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> http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/08/24/010824hnfreewireless.xml?0827mnam
>
> giessel
>
> By Ephraim Schwartz
> August 24, 2001 4:34 pm PT
>
> AN UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT to deploy free wireless access
> zones in metropolitan areas is taking hold. If it turns out to be
> successful, wireless network operators may be fighting against a
> grounds-up movement that could undermine their multibillion-dollar
> campaign to offer next-generation 3G (third-generation) wireless services
> in major metro areas.
>
> The movement, called by some the "parasitic grid" and by
> others more simply the "free metro wireless data network," has already
> installed itself in New York; San Francisco; Seattle; Aspen, Colo.,
> Portland, Ore., Britis Columbia; and London.
>
> "If you have enough of these in place and spread out
> effectively, you have created what is referred to as a parasitic grid:
> multiple wireless-served areas. If you have enough you would have
> connectivity nationally," said J. R. Bibb, a technology advisor to Shell
> Oil in Houston. Bibb was offering his own opinion as a technologist and
> was not speaking for Shell Oil.
>
> What it is all about is the use of a technology called
> 802.11b, a standard for wireless Ethernet that works on an unlicensed
> portion of the wireless spectrum. At a performance of 11Mb per second, it
> is in fact five times faster than the best speeds promised by all the
> major wireless network operators for 3G services.
>
> "The major goal is to build up the 802.11b infrastructure
> inside the city. If you have a home that is connected to the Internet, for
> example, I use your connection and you can use mine," said Matt
> Westervelt, one of the originators of what he likes to call a "symbiotic
> grid" rather than a parasitic one.
>
> Westervelt talks about a network of volunteers deploying,
> at their own expense, a wireless access point on the outside of their
> home, or at worst at a window, with the access point connected to the
> volunteer's PC.
>
> The access point, as the name implies, gives users within
> range of any one of these access points who have a wireless LAN card in
> their mobile device a connection to any other device or node on the same
> LAN.
>
> Once a more or less complete grid of access points are put
> up around a city, grid participants could connect into the LAN to access
> numerous services, including a free alternative to fee-based cellular
> networks. Voice services over 802.11b are typically referred to as VoIP
> (voice over IP).
>
> Other services envisioned include information distribution
> for city services, free e-mail for all citizens, and, for a
> budget-strapped city government, inexpensive access to Internet terminals
> in public places such as libraries.
>
> "Presumably these free metro wireless access could help to
> erase the digital divide," said Scott Kennedy, one of nine candidates for
> mayor for the city of Seattle and owner of the BitStar Caf in the city.
>
> The concept is based around community-minded volunteers,
> who would, for example give anyone within range of their access point,
> about 300 feet in all directions, a connection to the Internet using the
> volunteer's ISP.
>
> "Internet access will be the primary mover for these free
> networks. Sharing a cable modem or a DSL line might annoy some folks
> [broadband providers], but it's probably legal," said Phil Belanger, vice
> president of wireless business development at Wayport Inc. in Austin,
> Texas, a for-profit provider of 802.11b services at airports and hotels.
>
> Belanger sees the free metro access movement as a good
> thing for wireless in general.
>
> "There will always be venues where it is free and venues
> where you get dinged for it, and that is where WayPort will play,"
> Belanger said.
>
> "I like the idea of citizens creating a bottom-up approach.
> The network is owned by the users. The idea is there and the talent is
> there. This is a story about wireless technology that cannot be ignored.
> It is like Linux. It is not going away," Kennedy said.
>
> Contributing to its mass appeal are the low-cost solutions
> available. For less than $100, a volunteer can buy an access point, and
> Kennedy says he uses a Pringles potato chip can in his coffee shop to
> enhance network performance. Performance degrades the farther away from an
> access point a user is located.
>
> "Since I put in the Pringles can, I get a really strong
> signal," Kennedy said.
>
> No doubt, says an antenna specialist at AT&T Labs.
>
> "Imagine the Pringles can is a telescope and you are
> looking through it. You put a stub of wire poking in the middle of the
> can. The aluminum foil on the inside lining of the Pringles can acts like
> a wave guide. Put some pieces of metal inside, and for pennies you have a
> high-gain antenna. It magnifies the signal along the line of site from
> the Pringles [can] to the access point," said Bruce McNair, a technology
> consultant at AT&T Labs in Murray Hill, N.J.
>
> On the West Coast, the movement started in Seattle Capitol
> Hill neighborhood, which already had a large concentration of technically
> oriented residents, according to one of its founders, Matt Westervelt.
>
> "It started as a community thing -- a network designed on
> the idea that you trust your neighbor to route your network and they trust
> you. It says a lot about your neighbors. I am going to point my antenna,
> and we can exchange traffic," he said.
>
> The main goal, according to Westervelt, is no transit fees
> for Seattle.
>
> "We are building a transit-free network," he said.
>
> Another benefit that Westervelt sees is for small
> businesses. Anybody can put up a server on the community network and put a
> shopping cart on it, and it doesn't cost you several thousand dollars.
> Even small businesses that want to employ at-home workers can use the
> network as a low-cost telecommuter solution.
>
> Kennedy says it is hard to predict where these free
> networks will go, but one thing is certain: They are not going unnoticed
> by the giant wireless network operators.
>
> "We are aware of the free services springing up and are
> considering 802.11b wireless access as well, not in place of currently
> scheduled rollouts but as an adjunct," said an AT&T Wireless
> spokesperson. Other major infrastructure providers to the wireless rollout
> in public places, such as at airports and hotels, are also poised to
> connect together metropolitan areas around the country.
>
> There are these "aggregators," points out Wayport's
> Belanger, "still in stealth mode" who will take these public access
> networks and connect them all together.
>
> The aggregators have designed software that resides in the
> mobile device and can find any available network and connect the user to
> it. It identifies all the access points in range.
>
> "It even would be able to say, 'Here is a list of the
> networks found' and indicate which are free and which charge a fee,"
> Belanger said.
>
> "It would let the user decide which one they want to
> connect to," Belanger said.
>
> The movement started by people such as Westervelt and used
> by early adopters such as caf owner and mayoral candidate Kennedy
> certainly has a 1960s ring to it. Belanger said some call it the "hippie" network.
>
> Certainly there is a lot of strong feeling that may carry
> the "parasitic grid" far beyond what the giant wireless
> providers may think of now as a minor annoyance into a
> full-fledged competitor to its own services.
>
> "The idea is that we can be what we want it to be instead
> of what they want it to be. I want to be a part of this. I don't want to
> be a reason why it doesn't happen," Kennedy said.
>
