BTO's approach is along the lines of what I've advocated for a while; that ISPs are missing a huge market by not using their installed base to deploy a network via hotspots.
Imagine if an ISP like Earthlink were to put an 802.11b access point into every DSL "modem". Given their number of subscribers they would right now be well on their way to critical-mass coverage. They could offer loyalty incentives to subscribers; free access at public hotspots, etc. The existence of the network (and potential customer base) would drive the development of WiFi appliances; video, audio, data devices accessing Internet through WiFi. It would drive the development of WiFi/Cellular combo phones, which could "roam" between a normal mobile provider and an Earthlink VoIP network; effectively making Earthlink a cellular provider. ...dtw -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Julian Bond Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2002 12:56 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [BAWUG] What is Cometa Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >My reading of Cometa's announcement is that they are not, in fact, building >a network, but instead offering infrastructure building services to large >venues and organizations. They'll build a unified authentication back end, >but I expect they'll go the vendor-neutral route of allowing aggregators and >roaming partners to use the network on a revenue-splitting basis. There's not really enough information to know so we're all reading between the lines. And Cometa may not know themselves. Interesting that I leapt to the conclusion that it was a model like BT Openzone, T-Mobile or Megabeam. Perhaps a better analogy is BT Openworld's wholesale ADSL. A small ISP can resell BTO's raw broadband, add value and own the customer but BTO still own the physical line and DSLAMs. But that doesn't directly translate either. As I try and think about your comments, whatever it is Cometa are building turns to sand in my fingers. This could be like teaming a broadband provider, with Boingo, with Colubris, with Smart City. But it actually begins to feel more like three companies who are vaguely in the market uniting under one brand name in order to do marketing. AT&T sell bandwidth, IBM sell consultancy and Intel want to sell WiFi kit and that's all there is. That sounds much too like Sun, Cisco, Oracle selling a dotcom startup pack (remember that??!!). -- Julian Bond Email&MSM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webmaster: http://www.ecademy.com/ Personal WebLog: http://www.voidstar.com/ CV/Resume: http://www.voidstar.com/cv/ M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173 T: +44 (0)192 0412 433 -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
