More companies get into the public hot spot game

Last week saw a lot of movement by companies in the public wireless LAN hot spot space. Here are a few examples for your enjoyment:

* Wayport and AT&T Wireless get cozy

Wayport and AT&T Wireless announced a "roaming relationship" that lets AT&T Wireless customers roam onto Wayport's high-speed Wi-Fi wireless networks at airports and hotels. Wayport said it has networks at more than 475 hotels and 10 airports around the U.S.

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Last week saw a lot of movement by companies in the public wireless LAN hot spot space. Here are a few examples for your enjoyment:

* Wayport and AT&T Wireless get cozy

Wayport and AT&T Wireless announced a "roaming relationship" that lets AT&T Wireless customers roam onto Wayport's high-speed Wi-Fi wireless networks at airports and hotels. Wayport said it has networks at more than 475 hotels and 10 airports around the U.S.

AT&T Wireless said it will integrate Wayport-enabled locations into its Go Port Wi-Fi data services, and will sell the service through its large-enterprise sales force, as well as online and at its retail stores. The companies said when AT&T Wireless users roam onto the Wayport network, a connection screen will say "AT&T Wireless powered by Wayport." Other Wayport roaming partners include Boingo, iPass and GRIC, the company said.

For more details and locations of Wayport networks, go to http://www.wayport.net

* Wayport shares spotlight with Intel

Speaking of Wayport, the company also announced it is working with Intel to promote the Wayport service with Intel's upcoming Centrino mobile technology for notebooks. The Centrino chipset will include built-in wireless capability (in addition to power management to improve notebook battery life). Wayport said it will work with Intel through marketing and advertising to "drive awareness of Wayport's Wi-Fi hot spots."

* Linking mobile operators to public WLANs

HP and Transat Technologies are collaborating on a project to help mobile operators link their 2.5G and 3G networks to public wireless LANs. The idea is to let users receive voice and data services from a single provider, whether the user is on the move or in a hotspot, and using a cell phone, a notebook PC or a handheld Pocket PC.

Transat's software supports SIM-based authentication and billing within public wireless LANs. The Transat software can automatically link multiple hot-spot wireless LANs and cellular networks to enable roaming using existing SS7 inter-operator signaling infrastructures, HP said.

The HP OpenCall SS7 software acts as telecommunications middleware to help create a wireless infrastructure that runs on Linux platforms. In addition, HP Services plans to provide consulting, customization and support services to carriers.

The result, the companies said, would be similar to end users with mobile phones - wherever the user is, the notebook PC or PDA authenticates with the "home" network for billing purposes. For more information about Transat, go to http://www.transat-tech.com

* Pittsburgh gets hot

Pittsburgh ISP Telerama Internet plans to build hot spots around Pittsburgh under its Telerama Wireless Internet program. A free two-week trial is available at the Telerama Web site (http://www.telerama.com).

When the trial is over, various access plans will take effect and range from $4 per day (for single-day users) to up to $59 per month, offering a DSL account, unlimited wireless Internet access, e-mail and Web space. For those who don't want DSL, the ISP plans to charge $29 per month for unlimited wireless Internet access and a free dial-up account (and e-mail and Web space).