Archive for the ‘WiFi’ Category

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Boingo has quickly become my preferred Wifi service

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

I’ve heard quite a lot about Boing Wireless, the hotspot service provider. I’ve written about them before, I’ve signed-up to use them now and again and, if memory serves, they knocked me (and an array of other mobile bloggers) a 10-hour free trial for the duration of Mobile World Congress, an action that I thought very, very smart at the time.

My problem is that I spent most of Mobile World Congress this year being professionally stressed-to-hell so I never got a chance to use Boingo.

I now frequently find myself in wifi areas for extended periods of time. For example today I was in San Francisco Airport for about 3 hours then (for the connecting flight) Los Angeles Airport for about 5 hours. They’re covered by T-Mobile’s hotspot service. I’ve signed up for that, but the helpful (i.e. not at all) T-Mobile USA billing system negated to send me my username and password.

So a few weeks ago I paid — I dunno — a tenner or something stupid for 24 hours access to the T-Mobile hotspot in San Francisco Airport.

Then I got home, hunted for Boingo and signed-up with an account.

$9.95 a month buys you access to 100,000 hotspots. Done. Your login details work on anything that has WiFi capabilities. So I took the liberty of downloading Boingo’s clients for my T-Mobile G1 and my iPhone 3G — and of course the desktop client for my Apple.

The Boingo client is brilliant. It simply runs in the background and the moment it detects a compatible network, the window pops up and it logs you in. There’s no need to visit a sodding webpage, select ‘boingo’ and type in your username and password details. The client does it all for you.

The mobile clients work beautifully too. There’s nothing worse than having to fiddle about with your mobile device browser trying to initiate a connection.

If you travel a lot, have a look at Boingo. I’ve been thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying using it.

Boingo are giving away five year-long accounts on their Facebook page if you give them a good enough reason as to why you deserve one. More details on their Twitter feed.

Posted in WiFi | Comments

Jonathan Jensen on Thursday – Mobile cost control for enterprises with Agito Networks

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Last week I met the team at Agito Networks to discuss their proposition for enterprise telephony. Agito was set up to address a number of issues in the enterprise mobile market. Poor in-building coverage is an issue for many businesses and has been exacerbated by the trend towards greener buildings which tend to use materials that impact radio propagation. Escalating mobile costs is an ongoing challenge for businesses; and mobile integration with PABXs, whilst saving money on calls to internal numbers, has had the effect of increasing overall spend for many businesses because users started using their mobiles for all calls. Communication has become increasingly complex, with multiple devices, and a strategy to simplify this improves the user experience as well as controls costs. However that simplification must combine the functionality of both the corporate desk phone and the mobile phone.

So how does Agito address these challenges? The Agito solution comes in two parts; the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router plus a handset client in the usual flavours – Nokia S60, Windows Mobile, with BlackBerry and iPhone due shortly. Agito’s goal is to keep calls on in-building WiFi when possible and it does this by using location context intelligence to determine when the handset should be using WiFi and when to fallback to cellular coverage. The location context intelligence ‘fingerprints’ the building access locations and combines this with cellsite triangulation to determine the handset’s location and optimise handover between WiFi and 3G/GSM. Hand-off between WiFi and 3G/GSM is achieved in a sub 100ms time frame and is therefore completely transparent to the user. The location awareness also enables optimisation of handset WiFi to maximise battery life – important as WiFi can be a mobile battery killer. In addition to corporate WiFi access points, the handset can use home or public hotspots when available. A neat example of the benefits of location context intelligence is switching on handset WiFi when you walk into your home. In order to optimise cost savings when out of WiFi coverage, the client will route defined call classes, for example international, via the office so they can be least cost routed to their destination. Whilst this all sounds great in theory it does work in practice; Agito has a number of existing deployments in the USA in both businesses and higher education.

What caught my attention with Agito is how they’ve used technology to deliver a simple, Normob friendly, user experience. Users continue to use their handsets as normal and the ‘clever stuff’ is completely transparent to the user. Agito took the view that their service had to deliver a user experience similar to the existing mobile user experience; meaning no additional complexity for the user and WiFi cellular hand-offs as seamless as regular cellular hand-offs. Users are not interested in the wireless technology behind their calls – the service has to just work.

Agito’s solution is a good example of using the best bits of different wireless technologies to deliver a service that addresses the shortcomings of each of the underlying wireless access methods.

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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

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Posted in Jonathan Jensen, VOIP, WiFi | Comments

Jonathan Jensen on Thursday – A bright future for WiFi

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Recently I’ve had several conversations with people about the future of WiFi. The debate around WiFi versus 3G data is a contentious one that frequently provokes a frank exchange of views! However this ‘either or’ debate misses the point because WiFi and 3G should be viewed as complementary, rather than competing, wireless access methods. I’m a big fan of WiFi; for example it gives me better mobile coverage at home than my 3G service provider plus very cheap roaming coverage in specific locations when I’m away. As with the App Store, the iPhone has brought many more people into contact with something that used to be the preserve of mobile geeks - mobile WiFi.

3G mobile data (and its developments) is good but suffers from issues like flaky coverage, cell capacity constraints and backhaul bottlenecks. Public WiFi has coverage limitations but where it does work it generally delivers decent speeds and consistent service. The lack of roaming agreements between the big service providers is a frustration and I’d like to see a move towards ubiquitous coverage via more service provider co-operation, i.e. if you can find a signal you know you can use it, with service differentiation based around price, and value-adds.

Devicescape recently undertook some research into their user base to understand what WiFi users want from service providers and how people use WiFi. Key findings from the report showed:

  • An overwhelming number of WiFi users expect WiFi while on the road (91%)
  • Most respondents want citywide WiFi (84%) and many are willing to pay for it (56%)
  • When travelling, the most popular device for accessing WiFi was the smartphone, such as an iPhone (vs.laptops)
  • The overwhelming majority of smartphone users (81%) prefer using WiFi over 3G for browsing Web sites, downloading data, Google searches and sending e-mail
  • 86% of respondents want manufacturers to build WiFi into their handsets
  • 82% of respondents want the service provider to provide an overall 3G/WiFi data package

Whilst this research is focused on existing WiFi users it does show that people who already use WiFi don’t see 3G as an alternative wireless access method but as complementary to WiFi. I’ve blogged about Devicescape before; what they do is make WiFi access simple. Devicescape Easy Wi-Fi automates the hotspot login process to create a seamless user experience. Increasingly, this means Devicescape is hidden from the user and the service provider’s software uses Devicescape to manage the WiFi login process. DeFi Mobile uses this model and makes the hotspot login process fast and automatic. This simplicity addresses what has always been a barrier to simple WiFi use – the login process.

The next step for service providers is to create a completely seamless user experience across both 3G and WiFi. Users should not have to decide themselves which wireless access technology to use. The software should determine whether 3G or WiFi is appropriate. For the 3G service providers it makes sense to ship traffic via WiFi where they can, in order to preserve cell capacity for non WiFi users.

Mobile VoIP is an interesting but potentially very confusing (especially for Normobs) part of the WiFi market, so it’s good to see LowCostMob bringing some clarity here. Comparing mobile VoIP is a bit of a black art because each service provider has a slightly different take on the market and it’s not just a simple matter of comparing tariffs. Users need to compare functionality and features as well as prices to determine which service provider to use. Some clarity here will help to drive progress in this part of the WiFi market.

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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

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Posted in Feature, Jonathan Jensen, Mobile, VOIP, WiFi | Comments

School buses now come with free WiFi

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

These Icomera folks, the WiFi-in-public-transport chaps, are doing rather well.

Fresh from sticking WiFi on buses all over the place, they’ve now done a deal with The Green Bus company.

The Green Bus company are, as the press release states, ‘the emerging market leader in school transport thinking in the UK’.

Clearly. If they’re putting WiFi — for free — in their buses. That’s going to certainly make a LOT of friends from the students they’re transporting.

I never took the bus to school. Not once. I always lived just inside the walkable-area. So if I was late, tough. If I hadn’t done some homework, tough. You had to waste a ton of time walking to your doom.

But if you take the bus, it’s binary. You either GET ON the bus. Or you miss it. And if you miss it, then it’s game over for that day. Or you need to try and get a lift from your less-than-impressed-parents.

If you make the Green Bus company bus (who incidentally serve 23 routes across Birmingham), then you’ll still have 10, 20 or 30 minutes worth of time to sod about knocking a piece of rubbish together for your history homework. As every student worth his or her salt knows, DOING some sort of homework, however rubbish — and handing it in — is far better than NOT.

That’s 1,400 children now blessed with the power of internet communications before and after school. It’s, er, not all ‘education’ though.

Let’s hear from Ian Mack, MD at The Green Bus:

“With an increasing number of mobile phones and handhelds supporting Wi-Fi, our investment in Icomera’s Moovbox enables students to check email, surf the web, and play peer-to-peer games on devices like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS – all free of charge. More importantly, the built-in GPS functionality of the Moovbox means we can see where our buses are at any time; this feature is being made available on our web site where parents and school staff can securely log in and follow the progress of any particular bus is during its journey via a familiar Google Maps display.”

That’s pretty neat — the GPS/Google Maps feature. Like that.

But WiFi on board will be rather useful for today’s connected young’uns.

Here’s what’s on-board:

The Moovbox mobile gateway is a ruggedized Wi-Fi access point and cellular router, offering multiple wide area network (WAN) radios for automatic failover between carriers, and featuring built-in GPS for real-time positioning. Moovbox products also offer secure Ethernet for IP-CCTV, DVR and telematics equipment with remote in-bound access for device control, and supports plug-and-play upgradability to future technologies such as WiMAX and LTE. The multi-user MoovManage service provides real-time device tracking, schedule adherence monitoring, remote device configuration, and Wi-Fi portal and usage statistics. More information is available online at www.icomera.com.

But set your expectations. You won’t be able to download the latest James Bond by torrent on the way to school. These things typically use something like a Vodafone 3G+ card for connectivity — good enough for web browsing and email but will come unstuck if you try and put 2.7GB through it.

I like the innovation though. Good work Icomera. Good thinking, The Green Bus company.

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Pret-A-Manger offer WiFi in all their shops now

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Remember back in July I found a Pret-A-Manger that was offering free WiFi?

Well Mike Butcher from Techcrunch reports that this has now gone nationwide, with all 130 UK stores set to offer free WiFi by the end of December.

Right on!

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Jonathan Jensen on Thursday – Mobile in Budapest

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

My recent trip to Budapest gave me the opportunity to try out a couple of mobile services that would dramatically reduce the cost of roaming compared to using my regular UK SIM card – MAXroam and DeFi Mobile. Why two services? MAXroam is SIM based so provides worldwide coverage wherever there’s a mobile network and DeFi, being WiFi based, provides worldwide coverage across its network of hotspots.

For the trip I put a MAXroam SIM in one of my handsets, so instead of paying 25p to send a SMS, MAXroam’s rate was about 17p (MAXroam’s tariff is priced in Euros). Now that the EU has pushed down the cost of voice calls, the MAXroam rate for voice is similar to regular roaming rates but I’m guessing there will be some changes there soon. However outside the EU where roaming rates are (apparently!) subject to market forces, MAXroam is much cheaper, 42p per minute to call a UK landline from the USA compared to 120p roaming via my UK operator.

DeFi Mobile is very cost effective for roaming because its flat rate tariff covers all your calls wherever you are worldwide. A single monthly fee of £23 covers all outbound and inbound calls worldwide, so the additional cost of using DeFi in Budapest was zero. The hotel where the conference was held had excellent DeFi coverage so I was able to use DeFi for almost all my calls. With my regular mobile number forwarded to my DeFi London 020 number I also avoided charges for receiving calls. Working on the basis that I made about 3 hours of calls back to the UK; if I’d used my UK SIM the cost would have been £45. Using DeFi, the additional cost was zero (included in my existing monthly service charge). And that’s not including the saving on calls I received.

What I like about new operators like MAXroam and DeFi is their ability to innovate and offer additional services that add real value to their proposition. Both MAXroam and DeFi offer the ability to add local in-country virtual numbers to your account. As my trip was only for a few days I hadn’t added a Budapest number to either account, however while I was in Budapest I mentioned on Twitter that I was using MAXroam and received a message from Pat Phelan, CEO at MAXroam, asking if I’d like a local number to give out while I was there. Within five minutes it was working (probably less, actually!). Very powerful to be able to simply and easily create a local presence in the locations you’re travelling to for your contacts there to reach you on. MAXroam offers up to 50 additional numbers per SIM card covering 52 different countries so there’s plenty of scope there! Plus, Pat is clearly a top man who goes out of his way to help his customers. This episode also shows the power of Twitter as a medium for communicating with customers and contacts.

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Jonathan’s also at Sevendotzero.

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Posted in Jonathan Jensen, Mobile, VOIP, WiFi | Comments

Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic for China to lack 3G and Wi-Fi

Friday, October 10th, 2008

If the iPhone without 3G or Wi-Fi was bad enough, here’s some more bad news for the mobile users in China. 

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which has been more widely referred to as the “Tube” is all set to hit China, albeit without 3G or Wi-Fi. The lack of 3G may be due to the lack of coverage in China, but there’s hardly any reason to negate the W-Fi on the phone. 

No 3G and no Wi-Fi on a phone running Symbian S60 5th Edition with a full touchscreen front, makes it what, a hollow “Tube” ?

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Posted in Mobile, News, WiFi | Comments

Jonathan Jensen on Thursday – Devicescape, creating a seamless WiFi layer

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

Devicescape

Last week I met up with Dave Fraser and Simon Wynn at Devicescape to talk about their plans for the future. I’ve blogged about Devicescape before - it’s a simple software client that manages WiFi connections for mobile devices across private and public WiFi hotspots. It automates the sign-in process using pre-stored security credentials for secure networks and automatically logs on to authorised private and public hotspots. All major WiFi service providers are supported and smaller ones are being added all the time. I’ve been using Devicescape to manage the WiFi connections on my PCs and handsets for over a year now and with about 10 WiFi devices in the family it saves a lot of time and hassle fiddling about with SSIDs and WPA keys!

Devicescape (the company) has been around for three years and has a background in WiFi security products. The company’s vision is to create a seamless WiFi layer to unify the multiplicity of private and public WiFi networks available to users. Approximately 80% of Devicescape users are using Devicescape on a mobile handset and to date most Devicescape users have downloaded the Devicescape client from the website and configured it themselves. However, as Devicescape’s focus is on simplifying the WiFi access process and customer experience, increasingly the client is invisible to the end user. As an example, DeFi uses Devicescape ‘under the bonnet’ to manage WiFi network access; making the whole process transparent to the user.

Devicescape now comes in four ‘flavours’:

• Locked to one operator – OEM selects, user enters a username and password, works on one network and its roaming partners

• Locked to one operator – user selects the network of their choice

• Locked to one operator – operator provisions device, no user setup required, just works

• Unlocked Devicescape client – premium service, enabled by Subscription Service

More and more operators are seeing 3G and WiFi as complementary technologies and Devicescape partners are starting to use the client to load balance across 3G and WiFi networks. To reduce the data overhead on the 3G network, traffic is seamlessly routed over WiFi when available. Because Devicescape automates the WiFi network selection and login process, it creates a seamless user experience.

Is there anything missing from Devicescape? The one piece of functionality I would like to see is the ability for a user to prioritise the order of login to networks on the unlocked client. Prioritisation is currently set by Devicescape and applies to all users. This is based on prioritising the most cost effective networks to use, so it uses your home WiFi before a paid for one. However I’d like to be able to prioritise private access points as I sometimes have more than one running and need to control which is used.

I’ve just had an email from Devicescape confirming that Devicescape is now in the Apple Store so it’ll be going on my son’s new iPod Touch later this week!

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Posted in Feature, Jonathan Jensen, Mobile Applications, WiFi | Comments

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