Verizon: Out with Wi-Fi, in with EV-DO networks

The beginning of the end of Wi-Fi hot spots?

Branch Office Best Practices Newsletter By Jim Duffy, Network World, 05/10/05

EDITOR’S NOTE: Bet you weren’t expecting this. Last week’s Telework Beat was supposed to be the final issue, but we have decided to try to keep it going despite Toni Kistner’s departure. We’ll be looking for a replacement author; in the meantime we present this article from the pages of Network World. Our apologies for the confusion, and thanks for reading.

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Jim Duffy is managing editor of Network World's service provider equipment coverage. He has 18 years of high-tech reporting experience, including over 12 years at Network World. Previously, he was senior editor at Computer Systems News and associate editor/reporter at Electronic News and MIS Week. He can be reached at jduffy@nww.com.

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Word from Verizon that it plans to decommission the hundreds of free Wi-Fi hot spots it turned up in New York City two years ago has some observers suggesting that demand for such public wireless services is limited.

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"This may be the beginning of the end," says Bob Egan, president of consulting firm Mobile Competency. "It's very much a niche application.... In terms of hot spots as a primary source of revenue, nobody's making money and they're not going to."

Wi-Fi service doomsayers acknowledge that hot spots will have their place at certain retail establishments, airports and other venues. After all, the number of hot spots is expected to grow over the next few years. But they say public Wi-Fi, which operates in unlicensed radio frequency spectrum, does not appear poised to become a strategic-business, remote-access service.

"Hot spots are more of a social gathering application with low security," says Larry Swasey, a senior analyst at Visant Strategies. EV-DO "brings in more users, and it's a more secure environment."

Cellular data services such as 2M bit/sec EV-DO and the 14.4M bit/sec High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, although slower than Wi-Fi, have far wider coverage, enable roaming and operate in licensed spectrum less susceptible to interference.

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