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SBC to Create High-Speed Wireless Internet Network in 13 States

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

Aug. 6--SBC will announce plans today to create a high-speed wireless Internet network across its 13-state region, including Texas, becoming the latest telecom company to unveil such a plan for the increasingly popular technology.

SBC plans to set up 20,000 "hot spots" -- wireless Internet access points -- within three years, allowing consumers to access the Web without using a telephone line. Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have started unveiling "Wi-Fi" technology in cities including San Francisco and New York.

"We've heard very clearly that people like the benefit of mobility," said Lauren McCadney, assistant vice president of Wi-Fi strategy for SBC, which is based in San Antonio. "Now they would like to be able to enjoy those same benefits when they are on the road."

Wi-Fi technology has steadily gained popularity with computer laptop users as a way to access the Internet at high speeds without a phone line. Instead, a chip in a laptop can access the Internet wirelessly by transmitting data via radio frequency to a base station at a hot spot.

That base station accesses the Internet, usually over a high-speed fiber-optic line. With a wireless telephone network, a phone call can be made a mile or two from the base station; a Wi-Fi user must be within a few hundred feet of the station to make an Internet connection.

The same technology is often used in homes to create small local wireless networks when connected to cable modems or digital subscriber line service.

Hot spots are found at hundreds of Starbucks coffee shops and Borders bookstores, and McDonald's recently announced it would make hot spots available in New York and Chicago. Wireless service provider T-Mobile has 103 Metroplex hot spots.

"We are in the early stages of a massive deployment in this nation of Wi-Fi technology," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst in Atlanta. Kagan said SBC needed to initiate a Wi-Fi network because more business customers are demanding the service.

Analysts say SBC can set up the network at a fraction of other providers' costs because SBC is focusing on the 13 states where it is the primary local phone service provider.

The most expensive part of a Wi-Fi network, analysts say, is the high-speed Internet line that services the base station. Because SBC owns that infrastructure, and leases access to other telecom providers, it will have lower maintenance costs than competitors.

McCadney said the deployment will require a significant investment, but he would not say how much the network will cost SBC.

The company plans to have 1,000 hot spots working by the end of the year in venues such as airports and convention centers. McCadney said North Texas is one of the major markets SBC is targeting for Wi-Fi service.

Initially, SBC said, it will make the service available on a per-transaction basis and for a one-time fee for 24-hour access. In later stages, customers can sign up for monthly unlimited use or get Wi-Fi as part of a bundle of SBC telecommunication services. Pricing details will become available in the fall, McCadney said.

SBC has also signed an agreement with Wi-Fi provider Wayport, which allows SBC customers to use Wayport hot spots in 565 hotels and 13 airports.

By 2005, customers who subscribe to SBC's Wi-Fi service and Cingular Wireless will have Internet access using both wireless technologies, McCadney said. For example, when a user leaves a Wi-Fi hot spot, the Internet connection will continue on the next-generation Cingular wireless network.

SBC said it will provide various security levels for Wi-Fi subscribers. But analysts say users should also use their own security software to avoid their having their computers hacked into from the public Wi-Fi network.

"Wireless can be secure, but it normally isn't," said Julie Ask, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. "The user of the public Wi-Fi network should not be relying on the service provider for security."

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To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com

(c) 2003, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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