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War Car Offers Wi-Fi
NetGyver writes "news.com has an interesting
story about public hot-spot operators that use a weapon in protest against the growth of commercial Wi-Fi networks: Michael Oh's "war car."
The 1997 Saturn has enough Wi-Fi equipment installed on its bumper and rooftop to create a 150-foot wireless network, said Oh, who helps run a free wireless network covering two Boston city blocks and is one of hundreds of so-called public hot-spot operators who believe Wi-Fi networks and the Internet access they offer should remain free."
A few comments have insulted this guy, calling his car a dumb publicity stunt. They say he's not really providing a viable alternative to the paid system, because his car will just drive away the next evening.
Wrong! In this neighborhood, he's been working to provide free 802.11b connections for some time. Any property owner on Newbury Street can contact him to get a free WAP installed.
The point is that most of the utility of portable WiFi access is dependent on connectivity, not high bandwidth. Most users will be very satisfied if they can just check/read their email, and download a little text. That works fine with a 30kbps link, and increasing bandwidth only slowly increases percieved value. That kind of data rate can get lost in the noise of anyone's broadband connection- so if you throttle the utilization of anonymous users, you've got essentially $0 costs (besides $100 for the WAP box).
Since the financial barriers to entry are so low, this won't be a viable business for T-Mobile; unless they can somehow block out new entries. And they can do this by grabbing up prime chunks of this unregulated RF spectrum by getting their transmitters installed first.
Its a race- whoever can deploy first will win the consumer mindshare. Once users take 802.11b for granted, they won't be willing to pay. But there will be property owners willing to run cheap WAPs to attract potential customers.
It is true that the War Car is just a stunt for publicity- and it seems to have worked. Maybe this will inspire some other coffee-vendors to ask him for help in competing with Starbucks.
Many people (probably those who don't live in Boston or those who haven't really read the associated articles) don't seem to get what the guy with the War Car is doing. The parent article here does, and should be modded up so we have less "its just a stunt" responses so prominent.
IMHO, of course.
Reading the documents from tech superpowers shows that they are just one enforcement officer away from the FCC shutting them down.
...
Here is a prime example. From their technical document I found the following passage.
"We use an Airport Base Station, Lucent Pigtail connector, and Orinoco Wide-area Antenna. All of these parts are available on our online store, but be warned: the use of a Lucent Pigtail connector on an Airport requires the removal of the case and drilling of a hole. This will void your warranty and most resellers (including us) will not take back a product after it's been modified in this way."
Gee guys, I hate to break this to you, but these modifications don't just void your warranty. These modifications also convert the Apple Airport into a device that is illegal to use in the United States. Here are some relevant FCC regulations.
"15.204(b) - A transmission system consisting of an intentional radiator, an external radio frequency power amplifier, and an antenna, may be authorized, marketed and used under this part. However, when a transmission system is authorized as a system, it must always be marketed as a complete system and must always be used in the configuration in which it was authorized.
15.204(c) - Only the antenna with which an intentional radiator is authorized may be used with the intentional radiator."
In other words, Apple certified and sold the Airport as a system. When you drill it open, disconnect the internal antenna, and connect an external antenna you have built a new uncertified configuration which cannot legally be used.
This is the sort of thing that makes it hard for legitimate for-profit WISPs (who use legal equipment) to compete with these hobbyists networks. The gear that WISPs have to pay $1000 for, the hobbyists cobble together for $200.