores, airports and hotels.

But that rollout is a hodgepodge. Some community-sponsored hot spots — like one in Manhattan’s Bryant Park, across the street from Verizon’s headquarters — offer free access, while others charge monthly subscriptions or one-time fees. Roaming arrangements that would let customers sign up for one paid WiFi service but use others are virtually nonexistent.

"It’s still very unclear what the best business model will be," said Roberta Wiggins, director of wireless mobile services for the Yankee Group, a Boston-based analyst firm.

Wiggins and other analysts said the Verizon plan was a good idea because it will help the company attract Internet customers and make better use of its thousands of pay phones, which are becoming relics as cell phones proliferate.

Plus, the existing copper wiring that feeds pay phones can easily carry high-speed data just like a home DSL connection. Verizon’s vice chairman, Lawrence T. Babbio, said each hot spot would cost the company about $5,000 to install.

"I think it’s a beautiful, elegant solution," said David Chamberlain, an analyst with Probe Research. "It sure puts the WiFi world on notice."

Indeed, fellow Baby Bell SBC Communications Inc. is studying a similar pay phone-based WiFi service, spokesman Michael Coe said Tuesday. Bell Canada began offering WiFi from some pay phones in Toronto and Montreal last year.

Verizon began the WiFi service as part of a wider effort to ramp up Internet revenue, which is increasingly important for phone companies that are seeing traditional local phone sales wane because of new technologies and competition. Verizon is also lowering home DSL prices for people who subscribe to other telecom services as well.

The DSL move could spur price cuts by other broadband providers.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,500033273,00.html

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