Wi-Fi has moved from an at-home convenience to a public service as mobile devices continue to take over. Here’s a look at the new opportunities to connect with consumers, and how businesses can easily screw it all up. Read more »
NTT DoCoMo is letting Boingo’s customers onto its 55,000-node strong hotspot network in Japan, increasing Boingo’s presence there to 60,000 hotspots. In turn DoCoMo customers get access to Boingo’s network of 600,000 hotspots. Read more »
After a year and countless waves of beta trials, Republic Wireless is finally swinging open the doors for a commercial launch. New customers can now order its latest Motorola smartphone from its Website and sign up for its dirt-cheap $19 unlimited everything plans. Read more »
Ruckus is following a different path than its arch-rival BelAir Networks. Instead of preening itself for acquisition, it’s filed for an initial public offering. Hoping to raise $100 million, Ruckus will keep plugging away at building expansive outdoor Wi-Fi networks. Read more »
The U.K.’s O2 has launched a 100-hotspot Wi-Fi network just in time for the Olympics, offering up its capacity to all takers gratis. But there’s something else under the hood of these Ruckus access points: a slot waiting for a future O2 small cell. Read more »
Fon may have launched in Madrid, but lately the company taking on a very Japanese flavor. According to the company, which pioneered the concept of a global community Wi-Fi network, 1 million or a full one-sixth of its global access points now reside in Japan. Read more »
Anyfi has developed a tunneling technology that allows ordinary access points and residential gateways to spawn virtual Wi-Fi networks anyone can log into. The Swedish startup is betting this is the answer operators are looking for to build huge ubiquitous Wi-Fi offload networks. Read more »
The Wi-Fi Alliance will begin certifying devices under its new Passport initiative, which ensures that mobile phones can log into Wi-Fi networks seamlessly. Now it’s the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s turn to take over, integrating those devices and the access points into the mobile operator’s network. Read more »
Telecom networking giant Ericsson is buying BelAir Networks, adding its high-performance outdoor hotspot technology to its portfolio, sources told GigaOM. The deal signals a shift in mindset for the big cellular vendors, which until now have never gotten serious about Wi-Fi. Read more »
Networking silicon vendor Mindspeed aims to become a big player in wireless infrastructure in a very small way. It is purchasing femtocell system-on-a-chip (SoC) maker Picochip for $51.8 million, creating what Mindspeed hopes will be a powerhouse in the so-far disappointing miniature base station market. Read more »
Trying to keep up with mobile data costs will be a mighty challenge for network operators, who are looking at delivery costs going up by sevenfold to $370 billion by 2016, according to Juniper Research. Read more »
On Tuesday, iPass introduced a new Wi-Fi roaming service that is one of many data points in Wi-Fi’s slow transition from home networking tech for geeks to must-have for every mobile device to perhaps another source of carrier revenue. Will carriers charge for Wi-Fi? Read more »
